A brightly colored Chicana/o themed license plate is now among options available to Coloradans for their cars or motorcycles. The plate features a pair of clasped brown hands with mountains and a bright sunburst sky.
Jose Ortega is the executive director of El Movimiento Sigue, the Pueblo-based organization that will collect the donations required to purchase the special plate.
“It's about being seen, valued, and respected,” he said. “It's about the Chicano community and that the pride represents our strength, our history and about being seen authentically.”
Ortega said they’ll use the funds raised by the one-time plate fee to support youth programs around the state. He said the veteranos, the Chicano movement leaders in Colorado, worked for years to make it a reality.
“It means everything to our community,” he said, “to know that the work and the fighting that the veteranos did for our people and to finally have it to where we can be seen daily on people's vehicles – not just in Pueblo, (but) up north, every corner of the state has access to this license plate. So to be seen everywhere and it's just a testament to the value and the work that our veteranos did.”
Ortega said thousands of people signed the petition to get the legislation passed last year, so he expects a good level of initial interest in the new license plate. He also hopes that people will choose to make a recurring donation to the organization beyond the one time $50 donation required to obtain the license plate.
El Movimiento Sigue has set up a special webpage to make donations and obtain the PIN number needed to buy the plate.
Vehicle owners do not have to wait until their registration expires to get the new plate, Ortega said. They can order the plate and pay a pro-rated amount based on how much time is left on their current plate. The plates are printed on demand, so it’ll take four to six weeks to fulfill the request.
- A new Colorado license plate celebrating the Chicano community is under consideration at the state Capitol
- Chicanx activist group in Pueblo expands its mission to reduce incarceration rates
- Pueblo’s Chicano newspaper, La Cucaracha, is again rolling off the presses regularly after a 40-year hiatus
- When the border crosses you: Colorado’s Hispanic history
- Get to know Southern Colorado and New Mexico's cultural history with these exhibits for Hispanic Heritage Month
