Yesterday on 88.5 FM/1390 AM, Rich Lopez — who serves on the board of The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County — hosted “A Public Affair,” a monthly collaboration between the Foundation and KGNU Radio.
Lopez was joined by Linda Arroyo-Holstrom and Magdalena Casillas to talk about the Boulder County Latino History Project, a grassroots initiative that documents the history of Latinos in our area over the past century.
Said Arroyoa-Holstrom, “We focus on three different communities in Boulder County: Lafayette, Longmont and Boulder. Our goal is to gather information, create a website and also write a narrative book about this history.”
Lopez pointed out that discrimination was once rampant in some area communities. At one time in Lafayette, a public swimming pool was closed when the then-powers that be learned that Latinos would be allowed to swim there.
To help illuminate this history, the multigenerational project is also collecting oral histories that will be archived for future generations. “It’s amazing what has taken place in the last year-and-a-half to bring this information together,” continued Arroyo-Holstrom. Thanks to interns and more than 90 volunteers, the project has now collected some 44 oral histories.
Lopez introduced the topic of education, and how Casillas is working with the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley school districts to bring Latino history to our students.
“Our ancestors have been here for quite a while, and we feel like we belong… we’re not a new generation here,” she said. “We need students to be able to understand history from their perspective, not someone else’s perspective.”
Casillas sees the work and resulting documentation of the Boulder County Latino History Project as the bridge that teachers need to impart an authentic sense of history to their students. “I’m very proud to be part of that bridge, part of that empowerment.”
“We have finally found a resource for what Latinos have done for this city, for this state, for this country,” Casillas continued. “There was a lot of head-tilting, at first…then quiet, then many questions, then came the connections and empowerment. Once students understand how they play a part, and how their ancestors played a part in world history, the world is in their hands.”
If you missed the live broadcast, tune in to listen online.
