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Tag: La Raza Park

  • La Raza Park Day is back! Here’s how this Denver tradition was born

    La Raza Park Day is back! Here’s how this Denver tradition was born

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    Signature-gathering to officially change the name of Columbus Park to La Raza Park became something of a civic party. July 24, 2020.

    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    This Sunday afternoon, Aug. 25, marks the sixth annual La Raza Park Day –  a celebration of Chicano culture and community that began with a conflict. 

    Back in 2019, a local news story focused on complaints about loud cars and “cruising” in Barnum, a historically Latino neighborhood. But cruising along Federal Boulevard is a longstanding part of local culture — and many neighbors weren’t pleased to see it attacked.

    That’s when Ben Chavez, now La Raza Park Day’s lead organizer, stepped in.

    He acknowledged folks who aren’t familiar with Latino culture often view cruising as a disturbance or an activity for “troublemakers” because they don’t understand its cultural significance.

    So he worked with Councilwoman Amanda Sandoval, Councilwoman Jamie Torres, Councilwoman Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez and his wife, Senator Julie Gonzalez, to respond to this complaint with an act of community pride.

    At the same time, Jolt of Guerilla Garden and Evan Weissman, the executive director of Warm Cookies of the Revolution, had similar ideas. Instead of dividing community with three separate events, they banded together to produce one collective affair.

    Thus, La Raza Park Day was born.

    Cruising “is something that is a rite of passage as a young person. It’s a Mexican-American Chicano pastime,” he said.  “We gather around building cars, painting cars, and cruising those cars. And that’s as a family.”

    Joe O’Connell and his ’48 Chevy Fleetline at his home in Brighton. July 6, 2023.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    Chavez described the practice as “creating art on wheels” and noted many lowriders and classic cars used for cruising are award-winning and worth upwards of a hundred thousand dollars.

    Here’s what’s planned for this year’s La Raza Park Day.

    The event will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. this Sunday, Aug. 25, at La Raza Park, 1501 W. 38th Ave. Admission is free of charge.

    For starters, it’s the first year the event has a theme: youth violence prevention.

    Chavez said the La Raza Park Planning Committee will bring in nonprofits that specialize in violence interruption, respond to active shootings and get families mental health services, as well as organizations that provide support for individuals and families after violence occurs.

    La Raza Park Day will also feature a four directions blessing ceremony and a Mexika Danza program, both of which are meant to educate and entertain.

    From there, Chavez said, the rest of the programming is “good vibes.” That includes a youth breakdancing crew and youth mariachi, live graffiti art, DJs, music from Los Mocochetes and food – including a taco eating contest – from Chivis Tacos.

    “La Raza Park Day is for everybody, not just Chicanos,” Chavez said. “It is a community event that is for family and friends and fun.”

    Why hold the event at La Raza Park?

    La Raza means “the people” or “the community.” 

    La Raza Park was “a staple in the Chicano movement during the Civil Rights movement,” Chavez explained.

    But up until 2020, the park was only informally known as “La Raza”. Officially speaking, the park “was underneath the colonizer’s name – Columbus Park,” Chavez said. “We fought for decades to have that name changed.”

    Today, the renamed park serves as a reminder of Chicano culture on Denver’s Northside. It features a prominent kiosko (aka a garden pavilion), shaped like ceremonial areas atop Aztec and Mayan stepped pyramids, and a sculpture that pays tribute to the city’s Chicano activists. These elements remind longtime Northsiders, and those new to the neighborhood, that Chicano culture has, does and will continue to exist in the area. 

    Artist Emanuel Martinez unveils his new sculpture, a tribute to La Raza Park and the city’s Chicano activists. Sunnyside, June 20, 2021.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    The neighborhood has “changed multiple times with the demographic of individuals that live there,” Chavez continued. “But one thing that we’re doing is we’re pushing back against gentrification, saying, ‘Not all of us have left. Not all of us are priced out. We’re still here — and our culture matters.’”

    La Raza Park Day doesn’t have an official cruise. But…

    That doesn’t mean no cruise.

    What usually happens is, “after the day we’re like, ‘Hey, let’s go cruise.’ It’s not formal,” Chavez explained.

