The Chinese Zodiac says 2025 was the ‘Year of the Snake.’ So, as we ponder that, let’s look back at a few of the things seen and read in LaVozColorado over the last twelve months.
We began the new year with a new president and his ‘landslide’ win. It was a 49.8 percent to 48.3 percent landslide. He won.
His second term agenda, no surprise, had a significant impact on both people and policies in both population centers and small towns of Colorado.
LaVozColorado chronicled many. For many, the blow was immediate.
Locally, Denver got a new District Attorney. Former U.S. attorney John Walsh succeeded long time public servant Beth McCann who chose to retire rather than seek a third term.
With the pandemic behind us, LaVozColorado wrote regularly about public health. A new Health and Human Services Secretary and his views on vaccines, not surprisingly, got a lot of attention. Not the kind one would expect or necessarily want.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy made headlines regularly with his mandate to create a whole new national health approach, an approach that slimmed down the CDC better and quicker than Ozempic. By some estimates, the CDC is down by more than 25 percent, including doctors and researchers.
Kennedy’s selection pleased a growing anti-vax cohort that has eschewed vaccinations for religious or medical reasons. But, measles, a preventable disease with vaccinations, made a comeback in Colorado and a number of states. Sixteen measles cases were reported in Colorado, another 2,000 nationwide.
New presidential policies drew people to the streets across Denver and the state. DOGE cuts cost thousands of Coloradans their jobs. Immigration crackdowns also inspired protests, along with huge cuts in social programs, including SNAP benefits for low-income Coloradans.
Many, if not most, of the more radical policy changes instituted by the Trump Administration came from Project 2025, a several thousand-page document authored by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Changes included everything from eliminating whole departments to erasing things like USAID, food and health assistance to undeveloped countries and elimination of Radio Fee Europe, America’s voice for decades behind what once was called the Iron Curtain.
At home, Project 2025 also called for the elimination of the Department of Education.
LaVozColorado also wrote about state farmers and ranchers concerned about Trump’s tariffs while colleges and universities across the state had to adjust to the end of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs.
As the Spring brought new life, the world also mourned a lost life when Pope Francis, the first Pope from the Western Hemisphere and the first Spanish-speaking pontiff died on April 21st. Seventeen days later, white smoke billowed from the Sisteen Chapel. A new Pope was named. Jesuit Robert Francis Prevost became Pope Leo XIV. The new Pope, a Chicago Southsider, is also a White Sox fan.
Also in May, the first Latino to lead Denver’s Regis University announced his departure to become the new President of the University of San Francisco. Native San Franciscan Salvador Aceves “is coming home to the city by the bay.” He officially took the reins of his alma mater on October 18th. Aceves is also the first Latino and first lay person to lead USF.
In July, Metropolitan State University Denver became one of a handful of colleges in the nation to offer undergraduate degrees in Mariachi Performance and fee Culture. Well known mariachi maestro and academic Dr. Lorenzo Trujillo first introduced mariachi music into the MSUD curricula a decade ago. The first classes began last summer.
Moving into Fall, Denver City Council honored the city’s first Latino mayor. In 1983, Federico Pena inspired Denver to “Imagine a Great City.” Council announced his portrait will hang at the Federico F. Pena Family Health Center at 1339 S. Federal Boulevard.
Republicans who demanded both a new president and mass deportations in summer 2024, got their wish. Masked ICE agents often using thuggish and illegal tactics, including arresting immigrants appearing in court or at immigration offices, swept across U.S. cities, including Denver, to arrest men, women and children for immigration violations. Many of the ‘disappeared,’ a term used for ICE detainees whose location is often kept secret, are people who have been living and working here for decades. Many are housed at the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora. Democratic members of Colorado’s Congressional delegation have made visits to the facility.
On October 1st, Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson ordered the government shut down. It ended 43 days later. It was the longest shutdown in U.S. history. Federal employees, including thousands in Colorado, were ordered not to report to work. A few departments considered essential, including the Postal Service and Transportation Security Administration, were ordered to stay on the job. While they reported for work for the seven-week shutdown, they did not receive paychecks. All received backpay when the shutdown ended.
As 2025 wound down, the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless once again proved its worth. In November, LaVozColorado reported on the organization’s dental program. Since its beginning in 1984, the Coalition has provided free dental care for more than 19,000 homeless or low-income persons. “We do not deny access to anyone who comes through our doors,” said resident dentist, Dr. Carol Niforatos.
As the country changes, women, particularly Latinas, have found their calling in disciplines once considered foreign territory. Colorado state senator Julie Gonzales is now all set to crack the glass ceiling for Latinas in the U.S. Senate.
Gonzales will challenge Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper. Gonzales told LaVozColorado that it’s a high bar in running against Hickenlooper. He has, after all, held the three highest elected offices in Colorado as Denver Mayor, Colorado Governor and U.S. Senator.
The Yale graduate and self-described Progressive Democrat, says she’s all in. “As a girl, I was taught work hard, nothing’s going to be given to you.” It was her late parents, she said, who “taught me to take nothing for granted.”
The ‘Year of the Snake’ was dizzying. No telling if the ‘Year of the Horse’ will provide an easier ride.
