"The Colorado Hispanic History Museum is a pioneer initiative for the Hispanic Latino community to honor Colorado's earliest settlers," former Denver City Councilwoman Ramona Martinez said at the AHEC board meeting on June 25. "The museum is a step forward to tell untold stories that shaped our state."
In 2022, state lawmakers formed the America 250 Colorado 150 Commission to establish more educational programs about Colorado's history ahead of the Centennial State's 150th anniversary marking its founding in 1876, and encourage groups to explore their own projects. Martinez is one of the state commissioners, and Governor Jared Polis appointed her to head the fundraising and community outreach for a proposed Hispanic Heritage Museum; she'd led a similar effort while she was on Denver City Council in the 1990s, as she pushed for a Hispanic heritage center on West Colfax Avenue and Speer Boulevard.
Martinez hired Patricia Barela Rivera to help with the project. Both women are known as some of the first Latinas to take on leadership roles in local and federal government, and both are in the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. They've since started the Colorado Hispanic History Fund (COHHF), a nonprofit to create the museum's foundation and collect donations.
The AHEC board approved the proposal, 8-0, with Landon Mascareñaz abstaining because his father was named to the museum's board, to start negotiations with COHHF to lease a fifteen-acre plot that's currently used as a parking lot on the north side of campus near Auraria Parkway and Speer Boulevard. Barela Rivera noted during the meeting that Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Nuggets and the Avalanche, just bought the land across from the lot, giving the group complete ownership of the River Mile development area.Martinez hired Patricia Barela Rivera to help with the project. Both women are known as some of the first Latinas to take on leadership roles in local and federal government, and both are in the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. They've since started the Colorado Hispanic History Fund (COHHF), a nonprofit to create the museum's foundation and collect donations.
At the June 25 meeting, Martinez said that the museum will delve into Colorado's history dating back to the sixteenth century, when the Spanish began exploring the area; Native American tribes were already present. Barela Rivera and Martinez originally focused on telling the story of Colorado's earliest settlers, but now they want to intertwine the history of Native Americans, Spanish settlers and colonizers, and Mexicans immigrants and activists, which are at the root of Colorado's Hispanic identity, Barela Rivera tells Westword.
"It's really these three cultures that came first...but there's so much history, and we really want to look at all the historical pieces," Barela Rivera says. "Our vision is very simple: we want a complex of social, cultural and historical voices that shaped our state and nation from the 1500s on."
She expects the museum to tell the stories of Spanish settlers in San Luis Valley from the 1800s and their modern ancestors, Chicano activists in Denver from the 1960s and '70s, and the Latino communities who lost their homes to make way for the Auraria campus during its development between 1955 and 1973. One of the strongest influences on the vision for the museum has been a series of fourteen listening sessions hosted by History Colorado across the state called Nuestra Historia ("Our History" in Spanish), Barela Rivera says.
"It's really these three cultures that came first...but there's so much history, and we really want to look at all the historical pieces," Barela Rivera says. "Our vision is very simple: we want a complex of social, cultural and historical voices that shaped our state and nation from the 1500s on."
She expects the museum to tell the stories of Spanish settlers in San Luis Valley from the 1800s and their modern ancestors, Chicano activists in Denver from the 1960s and '70s, and the Latino communities who lost their homes to make way for the Auraria campus during its development between 1955 and 1973. One of the strongest influences on the vision for the museum has been a series of fourteen listening sessions hosted by History Colorado across the state called Nuestra Historia ("Our History" in Spanish), Barela Rivera says.
The Land is Meant to Help Fundraising
The museum will have its own building. Originally, Martinez and Barela Rivera were expecting the museum to open on the ground floor of a $115 million student housing building that's also in development, but Martinez now says she prefers a standalone museum.
The AHEC board vote will hold the land for two years to save Martinez and Barela Rivera from having to find a location and allow them to focus on fundraising.
"All the option will do is promise from us not to sell the land for two years," explained Mascareñaz during the meeting. "We're going for the full two years to give the museum plenty of time to ramp up on its fundraising and its design."
Barela Rivera says she and Martinez are trying to raise upwards of $21 million to build the museum. So far, the two have $3 million in commitments from Colorado Health and the Salazar Family foundations for capital costs. According to Barela Rivera, it's going to take at least two more years to collect the remaining $18 million, but the $21 million is just an early estimate that "may be less, may be more" as the project moves along, she says.
"It's really hard to tell how much it's going to cost. I'm just giving you an approximate amount, not an exact amount, of what we think it might take," she says. "We really want to focus on starting to build and create this project. To actually start building and creating this, it's going to take time and money and a lot of expertise."
Down the Line: Plans for Future Planning
Now that Barela Rivera and Martinez have an idea of where the museum will be built, they expect an easier time pitching the idea to potential funders, Barela Rivera says. The land is at the intersection of a popular entertainment center and the city's largest college campus, which are both heavily trafficked. It also helps that the 40,000 students on the Auraria Campus — which includes the University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver and the Community College of Denver — are about 33 percent Hispanic, according to Barela Rivera. "It's a perfect location. You've got Auraria Parkway right there. You've got Ball Arena, the three universities. The thing that's really important is the location," Barela Rivera says. "If you're in real estate, the most important thing is location, location, location. Now that we have the property, we're going to fundraise for the building on the promise that it will be valuable to everyone."
The two will also work on generating more small, individual donations from Coloradans, according to Barela Rivera. "We're going to ask everyone to donate," she says. "Even if it's $10 or $5, we don't care. It's every and any amount that hopefully people will donate. It's not always big donations. It's going to be just like a campaign."
The museum has no clear timeline for completion, but construction is not slated to start anytime soon: The museum's developer will make the call on when the Hispanic History Museum breaks ground and opens it doors, according to Barela Rivera, and no developer is in place. She and Martinez are only focused on getting the ball rolling.
"I wish I could give you a finite date," Barela Rivera says. "That's really up to the developers and the builders."
As they move further along in the project, Barela Rivera and Martinez will hand over more planning decisions to a museum board with two dozen people from different parts of Colorado, including the San Luis Valley, Denver and Fort Collins. The board members will be divided into subcommittees, with each focusing on different aspects of the museum's design.
The board, though still lacking a member to represent Colorado Springs, has already met twice, on April 20 and 29. At the end of July, the board will meet again and begin the strategic plan for the museum and lay out "all of the steps and what is going to happen on the different committees," Barela Rivera says.
She boasts that the museum has the support of Polis and hundreds of Hispanic Coloradans whom she and Martinez met while driving around the state to do their own listening sessions.
"We have 500 to 600 supporters right now that have given us their names and said that they would like to be a part of this whole process," Barela Rivera says. "This is really a legacy for our children and our communities of color, particularly those three communities I talked about. It's a piece of pride that we all take in people knowing the real history of the state."