    “Hopefully we all end up in the same place. We usually hit Federal Boulevard and end up at Grandpa’s Burger Haven, and some folks may split off and go somewhere else. But usually, Grandpa’s is pretty jumping down on South Federal. That’s a staple in community where lowriders come together and families have fun and eat cheeseburgers and onion rings and all hang out with each other.”

    Que viva la raza, y que viva la hamburguesa.

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  • Denver Public Schools hires its first director of Latinx Student Success

    Denver Public Schools hires its first director of Latinx Student Success

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    Denver news

    Director Patricia Hurrieta will be tasked with carrying out the recommendations in a new report about the barriers and opportunities that Latino students face.

    First graders read in a bilingual classroom at Goldrick Elementary School, Dec. 7, 2017.

    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    Following the release of a report that revealed “serious barriers” for Latino students in Denver Public Schools, the district has hired its first director of Latinx Student Success.

    Patricia Hurrieta, currently principal of Grant Ranch Elementary School in southwest Denver, will begin her new role in the next few weeks, the district said. Hurrieta will lead a team tasked with carrying out the recommendations in the recently released 266-page La Raza Report commissioned by DPS.

    “I am thrilled to collaborate with the community to address the recommendations outlined in the La Raza Report,” Hurrieta said in a press release. “Together, we will strive to create an environment that fosters the success and well-being of our Latinx/Hispanic students.”

    More than half of the 88,000 students in DPS identify as Hispanic or Latino. About a third of DPS students, many of them native Spanish speakers, are learning English as a second language.

    The La Raza Report noted the “indomitable cultural resilience … that is a part of the ethos of the various Latino groups in the Denver Public Schools.”

    But the report authors wrote that their findings, which were based on historical research as well as 51 focus group interviews and thousands of survey responses, “surfaced some serious barriers that need to be addressed, including unequal resources across schools, … the serious mismatch between the Latino student population and the number of teachers and leaders in the system, and the perpetual undervaluing of the Latino cultures.”

    “There are no cultural events for Latinos at most schools, according to the focus groups,” the report said. “Spanish-language classes are electives, and none of the students in the focus groups are taking them, even though many of the students are fluently bilingual.

    “Many students also said that they had never read a book written by or about Latinos.”

    Spurred in part by a similar report about the barriers encountered by Black students and staff, the district created a Black Student Success team earlier this school year, also led by a former DPS principal. That team is working with university researchers who are studying the teaching methods of DPS teachers whose Black students made stellar academic progress. The goal is to spread those methods throughout the district, starting with a cohort of six elementary schools.

    Each team — the Black Student Success team and the Latinx Student Success team — will have a budget of $750,000 next school year, said Joe Amundsen, the district’s executive director of school transformation, whose department works with both teams.

    DPS has commissioned many reports and task forces over the years to make recommendations that community members have perceived as going nowhere — a frustration that’s clear in the La Raza Report. But Amundsen said hiring someone like Hurrieta to do the work, and allocating funding to complete it, signals a different level of commitment from DPS.

    “There’s a difference in that commitment, which is translating to more than committees and recommendations, but let’s take those recommendations and really do something that is going to impact outcomes for kids,” he said. “It’s got more teeth to it.”

    An advisory committee of Latino leaders and community members is helping the district prioritize which of the 35 La Raza Report recommendations the new Latinx Student Success team should tackle first, Amundsen said.

    The recommendations include:

    • Establish student tutoring programs funded by Denver employers.
    • Develop a transportation system with the city and RTD for students and families “even in those areas where providing such a service may not be cost-effective but is socially just.”
    • Increase the number of students participating in the Seal of Biliteracy, which allows students to demonstrate proficiency in English and another language.
    • Develop a districtwide bilingual parent leadership institute focused on understanding the DPS educational system and the roles parents can play in their children’s education.
    • Expand the pool of Spanish-speaking teachers, as well as establish a pipeline for Latino school and district leaders and a Latino leadership mentorship program.
    • Consider redrawing the boundaries for West High School and periodically review all school boundaries to account for gentrification and other population shifts.
    • Have central office employees undergo cultural sensitivity and competence training.

    Although the Latinx Student Success team will take the lead on many of the recommendations, Amundsen stressed that “this is the responsibility of the entire district.”

    Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at [email protected].

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