Dear Mexican: I noticed that Mexican people don’t generally smoke. I’m not condoning smoking, but it’s interesting to see how some groups do or don’t smoke, and I have yet to see a Mexican person smoke cigarettes. Does the tobacco industry not target Latinos?Fulminating Fumador Dear Gabacho Smoker: American Lung…
“In honor of your service at Rocky Flats,” proclaimed the message on the outside of an envelope from Cold War Patriots. And inside, a personalized letter announced that “a commemorative coin has been designed to honor you as a former Rocky Flats worker and celebrate the 25th anniversary of the…
Dear Mexican: The tragedy currently playing out on the U.S. southern border has reminded me to once again ask my (slightly tweaked) question, posed three years ago and perhaps more relevant than ever: If the U.S. had sponsored and funded infrastructural, educational, social and economic development in Mexico and Central…
Update below: Since the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed down its ruling on June 25 invalidating Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage, Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall has been issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples — seventy at last count. But Colorado Attorney General John Suthers questions…
Dear Mexican: I think I might be Mexican, but there are some people who might disagree. Being that you are the source of all knowledge mexicano, I thought I might ask you. Here’s the deal: My ancestors left the U.S. in 1847 knowingly and entered recognized territorio mexicano. The U.S…
He’s back! It’s seemed so quiet since Steve Horner, the anti-ladies’-night crusader, left town. A half-dozen years ago, he kept bars and restaurants around town hopping as he filed complaints with the Colorado Civil Rights Division, charging that their ladies’-night deals were discriminatory, since men cannot enjoy the same deals…
This week I told the remarkable story of PeaceJam, the Colorado-based non-profit that a down-and-out Denver artist was inspired to start after the Summer of Violence. From those unlikely beginnings, PeaceJam has grown to a powerhouse that includes thirteen Nobel Peace Prize laureates on its board and hosts activities around…
Their story is more fantastic than anything that screened during the Monte Carlo Film Festival last week, a more unlikely saga than even the fairy-tale life of Grace Kelly, who started the festival in Monaco more than five decades ago, after the Hollywood star had married Prince Rainier, the ruler…
Dear Mexican: Why do some Mexicans expect us to learn Spanish instead of them learning English? (Note: I said some, not most or all!) I’m offended whenever I am assaulted by listening to anything in Spanish on phone menus or see it on forms that I have to fill out…
“Rocky Flats Then and Now: 25 Years After the Raid,” a three-day panel at the Arvada Center this past weekend that coincided with the 25th anniversary of the FBI’s raid on the former nuclear weapons plant, raised more questions than it answered. One of the stumpers: What’s the status of…
Behind these rolling grasslands dotted with wildflowers stand the foothills and still-snowcapped peaks; far off in front is the skyline of downtown Denver, sixteen miles to the southeast. Sixteen miles downwind. This expanse of open space is a lovely surprise amid encroaching suburbia. But the real surprise is the ugly…
Dear Mexican: If dark-skinned people are so “undesirable,” unwelcome and put down by gringos, how come gringos bake in the sun like zopilotes to get dark? Summer is fantasy time for all of them, when they can actually get some color in that white skin of theirs. Maybe the whole…
Dear Mexican: I am a Mexican who owns a successful wholesale liquidation business, which happens to be an industry dominated by Jews and Asians and some gringos. So why does almost everyone, including mexicanos, who visits my warehouse think my business — or any successful business, for that matter —…
Last Tuesday was a lovely morning for a softball game — sunny, with no clouds on the horizon. Not in the sky, and not involving the status of Sonny Lawson Field, where the Homeless Diamond was about to begin its fourth season. It was a much more auspicious start to…
Dear Mexican: While vacationing in Mexico, a couple of times I have had vendors or waiters address me as chica. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but while relating a conversation with one of these guys to a Mexican friend of mine back in the U.S., he…
Dear Mexican: I’m a half mexicana/half gabacha working as an appointment scheduler in a medical office. I’m one of a handful of schedulers there who speak Spanish. I’ve noticed in the years I’ve been working in this field that about seven to eight times out of ten, when a Spanish-speaking…
The state’s mascots gathered around the steps of the State Capitol two weeks ago for the Discover Colorado Rally, a Colorado Tourism Office event celebrating National Travel and Tourism Week. There was Spike, the symbol of the Colorado Railroad Museum; Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill, loaded for bear; Miles, apparently…
In that ballooning budget for Denver International Airport’s expansion, do you think officials could find a little extra cash for some signage? Zooming to DIA two Fridays ago for a one-way flight to Durango (where I was meeting family for a road trip back to Denver), flashing temporary signs outside…
Dear Mexican: Our graphic artist walked out of the room the other day pissed because the publisher asked my opinion on a Cinco de Mayo advertisement they were planning to publish and ended up publishing. The graphic showed a row of chickens with sombreros. The publisher asked if I thought…
Three years ago next month, Denver suddenly woke up to the realization that it could lose the National Western Stock Show — maybe to another city, maybe to that upstart Aurora and its proposed Gaylord Entertainment hotel — an $800 million, Western-themed hotel and entertainment complex by Denver International Airport…
Dear Mexican: I’m a pocha and my husband is a gabacho (by the way, we loved the explanation in your book on why Mexicans and Irish get along so well; it really explained a lot about our marriage). We had the rehearsal dinner for our wedding catered by one of…
Dear Mexican: Is there a pecking order at the places where you see day laborers waiting to be hired? What’s the hierarchy? Are all those dudes Mexican, or are some Central and South American, and if so, who has priority when the random contractor comes by to pick up a…
