Latinos Of Boulder County, Colorado, 1900-1980 Volume To Lives And Legacies [Paperback]

This book paints a vivid picture of how Latinos in Boulder County lived between 1900 and 1980. Based upon an unusually rich collection of interviews, family biographies, photos, and other personal sources, the study examines multiple aspects of the daily lives of local Latinos. Rather than being a formal sociological study, it presents the human experiences of individuals and families, often in their own words and through the photos they have preserved. The study is based on a unique collection of sources assembled by the Boulder County Latino History Project, a community-based initiative. In 2013-14, ten Latino interns (high school and college students) and 80 volunteers collected some 1,600 primary sources, which together make possible this account of Latino lives and the legacies they have left.

This volume focuses on the same three towns as Volume OneLongmont, Lafayette, and Boulderanalyzing how social, cultural, and religious patterns within those towns varied. It offers interesting comparisons with Latinos living closer to the core of the Southwest borderlands or in the barrios of major cities. The book begins with a discussion of Latino families, including the importance of women, and the key stages and transitions in the course of life. It turns then to the generally poor housing in which many Latinos lived, initially on farms or mining camps but increasingly in towns. The urban neighborhoods in which they clustered were low-income but had a mixed population of Latinos and people from other backgrounds. The cultural importance of food is then discussed, along with how health care was provided within families and neighborhoods and how Latinos gradually entered into formal medical positions. Another chapter considers social life, entertainment, and sports, including the impact of segregation in many cultural and athletic settings until the mid-twentieth century. Religious activities are next. That chapter stresses the key roles of senior women durlõ