I look forward to the day when it will no longer be socially necessary to set aside one month out of the year to celebrate Hispanic culture and the contributions of so-called "Hispanics" to American society. To begin with, I don't like to be called "a Hispanic." As a graduate of the prestigious Colorado College with a degree in English, I am disturbed by the incorrect use of an adjective as a noun. "Hispanic" is an adjective, a word that describes or modifies a noun or prono

The year has flown by so fast. The dizzying speed of time that has been true for me recently is a sign that my life is finite. I am conscious of death, as we all must be, but it's still hard to seriously contemplate it. When I'm in the grip of that feeling I fall back on my historical memories. I remember the past, and tell it and teach it to anyone willing to listen to this old man. For me, its vividness allows me to achieve immortality. Every year on September 16 I'm with t

What is America's true strength? What has made this country preeminent in the world? Many factors have contributed to our ascendancy, but it's not primarily our military power. It's not our abundant natural resources, not even the pristine continent that we inherited from the Native Americans. It's not even our capitalist economic system, or rather our mixed capitalist/socialistic system. Ken Salazar, the former Colorado attorney general, Colorado senator, Secretary of the In

Colorado Alliance of Latino Mentors and Authors America’s 250 and Colorado 150th Celebration Colorado Alliance of Latino Mentors and Authors (CALMA) proudly joins our sisters and brothers in the celebration of the 250th Birthday of the signing of the Declaration for Independence as well as Colorado’s 150th birthday as a state. An overriding purpose for the creation of CALMA was to recognize, reignite and encourage t

We know the story of America's founding. It started at Jamestown in 1607 with the first permanent English colony, then moved on to the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in 1620. We followed these English-speaking colonists whose stern impassioned tread blazed a trail across the wilderness, eventually growing their settlements into the thirteen colonies who declared their independence from Britain in 1776. We are the heirs of those visionaries who fought for freedom and the creation o