‹‹ Real Talk

Hispanic Heritage Month in Colorado

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Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates history, culture and identity. It's all rooted in a time before Colorado even became a state. And it brings up some complex questions around the concept of "borders" and also how Hispanic, Latino and Chicano folks choose to refer to themselves. So how do we honor these stories and identities and empower these communities?

This week’s guests include Lucha Martínez de Luna, the associate curator of Hispano, Chicano, and Latino History and Culture at History Colorado. She discusses the Borderlands of Southern Colorado exhibit on display at History Colorado Center in Denver.

Joelle Martinez is president and CEO of the Latino Leadership Institute. She says identities continue to shift in communities across Colorado and shares what her Institute's research shows about why folks choose identifiers like Hispanic, Chicano, Latino and Latinx.

José Palacios-Casillas is the youth services manager at Servicios de La Raza. He discusses how the nonprofit's youth leadership program is empowering high schoolers and bringing them together with community members from around metro Denver.

RealTalk is hosted by Colorado Public Radio’s Nathan Heffel and Denver7’s Micah Smith.