In the summer of 1974, there was no bigger story. In July of that year, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that then President Nixon must hand over secret Oval Office recordings that would soon doom his presidency. But something else was also happening that summer that continues to impact Denver and the Region.
LaVozColorado was born.
Jose and Wanda Padilla saw a need for a bilingual newspaper. So, with a few typewriters in the basement of their home, the first issue of LaVozColorado rolled off the presses and has continued without break for the last 50 years.
Besides recording the biggest events in Denver and Colorado for a half century, LaVozColorado will soon have a permanent, archived home at the Denver Public Library.
The Colorado Trust has awarded the Denver Public Library a grant to digitize the state’s largest and oldest bilingual newspaper. Awarding the grant, said Colorado Trust President and CEO Don Mares, was an easy call.
“I have grown up politically and as a person with LaVozColorado as a trusted resource,” said the Denver native. “The idea that we could help LaVozColorado celebrate this milestone they’ve achieved was just a wonderful opportunity.”
The Stanford alum has witnessed every significant event of Denver history that coincides with the LaVozColorado lifeline. He has served in the Colorado State Legislature, worked in the governor’s cabinet and held a number of executive level jobs since returning to Denver. Mares calls LaVozColorado an under-the-radar Colorado institution.
“LaVozColorado has informed around so many different issues,” he said. “It helps foster discourse and debate. When policy makers are debating issues and when other folks are considering what direction to go, LaVozColorado has helped.”
Library Manager of Special Collections, Rachel Vagts, said barring any unforeseen complications the project should be complete by mid-summer which would coincide with the golden anniversary of LaVozColorado. Following full digitization, library patrons can access the final collection by physically visiting the library or even by accessing the archive on their own home computer. The collection, she said, will provide a priceless peek into the past. “One of the things we’re really excited about with this project is that every person who lives in Denver can recognize themselves and their community…this is a great step.”
The library’s LaVozColorado project will take its place alongside a number of other digitized DPL collections, said Vogts. “We have digitized over a million photographs in our collection,” she said. Other collections include a history of World War II’s 10th Mountain Division, a unit that trained for combat nearLeadvilleintheharshestwinterconditions.“Wehavealso digitized for the Blair-Caldwell Research Library,” and very soon, she added, “150 years of the Rocky Mountain News” will be added to the archives.
In the years since LaVozColorado first went to press, Denver has gone from a ‘fly-over’ city to an international des- tination. Its airport, which replaced an antiquated Stapleton International Airport, serves the world and offers many international routes, many non-stop. A recent survey placed DIA as the world’s third busiest airport.
Students accessing LaVozColorado at the Denver Public Library will be able to read real time stories of Denver’s first Latino Mayor, Federico Peña; read about its first African American Mayor Wellington Webb; its first Latino Attorney General, Ken Salazar, who went on to serve in in the U.S. Senate, the presidential cabinet and later as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico.
They will also read about the one-time NIMBY—Not in my neighborhood—argument against a light-rail system, a network of arteries that now blankets the entire metro area, the TREX project that expanded I-25 and the I-70 reconfiguration that runs over and through Globeville.
In addition, they will read the stories and view photographs of scores of Latinos and Latinas who became ‘firsts’ in their fields. They will read about Susana Cordova who began her career in teaching in a DPS classroom and rose to State Commissioner of Education.
They will someday read about the legacy of iconic Denver news anchor Anne Trujillo who for decades shared the region’s news on Channel 7. Trujillo bid farewell to television news late last year.
LaVozColorado has also covered the highs and lows of Denver and Colorado sports. Because Denver is home to the ‘big four’ sports—baseball, basketball, football and hockey— the Avalanche, Broncos, Nuggets and Rockies all get regular coverageinitspages. Fromthe NationalFootballLeague’s 50th Superbowl won by the Denver Broncos to the Colorado Avalanche’s Stanley Cup championship, to the NBA’s Nuggets win against the Lakers, LaVozColorado has covered those iconic sports moments..
Researchers will have access to digitized LaVozColorado stories on the legalization of both medical and recreational marijuana, the latter in 2014. They will also read about the war on drugs which, in an almost surreal way, began in Colorado in 1937.
In October of that year, 57-year-old Samuel Caldwell was arrested in a Denver flophouse by federal agents for selling three joints. Two days earlier, 19-year-old Moses Baca was arrested for possession of less than an ounce of pot, also in Denver at a California Street rooming house. Both Caldwell and Baca were sentenced to Leavenworth Federal Prison.
“To have a permanent archived home at the Denver Public Library is an honor,” said LaVozColorado publisher Pauline Rivera. She and husband, Richard, purchased and took over the paper in 2008. “LaVozColorado Colorado fills an essential niche in Denver and Colorado,” she said. “While COVID threw a wrench in most everyone’s business LaVozColorado remained in print and kept their staff employed. All in all, our loyal readers continue to get the information that is important to them as well as the chance to read stories about Latinos and deserving students who don’t always make it to The Denver Post or TV news.”
Rivera said there will always be a place for LaVozColorado. A half a century in business is no small feat, and we are proud to be a continued part of a special effort to provide news and information in English and Spanish, perpetuating our culture and language.
