Shaping Our Future by Remembering Our Past

February is Black History Month and it offers an opportunity to think about history from your own ethnic point of view and how it relates to Black History. For example, in Denver in the mid-1920's, when the KKK ran Denver and Colorado, my grandmother Nora Flaherty was horrified that someone would sacrilegiously burn a cross in front of St Dominic's Church just down the block … [Read more...] about Reflections on Black History Month

Denver has not risen to the level of recognition of its writers to which Dublin has.  As you walk along the streets of old Dublin town, a city full of literary talent, you will see that the city administration and council has placed brass plaques in the pedestrian sidewalks indicating literary happenings. "Leopold Bloom entered this pub to feast on his famous gorgonzola … [Read more...] about More Than Names and Dates: Local Historians Build Community

In the late 1960’s Juanita and Emilio Dominguez gave North Denver a great gift in their annual  Las Posadas celebrations.  Las Posadas means "The Inn," in Spanish. For 9 nights before Christmas Eve, Juanita and Emilio dressed in full costume, including their daughter Zarife as Mary. Her brothers J. A. and Robbie alternately dressed as St. Joseph. They imported a live … [Read more...] about Dominguez Family Las Posadas Enlivened North Denver

When they first moved to Denver, Fanny and Zesa Starr lived on Denver's legendary Westside, south of Sloan's Lake. Born in Poland, Zesa and Fanny, both Holocaust survivors, lived in east Denver when I first met them years later. That's when they both came to Dr. Victoria McCabe's classes at Regis University and shared the stories of their lives. Fannie told us of her … [Read more...] about Fanny Starr, Denver’s oldest known holocaust survivor, Passes Away