Today is the final day of a three-day fast and vigil in front of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters in Washington, D.C. to call attention to what advocates — including a group from Colorado — say are unjustified deportations. Arturo Hernandez Garcia, an immigrant living in sanctuary in a Denver…
Dear Mexican: Why are lowrider artists obsessed with surly clowns? I went to an exhibition of the art of Mr. Cartoon in Venice Beach years ago, and the clowns in his art were downright disturbing. I’ve seen these nasty clowns on T-shirts and in a bunch of other places, too…
Kelly Leid does not favor snap-button shirts, Wranglers and Tony Lamas. He’s more of a polo-shirt-and-khakis guy. The headgear on display in his office includes hard hats but no cowboy hats, ten-gallon or otherwise. Yet Leid, a Colorado native, has a soft spot for the state’s Western heritage, and he’s…
Dear Mexican: Do your countrymen still worship the rock band Santana? Or are they looked at like the Who in England and Crosby, Stills and Nash in America: relics from the good ol’ Woodstock days? Abraxas to the Maxas Dear Gabacho: Mexicans never actually worshipped Carlos Santana, who was born…
When Governor John Hickenlooper vetoed legislation pertaining to the elimination of red-light traffic cameras and photo-radar traffic enforcement, he did so knowing that plenty of people supported the measures and have been fighting for their passage for years. That’s clear from his statement about the vetoes and the letters he…
Last month’s election in Denver wasn’t packed with surprises. True, Tim O’Brien upset Chris Nevitt in the auditor’s contest. But Mayor Michael Hancock won reelection easily, as did clerk and recorder Debra Johnson, and Debbie Ortega, Paul López, Mary Beth Susman, Christopher Herndon and Albus Brooks retained their seats on the Denver…
Last year, a bill to make driving under the influence a felony under certain conditions fell short in the Colorado general assembly — and the ACLU of Colorado, which opposed the measure, was pleased by the development. This year, however, a tweaked version of the measure passed, and Governor John…
Dear Mexican: From what I’ve seen and heard, Mexicans are very family-oriented. They take the names of their mothers and fathers, live with extended family, take carpooling to the nth degree, and tattoo the names of their children across their bodies. We recently had a party and invited one of…
Arturo Hernandez Garcia has been in sanctuary in Denver for more than seven months, living in the basement of a Unitarian church in order to avoid deportation. On Wednesday, his supporters gathered on the steps of the Capitol building to once again publicly ask federal immigration officials to allow Hernandez Garcia…
Politicians typically write books if they’re eyeing a run for national office — something Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper has repeatedly denied, despite his name popping up numerous times over the years as a possible vice presidential candidate. So let the speculation begin anew: Hickenlooper has announced that his top speechwriter,…
Dear Mexican: Why do white people love Marco Rubio and cry at his speeches? Rubio was in town selling his vision-for-America mierda to his gabacho constituency, and they drank it up like Tía’s fresh jamaica. They wondered why we Mexicans can’t get behind the Great Brown Hope. Do we know…
Dear Mexican: My beloved niece married a boy of Mexican extraction. I am very fond of him, but he and his family hold us at arm’s length. It’s very difficult to get close and has made me back off. My niece has told me that his mother “doesn’t like white…
In January, Frank Ruybalid, the embattled top prosecutor for Colorado’s Third Judicial District, resolved a long-running state ethics investigation by pleading guilty to thirteen violations of professional conduct rules for attorneys, essentially admitting that he’d mishandled the prosecution of several criminal cases that ended up being dismissed. Ruybalid was put…
When Dennis Gallagher steps down as city auditor in nine weeks, at the end of his third and final term, his departure will mark the end of one of the most impressive — and long-lived — careers in elected office in state history. Gallagher was an obscure thirty-year-old speech professor…
Air hostess Léopoldine Doualla-Bell Smith had endured her share of discourteous treatment from passengers while flying the not-always-friendly skies of the late ‘50s and ‘60s, but everyone has a breaking point. She reached hers one day in the early ‘60s. While she was helping a passenger settle in at his seat, the man decided…
Bill Cadman is mad as shmuck. The state senate leader is mighty steamed. Not because the legislative session that ended with a thud this week was one of the most impotent and gridlocked in recent memory, or because a host of bills dealing with pressing issues such as affordable housing,…
Dear Mexican: I work with mostly young, progressive, educated white folks at an institution of higher education in Southern California. The other day, I mentioned buying a shirt that reads “Illegal immigration started in 1492.” We had a good laugh, and my co-worker, whom I like a lot, said that…
During this past legislative session, legislators found themselves in all kinds of contorted positions as they considered a proposal to deregulate yoga instructors — a proposal that would impact bhavan-collective, the yoga studio that Tonia Crosby had opened in the Cole neighborhood last July. The Division of Private Occupational Schools…
Ye Denver Mayor: Denver auditor: Denver clerk and recorder: Denver City councilmembers at large: Denver City Council, District 1: Denver City Council, District 2: Denver City Council, District 3: Denver City Council, District 4: Denver City Council, District 5: Denver City Council, District 6: Denver City Council, District 7: Denver…
As promised, Colorado Senate President Bill Cadman has introduced a bill inspired by the womb-cutting attack on Michelle Wilkins in Longmont and the decision not to file a murder charge against Dynel Lane, her alleged attacker, even though Wilkins’s child, who she named Aurora, didn’t survive. Senate Bill 15-268 has…
Dear Mexican: Why do Mexicans make up such obvious lies? Like this galán who had his sister call me and say it was him with a cold. Or my friend who pretends to be traveling the world but is really sending e-mails from his mother’s computer. Or the random person…
If Colorado schools won’t to retain offensive Native American mascots, it could cost them $25,000 per month under a new bill passed last night by the Colorado House of Representatives’ education committee. House Bill 15-11165 is sponsored by Representative Joe Salazar, a Thornton Democrat. We’ve included the entire document below,…
