Mosaic of faces

an initiative of History Colorado

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. We know we’re succeeding when more voices, perspectives, and experiences are part of museum life. To demonstrate our commitment to community, we've launched the new initiative, We Are Colorado!

We're gathering and sharing stories to celebrate the diverse communities of Colorado's history to help create a better future. We're hosting community collecting events and developing neighborhood memory projects. We'll be present at community events like PrideFest and will co-create community programming at our museum. And, we’re working with staff and volunteers to integrate inclusivity at every level of museum work.

Want to be a part of this? You can share your story, volunteer, or come to one of the events below!

Haga clic para Español

Photographs of Burmese Coloradans from our Collection

Burmese refugee family in front of apartment
Photo by Angela Buckley
Burmese refugee women taking English class
Photo by Angela Buckley
young Burmese girl smiling under table
Photo by Angela Buckley
Burmese refugee women taking English class
Photo by Angela Buckley
Burmese girl in birthday hat
Photo by Angela Buckley
young girl drawing during English class for Burmese refugee women
Photo by Angela Buckley
young girl drawing during English class for Burmese refugee women
Photo by Angela Buckley
Burmese refugee women taking English class
Photo by Angela Buckley
young boy on Big Wheel bike in apartment
Photo by Angela Buckley
Burmese refugee women during English class
Photo by Angela Buckley

Share your stories and photos!

Send us your stories in either English or Spanish! (Must be 250 words or less.) Please email with photograph(s) to hello@historycolorado.org.

The stories below are produced exclusively with The Weekly Issue/El Semanario.

Photo of two people at Hispanic Genealogical Society meeting

Ronald Weaver looking at a photo of his father as a child in 1901 during a meeting of the Hispanic Genealogical Society.

Join us!

Learn about volunteer opportunities here

Sign up to get emails about We Are Colorado here

 

Upcoming Events:

Check out our Borderlands Lecture Series too!

Oral histories

What's an "oral history"? Oral histories are the recorded voices of the past in an interview format. They can be someone's own memories and recollections or the stories they've gathered. They aren't recordings of events, nor are they prepared speeches or diary entries. They're conversations—directed to helping researchers and listeners learn something about the past.

Listen to stories of the traditionally Mexican American Salt Creek community in Pueblo County (samples to left)

Read transcripts of oral histories

Want to collect your family's oral histories? Download these instructions. You can also discover more about your family's history using Hart Research Library's free Ancestry.com account!

Staff and volunteers at Globeville Elyria Swansea event

Globeville-Elyria-Swansea Neighborhood Memory Project

The Neighborhood Memory Project is a writing and storytelling program geared towards long-term residents and new residents of a specific neighborhood. We use site-based remembering techniques to jump-start writing and storytelling that reanimates the community history of a place. Neighbors write stories of resilience and community connection that resurrect and forge stronger identities.

Once we've captured these stories via writing or oral history for residents with low-literacy or language barriers, we work with local artists to take the site-based memories and transform them into neighborhood art that serves to reanimate the value of community and interpret the personal histories of residents. The reclamation of history and the artistic interpretation of community memory create defensible neighborhoods and forge strong community bonds. This process merges the power of creative place-making with the power of historic reclamation in ways that grow our communal understanding of our place-based past and potential. We believe a Neighborhood Memory Project will be a process to foster community cohesion and shared identity making.

We partner with CIRCLE (Connecting Inclusive, Responsive Communities Leading Education) to host a STAMP (Students Taking Action and Making Progress) Leadership experience every summer. This year the theme was Somos Colorado. Here is one of the videos produced by the youth involved!

Learn more

Visit our museum exhibits: Colorado Stories and Self-Preservation by Anthony Garcia at History Colorado Center and Borderlands and Museum of Memory at El Pueblo History Museum

Check out our online exhibits: Amache: Japanese Internment in Colorado, La Gente: Colorado's Hispano History, African American History in Colorado, and Ute Tribal Paths

Watch short videos about the Hispanic experience in Colorado from the Center for Colorado and the West.

Watch this video or listen to this CPR interview to learn about how we loaned some items from our collection to 4th and 5th graders in Silverton to help them make their local museum more inclusive

Listen to a segment on Colorado Public Radio's Colorado Matters about our Heritage Diversity Initiative and tell us about the places that are important to you!

Español

En History Colorado nos esforzamos por ser un lugar de pertenencia para todos los habitantes de Colorado y por servir como plataforma hacia la conexión comunitaria. Sabemos que lo estamos logrando cuando forman parte de la vida del museo más voces, perspectivas y experiencias. Para demostrar nuestro compromiso con la comunidad, esto es lo que estamos haciendo:

Hemos lanzado la nueva iniciativa ¡Somos Colorado! Estamos recolectando y compartiendo historias que celebren las diversas comunidades de la historia de Colorado a fin de forjar un futuro mejor. Estamos organizando eventos de recolección en las comunidades y desarrollando proyectos de los recuerdos de los barrios. Nos haremos presente en eventos comunitarios como PrideFest y vamos a producir programas en conjunto con las comunidades. Además, estamos trabajando con el personal y los voluntarios para integrar la inclusión en el museo a todo nivel.

¿Quiere formar parte? ¡Puede compartir su historia, ofrecerse de voluntario o asistir a uno de los eventos siguientes!