When describing an expert and want the easiest, but most accurate figure of speech to convey the image, a handy metaphor rarely fails. It conjures up a vision that simplifies, yet perfectly describes the person you’re talking about. Such is the case for Kevin Ortiz, General Manager of the Pueblo Convention Center. ‘When you want to know about wood,’ it goes, ‘ask a carpenter.’

Ortiz is that man. When you want to know about Pueblo and everything it has to offer, he’s the ‘go to’ guy. The native Puebloan has been pitching his city to any group, organization or company exploring convention sites whether it’s for reunions, anniversaries or, well, conventions.

But like his counterparts all across the country, the last couple of years have been multiple seasons of discontent. “Obviously, it was a very trying time for the event industry,” Ortiz said in a recent phone interview. “We were in unchartered territory.” The common enemy to ‘business as usual’ was a virus, COVID-19, followed by its progeny variants, Delta and, more recently, Omicron.

In March 2020, just three months after it first appeared, COVID had metastasized almost surrealistically, growing from a regional health issue first discovered in Wuhan, China, and growing into a storm of almost cataclysmic proportion. In just a matter of weeks, the virus had the world in a death grip on a scale comparable only to 1918’s Great Influenza, another virus, one that killed as many as 50 million people worldwide.

Before COVID, Ortiz was counting on a big year for Pueblo and the chance to shine a light on his hometown. But suddenly, the blowtorch year he expected dimmed to an anemic flicker. When the convention center’s phones rang, it was often a cancellation. And while things weren’t totally shut down, said Ortiz, other issues—capacity restrictions and social distancing—turned big paydays into big disappointments or worse, big nothings.

But dark days aren’t anything new to Pueblo, said Ortiz. The city has seen tough times before. Even today, Pueblo has the highest unemployment rate in the state. But this is a town, he said, where truly, the show must go on. And does.

With a combination of imagination and determination, said this son of Pueblo, “We were able to survive.” “One thing about Pueblo, one thing I love so much,” Ortiz boasts, is that “when tough times present themselves, this community really bonds together to make things work, make things happen.” Knowing the stakes and squeezing every possible cent out of state and federal grants, the lights stayed on and, a slow and steady rebound began.

Ortiz said that 2021 was “a fantastic year…events rebooked or rescheduled.” Last summer’s bookings even set convention center records. “July, August and September we had our best financial months in the last six years.”

Everything clicked. “We met our budget…it was a big win.” The ship was righted.

Pueblo, a town that is known as “The Home of Heroes,” for its inordinate number of Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, often gets military groups to convene. It also serves as an ideal landing spot for fraternal gatherings or farm and ranch organizations that dot the southern Colorado landscape.

Still, for outsiders who may not have considered Pueblo for a convention, one might ask: where’s the sizzle in Pueblo? Well, that’s Ortiz’s cue. Without blushing nor hint of vanity, Ortiz clears his throat for the pitch. “We have competitive prices; we have good customer service; we have the life that people are looking for when attending events.” The big finish and without an ounce of conceit, “On top of that, our local cuisine is the best in Colorado.” Mexican and Italian food in Pueblo, he said, can’t be beat. And for good measure, he’ll also tell anyone that Pueblo’s Nature Center, Riverwalk and Lake Pueblo are perfect for visitors and their families.

Additionally, Ortiz said Pueblo’s convention center is located adjacent to the city’s biggest hotel, The Marriott. But there is a cluster of other good places to stay, all within walking distance to both the convention center and the city’s downtown. For good measure, he also says downtown offers both culture and nightlife.

Ortiz said the convention center operates as well as it does with the help of a great sales team “that is constantly looking for local and national business.” The convention center, like so many others, also belongs to a consortium of associations “that help promote our community and facility.” In addition, he said, the city’s Chamber of Commerce and the Latino Chamber of Commerce help tremendously. Its success, he said, is a team effort.

Pueblo, said Ortiz, is open for business. “Once we bring ‘em down, we have a very good chance of bringing them back.”

There was a day, and Pueblo and southern Coloradans still talk about it, when the city’s economic climate was sunny almost every day of the year. And why wouldn’t it be? The steel mill, an industry that symbolized Pueblo, was cranking out enough heavy metal to employ as many as 10,000 workers, some of whom traveled from as far away as northern New Mexico and eastern Kansas for the good paying jobs. But that memory is, as they say, ‘so 20th century.’

Pueblo, Colorado’s city with broad shoulders, say its boosters, has everything an employer might want or need to set down roots and make it home. They boast about its great weather—the town is often called ‘the buckle’ of Colorado’s temperate banana belt. It’s also geographically situated next to an interstate highway and with an abundance of rail ready to move just about anything to or through the state and across the country. Yet, it struggles.

The most recent employment data show Pueblo with the state’s highest unemployment rate at 6.4 percent, a figure nearly twice as high as some Denver metro area cities. The only metro area community even close to Pueblo’s jobless number is Adams County whose jobless rate sits at 4.9 percent. Still, at 6.4 percent, the city is a long way from its 2021 high of 9.3 percent. The state average is 4.8 percent.

