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We Are Colorado

At History Colorado we strive to be a place of belonging for all Coloradans and to serve as a platform for community connection and co-creation. We know we’re succeeding when more voices, perspectives and experiences are part of History Colorado. 

We're creating community programming and developing neighborhood memory projects. We’re also working with staff and volunteers to integrate inclusivity at every level of museum work.

We invite you to join us! 

History Colorado is collecting stories and photos of Chicana women at the forefront then and now. Do you or someone you love have a Chicana photograph or story to share with History Colorado? If so, please email a digital photo, a few lines detailing the story, and contact information about the person to hello at historycolorado.org.

Upcoming Events

Emerging Leaders Class  

AAPI Emerging Leaders Program - Meet the members of the 2019 Emerging Leaders Class

History Colorado has become a force for finding new and inclusive ways to serve Coloradans. In 2018 History Colorado provided programs to more than 18,000 students in their own schools, and assisted more than 40 schools with bus funds, to expand efforts that now serve more than 85,000 students annually. Its all-day Hands-On History program at El Pueblo History Museum responds to the four-day school week that is now administered by 61% of Colorado school districts.

Community Partnerships & Engagement

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    Year of La Chicana

    A partnership between History Colorado and the El Movimiento Community Advisory Committee, Year of La Chicana celebrates and honors La Chicana past, present and future and shares her story with a wide range of audiences.

    During this year we are working with community to connect the core issues of the Chicano movement with present day issues of social justice, identity and inclusion.

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    Portraits of Courage: Photographs by Shane Sato

    Organized by Go For Broke National Education Center (GFBNEC), the Nisei Veterans Heritage Foundation, and the Japanese Arts Network, this exhibition features intimate color and black-and-white portraits of Japanese American veterans of World War II by photographer Shane Sato, and it will showcase nine Nisei veterans from Colorado representing the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team and Military Intelligence Service. The emotive images capture the essence and character of Nisei (second-generation) Japanese American soldiers and reflect each veteran's story of commitment, duty and patriotism.

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    Museum of Memory Initiative

    Museum of Memory is a public history initiative that works together with Colorado residents to co-author a shared history. We collaboratively work to reanimate, center and amplify the histories that have long existed only in the margins and create the opportunity for the community to decide how to remember its collective past.

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    NAGPRA Program

    History Colorado has adopted an active program of implementing the provisions of the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Our NAGPRA program philosophy is summarized in the following statement:

    NAGPRA calls for the establishment of new relationships between museums and Native Americans—relationships that reflect a spirit of cooperative interaction and partnership. It is of critical importance that History Colorado staff and administrators support an approach to NAGPRA issues that reflects a commitment to sustaining such relationships. This requires open and full communications with interested Native American communities and lineal descendants regarding History Colorado collections, as well as an institutional intent to consider repatriation claims for human remains and objects that fall under the law.

Community Collections & Storytelling

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    Italian Coloradans

    Shaped by the country they left behind, Italian immigrants made their way to Colorado in the late 1850s, spurred by the mining boom.

    Upon arrival, they faced many challenges, often living in segregated communities. Despite their struggles, Italian immigrants persevered and prospered, making an impact on the communities they were becoming a part of.

    Today Colorado’s Italian American community is experiencing a revival, with members committed to preserving their history. Below are personal histories and rare photographs collected in collaboration with this community.

    Check out our recently re-published book Italy in Colorado for more!

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    Hispano Coloradans

    No matter where you live or travel in Colorado, the Hispano influence is powerfully felt. So many people have made their mark on Colorado’s rich history, and our state’s Hispano residents have been here longer than many.

    Join us in celebrating their stories — stories of discovery, patience, persistence and resilience.

Recent Related Articles

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    11 Black Coloradans’ Stories of Emancipation

    Next week we observe the formal end of slavery in the United States on Juneteenth. Although President Lincoln gave his Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, it wasn’t until June 19, 1865 that Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas and announced that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free.

    Colorado was just coming into its own at this time, and suffrage for African Americans was a central issue on the path to statehood, leading President Andrew Johnson to reject a bill in 1867.

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    Chicana Power: Female Leaders in el Movimiento and the Search for Identity

    The Chicano/a movement—el Movimiento—emerged in the late 1960s alongside other civil rights movements, such as Black Power and the American Indian Movement. Although these movements represented different racial and cultural groups in the United States, they shared the overarching goals of the empowerment of, and civil rights for, underrepresented and oppressed peoples.

    Maybe you’ve heard about noted Chicano leaders like Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales and César Chávez—and rightfully so. They were critical to the development of el Movimiento. Lesser known are the Chicana women who helped to make that movement possible.

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    Nga Vuong-Sandoval: Refugee, Activist, Historic Preservationist, and Advocate for Colorado’s Refugees

    Today, Colorado is home to some 24,000 Vietnamese American residents, many of them living in Denver’s metropolitan area. Although most Denverites are well aware of the presence of this community, many know little about the history behind the city’s ethnic Vietnamese population.

    When Sài Gòn fell to the North Vietnamese in the spring of 1975, there was a mass exodus of refugees from the South. Between 1975 and 1992, over two million Vietnamese fled the country and nearly a million arrived in the United States. By 1990, Colorado was home to about 5,800 Vietnamese refugees.

    Despite the myriad contributions that Vietnamese refugees have made to the city, their history in Denver remains largely unknown to the general public. My interview with Nga Vuong-Sandoval highlights this history.

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    The Rise and Fall of Denver’s Chinatown

    Today, Denver’s LoDo is home to a number of thriving businesses, apartment complexes, restaurants, and art galleries. This area was once home to Denver’s Chinatown. Near modern-day Coors Field, Chinatown—also known as Hop Alley—formed along Wazee Street. It became the residential and business center of Chinese migrants living in the city in the 1870s. Despite this, there remains no trace of Denver’s Chinatown, with the exception of a commemorative plaque on the corner of Twentieth and Blake streets.

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    Virginia Castro, in her own words

    Virginia Castro is known to many as the widow of late Chicano leader and state representative Richard Castro, but, like him, she has a story of her own. She recently shared her oral history with us—you can listen to it here. Read on for a brief summary of her life in Colorado.

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    Teresita Sandoval: Trader, Homesteader, and Pioneer in Nineteenth-Century Colorado

    Prior to gaining statehood in 1876, southern Colorado was home to a number of important trading outposts. These forts played a crucial role in the development of the Southwest before the annexation of the region by the United States. Throughout the early nineteenth century, the Southwest was a meeting ground of diverse nations and cultures, including a variety of American Indian tribes, as well as Spanish and French traders.

    While many people associate this era of the American West with rugged mountain men, women were also critical to the development of the region. In many cases, women took on a diplomatic role, ensuring peaceful and prosperous trading relationships between Europeans and Indian tribes.

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    Reliving Their Own History: The Importance of the Neighborhood Memory Projects

    A neighborhood is more than just a location or a group of houses. It is a collection of people, each with their own unique experiences and recollections, who together form something greater. The collective memory of a community can be a powerful thing and it can tell important stories. Family, work, school, sports, church, and community are all recorded together in written, visual, and oral form. That is why El Pueblo History Museum is proud to host a variety of memory projects.