Just what can you say about Pueblo and southern Colorado that hasn’t already been said about hard work, perseverance and an indomitable spirit? Our state is so lucky to have such an ‘abundance of the amazing’ just hours south of the capital city.
In 2025, Pueblo, seemingly an island unto itself in Colorado, once again showed its unique personality. In January, Armando Valdez, a son of the San Luis Valley, began a new year as President of Colorado State University-Pueblo. The school, the flagship institution for a region larger than many U.S. states, has an enrollment of almost 5,000 students, many from Pueblo and nearby towns.
“I want to represent a school that is welcoming,” Valdez told LaVozColorado. “I want to show that anyone no matter lifestyle, geographic background” is welcome. “I have a continuous improvement approach…you don’t bask in achievement, you go forward.”
Also in education, Pueblo went through an amazing transition. The president of Pueblo Community College and city’s superintendent of public schools both retired. Dr. Chato Hazelbaker was selected to succeed President Patricia Erjavec. Dr. Barbara Kimzey succeeds District 60 Superintendent Dr. Charlotte Macaluso. Kimzey comes to Pueblo from a previous executive school position in Norfolk, Virginia.
Politically, 2024 was somewhat odd for Pueblo. Voters elected city councilwoman Heather Graham. She defeated Mayor Nick Gradisar. Gradisar became the city’s first mayor in decades when voters decided to scrap the city manager form of government in 2019. Fast forward to 2023, a movement to return to its previous city manager form of government fell flat. Graham will serve until 2028.
Because southern Colorado is so vast and because so many Coloradans have family histories forged in northern New Mexico, LaVozColorado reported on a number of fascinating New Mexicans, too.
LaVozColorado published stories on artists who have held onto and passed on their skills in media almost unknown outside the Southwest. Included among them is colcha, a form of embroidery brought here by the Spanish. Artists like Elaine Graves, who traces her ancestry back generations in Northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, have kept the medium alive. Pieces created by colcha were often used as bedspreads and other coverlet art.
As summer began LaVozColorado also wrote about one of the best things about our state, it’s abundance of amazing fishing choices.
You can’t do better than fishing the state’s Conejos and Rio Grande Rivers for the sheer enjoyment of the sport, said Trout Unlimited’s Kevin Terry. “Both rivers have incredible diversity,” Terry said. Despite no guarantee of reaching your limit or even coming near, he added, you’ll marvel at the fish, the food chain’s insects and the pristine nature of the water and all that surrounds it.
According to the American Sportsfishing Association, 1.1 million anglers spent $1.4 billion fishing Colorado lakes, rivers and streams in 2023 (current figures not yet available).
Last summer we wrote a story on mother and daughter Carol Ortiviz Brainard and Shaynee Jesik. The two women have been mainstays in Pueblo classrooms for a combined six decades. Ortiviz Brainard, without hesitation, said her biggest reward in her more than 30-year career was “the classroom.” Perhaps her next favorite reward, she said, is running into long ago students and hearing the words, “You were my favorite teacher.”
As 2024 turns things over to its numerical successor, it would be impossible not to write about southern Colorado new ‘it’ crop, chile.
Of course, chile has been around for longer than Colorado has been a state. But it has only been the last several years that Pueblo has shined a light on its favorite fruit (yes, chile is a fruit).
Pueblo and its Arkansas Valley neighbors grow much of the state’s chile crop. But Pueblo has parlayed chile into something that is far more than a three-alarm snack.
The Pueblo Chamber of Commerce and the Pueblo Chile Growers Association have taken this fruit to a whole new level. And nothing reflects this better than the city’s annual Chile & Frijoles Festival each September.
More than 150,000 locals and visitors turn historic Union Avenue into a three-day street fair with chile as the star. The event, now in its 30th year, has put the SoCo crop on the map and pitted it—in a friendly way—against its New Mexico rival, Hatch, as the country’s best mouth burner.