But Pueblo is not a ‘half-empty’ kind of town, said Jeff Shaw, CEO of the Pueblo Economic Development Corp. Shaw, a Pueblo native, sees opportunity in every direc- tion for the city. “There are still a lot of opportunities for people to be hired and get back into the workforce,” he said in an interview with the Pueblo Chieftain. “Entry level jobs,” for example, “have doubled in pay in the last two to three years.” Some local employers are offering up to $18 an hour plus benefits for entry-level production line and packaging jobs.

Pueblo has found good success in offering economic incentives to companies to move here. Money generated from Pueblo’s half-cent fund for economic development makes it possible to, if not lure them then at least get companies to take the time to learn what it has to offer.

In October, Pueblo and Ecological Materials, announced plans for the company to move its operations from Arizona to Pueblo. The company recycles plastics into materials that can be used in road building. It will employ 17 full time workers with average wages of $44,800 plus benefits.

Also in an October 2021 news release, PEDCO announced that Boreas Campers, a maker of custom, off-road and off-grid camper trailers will soon be calling Pueblo home. In heralding the move, Boreas owner, Matt Reichel, cited Pueblo’s “access to the outdoors, and the bustling downtown” as significant reasons for its move. The company will add 29 full-time workers to Pueblo’s economy at a ‘pre-benefit’ salary of $56,900.

Armstrong Steel also announced in October that it will be relocating from Denver and opening a 200,000 sq. ft manufacturing facility in Pueblo in 2022. In making the announcement, Armstrong CEO, Ethan Chumly, cited Pueblo’s workforce and economic environment as key reasons for the move. “Armstrong’s Pueblo factory is a logical and necessary step toward strengthening the company’s competitive position in the marketplace,” said Chumly.

Armstrong Steel will hire 51 full-time workers at an average salary of $51,400 (pre-benefit). Part of the lure for the steel maker was Pueblo’s $1.2 million dollar economic incentive, money dedicated to business expansion into the city. The money requires approval by the Pueblo City Council.

The steel company manufactures pre-engineered metal buildings and has been in business for fifteen years. Its products include everything from metal sheds, barns, commercial and religious buildings. Its products have been shipped across the United States and to countries around the world. The company said it will be ‘fully operational’ in 2022.

If there is one thing about Pueblo, it’s a town with a steadfast loyalty to tradition. It’s Red-Blue high school football game, for example—Centennial versus Central— has been played for more than 130 years! It’s the longest high school rivalry west of the Mississippi. But every now and then something comes along that challenges this orthodoxy.

Pueblo native Jocelyn Martinez has introduced the town to a new way of eating. For the better part of the last two years, she’s been slowly, steadily debuting a newer, healthier cuisine—actually a whole new way of thinking about food—to this meat-and-potatoes town. And no more brick and mortar for Martinez. Soon, she’ll swing open the doors to SoulSmile Health & Wellness, a 45-foot mobile food kitchen that will be anchored in the same Hyde Park community where she grew up.

“I lost my brick and mortar (building),” she said. She worked there for two years but the challenges of COVID took her in another direction, one unlike any Pueblo had seen before.

“I knew that I needed something to continue my business and also knew that a commercial kitchen wouldn’t work,” she said. After scouring the internet for weeks, she found the perfect vehicle for pursuing her dream. Amazingly, she found what she was looking for just a few miles from her westside home, in Pueblo West.

SoulSweet Health & Wellness will be one of the most sophisticated mobile food operations in Pueblo or the entire region. Martinez said it will be twice as spacious her previous kitchen, outfitted with two ovens, two flat tops, a grill, four fryers, a stand-up freezer-refrigerator and a three-compartment sink. “It’s really unique for Pueblo,” she said

Martinez, whose telephone voice percolates with both excitement and optimism when discussing her dream, one that will be up and running by the end of January, honed her skills and knowledge of food while living in Denver. For more than a decade she worked in a number of high-end capital city restaurants doing everything from waiting tables to, ultimately, managing entire operations. When not serv- ing or supervising, she was asking questions and learning about everything from food preparation to scheduling food deliveries. Her curiosity paid off.

When she moved back to her hometown, she also worked for Sysco, a statewide food distribution company and oversaw food preparation at the Pueblo Convention Center.

But it was her own health scare that made her rethink what she was putting into her own body. “Mainly I was having inflammatory responses and pain in my body,” she said. Testing didn’t tell her what was wrong. Then a light went on. As she learned new things about diet and nutrition, Martinez took an off-ramp leading her to a whole new way of eating. She eliminated foods with gluten and dairy and almost magically, she swears, her health improved.

Introducing new food offerings to her community and all of Pueblo, she doesn’t believe, will be nearly the challenge some might think. In fact, many of her menu items will just be ‘new and improved’ versions of the ‘old and familiar.’

