Women In March – Part III of IV
Like a lot of native or even late-to-the-show Puebloans, the folks in Pueblo love their community. Charlotte Vasquez is no different. But what might set her apart from others in her southern Colorado town, is that she puts in a ton of effort to make what she thinks is good, even better. When she’s not hustling to land new business for her bank, spending one-on-one time with its customers or escaping to the serenity of homelife and the company of her children and grandchildren, she’s sitting on local boards or working with others to bring attention to issues affecting the rich, poor, ethnically diverse, young and old in Pueblo.
Vasquez, who started in banking as a teller, is today a senior vice president of business development at Sunflower Bank. Working at this level of finance is a light year removed from her working-class family’s roots. Like so many Puebloans of a certain age, Vasquez comes from a multi- generational steelworker family. Her late father and grand- father both retired from the company that served Pueblo for decades, the CF&I, the Colorado Fuel & Iron Corporation. Jobs there were as blue as blue collar can be. Also, a source of pride for Vasquez. Her father, she says proudly, “was the first Latino foreman” in the mill’s blast furnace.
He was also, she remembered, smart enough to advise her only sibling, a brother, that there were other, better options for him than standing next to a furnace full of molten steel. “I remember my dad taking my brother to work with him,” she said. “He told him, ‘This is not what you want to do.’” Turns out, it was sound advice. Her brother, David, after studying drafting found a career as a project manager and land developer for a real estate firm in Denver.
A southside kid to her core, Vasquez grew up splitting time between home and her grandparent’s Bessemer home. Both places, she said, offered both sanctuary and foundational mooring. “My parents were giving and taught us to help with community and being involved.” They also stressed, giving back. Vasquez has applied those lessons throughout her life and also encouraged her children—she has three grown children—to do the same.
She has worked both professionally and privately to lend a hand in a variety of places and causes in her city. She has been active as both an ambassador for the Latino Chamber of Commerce and a member of its board of directors, helping stage events, even down to the decorating for lunches and dinners. “I make the centerpieces for events,” she said. It’s a skill she picked up from her late mother, a woman whose bailiwick was being “crafty,” said Vasquez.
Vasquez commitments to her city have varied over the years. She has helped raise money for athletic scholarships, an example being the awarding of scholarships to local athletes. Both young men and women selected for the award each received a $500 grant for each of the years they were enrolled in college. Her next effort was working with Pueblo’s United Way, an agency that aids a variety of organizations across the city. But her most focused effort is for the Gil Padilla Golf Tournament. Padilla was her late husband who died from complications in surgery. Her husband died in 2008.
“I just wanted to keep his memory alive,” said Vasquez. Now in its fourteenth year, the tournament, staged at Pueblo’s City Park Golf Course, also known as Elmwood, is one of Colorado’s most unique. “It’s a night tournament,” she explained. Golfers tee off before sunset, play nine holes, pause for dinner, and resume play in the dark. “It’s in September, the weekend of Labor Day…and played with glow sticks, headlamps and glow balls.” Vasquez is quick to point out that the success of the tournament is due in no small part to her employer, Sunflower Bank. “I’m just in awe,” she said, of Sunflower’s involvement, which underwrites portions of the tournament’s costs.
Over the years, including the bumpy start with the wrestling scholarship effort, Vasquez estimates that she has helped raise close to $100,000. “Last year we raised $17,000 and the year before $23,000.” Whatever is raised is gifted to Pueblo’s Boys & Girls Club.
The tournament has exceeded anything Vasquez envisioned when the idea was first imagined. “I just did it so that my son would know what his father did in the community…I also see where the money goes and it’s helping kids. My heart just melts.”
While Vasquez said she also likes to spend time with her children and grandchildren, she also manages to find the time to sit on the board of Health Solutions. Health Solutions website describes itself as “a comprehensive, non-profit community medical and behavioral health treatment provider.” It serves clients in Pueblo, Huerfano and Las Animas counties.
Vasquez says her work with Health Solutions has been more than worth the time commitment it takes. “People don’t see mental health as an illness,” she said. Being on the board, “I’ve been able to look at things differently. I’ve learned so much from that.”
For the holidays, Vasquez helps out with an effort begun by the late city councilman, Ray Aguilera. Aguilera founded the Pueblo Poverty Foundation. One of its seasonal efforts is to provide a holiday gift to people in need across the city. Vasquez helps organize the effort that brings food to families and provides gifts for children each December. Aguilera passed away in May 2021.
