Topics for the series will include indigenous slavery in the Southwest, healing practices, land rights and dispossession, historical settlement patterns in southern Colorado and more. Speakers, including scholar Maria Montoya, architect Ronald Rael, Ute Mountain Ute leader Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, writer Norma Cantú, and others will come from across the globe and nearer by, including Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, California, and China.

“It is such an amazing opportunity to bring these incredible speakers to our communities in southern Colorado,” said Kirby Stokes, director of Trinidad History Museum. “The community stories we will share in our new Borderlands exhibits will certainly be enriched by the speakers who are coming.”

Across the three sites there will be twenty opportunities to listen to and engage with speakers from January through May. The first talks will be:

• Tuesday, January 22, at 6:30 pm, at El Pueblo History Museum and Wednesday, January 23, at 6 pm at Trinidad History Museum: Maria Montoya, New York University Shanghai, "Creating Community at a Global Crossroads"

• Wednesday, January 30, at 6:30 pm, at El Pueblo History Museum and February 23, at 6pm at Trinidad History Museum: Karen Roybal, Colorado College, “Telling Nothing but the Truth: Testimonios of Land Loss and Reclamation”

• Thursday, February 23, at 6 pm, at Fort Garland Museum: Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, “Broken Treaties”

Each talk is free and open to the public. The series is sponsored by Colorado State University-Pueblo and the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area. A full listing of speakers can be found here or by texting “Borderlands” to 474747.

El Pueblo History Museum is located at 301 N. Union Avenue in historic downtown Pueblo and marks the site of the international border between Mexico and the United States prior to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. El Pueblo History Museum can be reached at 719-583-0453.

Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center, located at 29477 Hwy. 159 in Fort Garland, consists of five adobe buildings original to the 1858 United States Army post and is an integral part of the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area in Costilla County. Fort Garland Museum can be reached at 719-379-3512.

Trinidad History Museum, located at 312 E. Main Street in Trinidad, occupies a full city block in historic Trinidad, Colorado. The museum is made up of the Bloom Mansion, the Baca House the Barglow Building, the Santa Fe Trail Museum, and beautiful community-supported gardens. Trinidad History Museum can be reached at 719-846-7217.