Her menu won’t be indecipherable, new-age dishes. They will include “Pueblo green chile enchiladas—completely dairy and gluten-free,” she said. There will also be ‘comfort food’ that will include lasagna made with her own ricotta cheese. Again, dairy-free. The cheeses in her food, she said, will be “plant-based.”

Martinez says she knows her base and has no doubt that a new century approach to blue collar diets is a transition that can be made. In fact, she says a little known secret is that “Pueblo has a very big health and wellness community.” In addition, Martinez said she also works with a number of doctors who have encouraged their patients to rethink diet and nutrition. This relationship continues to pay off. “There were needs. Word of mouth just kept getting bigger…people were finding me.” Also, she said “I was the only person doing it.”

While Martinez has big plans for her culinary venture—she wants one day to expand out of Pueblo—one of her great satisfactions is living and working in the community where she grew up.

Hyde Park, a name not nearly as regal as it might sound, is one of Pueblo’s food deserts. The Westside Market, where locals could once get at least a semblance of variety, closed long ago. The community’s food options are limited to a convenience store where people can shop, but the nearest well- stocked grocery store with variety including fresh produce is a fifteen-minute drive away.

Martinez is nothing but confident and determined. Just getting the permits for SoulSmile Health & Wellness required conquering the bureaucratic maze for opening a business. The experience gained in Denver with new restaurant openings was essential for her Pueblo adventure. She called it great preparation for everything from getting the green-light from various commissions to final approval from the Pueblo City Council.

Martinez will mostly be working with a staff of two, her and her 16-year-old son, Kaiden. Martinez said her husband, Stephen, will be a silent partner. There are currently no plans for her nine-year-old daughter, Maya, to put on an apron.

To learn more about SoulSmile Health & Wellness, Martinez invites anyone to visit Jocelyn403@wixsite.com/soulsmile.

The United States and the world have been in a difficult battle with a nearly invisible enemy for more than two years. It—COVID-19—was first identified in China in late 2019 and quickly spread in all directions causing death and misery on every continent but the most desolate, Antarctica. To date, the world has lost more than five million souls, the United States accounting for nearly one fifth of all deaths.

But in December 2020, the fruits of Operation Warp Speed, the name given to the research project aimed at developing an effective vaccine against Covid was introduced. It remains a modern miracle that it came to market as quickly as it did and has subsequently saved lives wherever the virus has landed.

Colorado’s vaccination rates hover in the middle of the national pack with just 67 percent of the population vaccinated. In Pueblo, there’s a different story altogether. There, vaccination rates fall well below both national and state levels with only 54 percent of county residents fully vaccinated according to data supplied by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state average for full vaccination is 67 percent.

Still, despite Pueblo County having only 54 percent of its residents fully vaccinated, it still leads neighboring counties. Alamosa County is only marginally behind Pueblo at a 53.8 percent vaccination rate followed by Huerfano, Custer, Fremont and Crowley counties who come in at 51.8, 46.1, 41.6 and 20.8 percent respectfully.

Among Pueblo County’s Hispanic population, vaccination rates fall well below what public health officials would like. The county health department reports that only 35 percent of Pueblo County’s Hispanic residents are fully vaccinated, getting two COVID-19 shots plus a booster. But only 40 percent of the county’s Hispanics have gotten only one shot. All tolled, more than 224,000 shots have been administered countywide, said Joseph.

Though Pueblo hospitals, unlike the northeast United States, are not seeing the crisis situation caused by the COVID-19 or its variants in 2020, concern remains. “Looking at the data,” said Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment’s Sarah Joseph, “it took months for Delta to be the main variant in Colorado. It took about two weeks for Omicron to be the main variant.”

For the present, hospitals are functioning at normal levels. But, said Randy Evetts, Director of PCDH&E, “We do not know fully what to expect in terms of hospitalizations moving forward.” He made his comments to The Pueblo Chieftain.

The Omicron variant which is marked by scratchy or sore throat symptoms along with a nasal congestion is said to be a milder version of its predecessors. But medical experts also say it spreads two to three times more rapidly as other variants. One theory is that it likely spreads when people infected with it breathe out through their nose releasing the virus.

In late December, the city detected Omicron in its wastewater, said Joseph. With that, it wasted no time going on full alert for the variant. The department immediately issued a public health advisory on December 23rd. “We’re fortunate,” said Joseph, “because the virus is detected in wastewater up to three days prior to detecting in a person though PCR testing.” To date, only one case of the new variant has been identified countywide, said Joseph. It was identified just before Christmas.

Despite being only eighth largest city in the state, Pueblo has experienced its own dramatic spike in Covid cases and deaths. In early fall of 2020, after a summer long flatline in cases, Pueblo went through a dramatic spike.

In September 2020, only 224 cases of COVID-19 were logged. Then things took on a different shade. For the next three months, cases exploded in a nearly exponential manner. In December 2020, the county tabulated more than 6,300 cases and 162 deaths.