Five Latino and Chicano leaders and activists were honored Sunday at the annual Spirit of Tlatelolco Awards.
More than 400 members of Denver’s Chicano community gathered at St. Cajetan’s Catholic Church, a landmark on the Auraria campus, for the annual celebration of traditional Chicano culture.
The event is held by Escuela Tlatelolco Centro de Estudios, a nonprofit alternative school founded in 1970 by Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, the Chicano-rights leader who died last spring.
Since 1995, the celebration has recognized people and groups in Denver’s Latino and Chicano community for their commitment to social justice and equality.
“These awards are a way to honor our community’s role models,” said Nita Gonzales, Corky Gonzales’ daughter and president of Escuela Tlatelolco.
This year’s honorees were Pam Linan, a Denver Public Schools assistant principal and music educator; Ramon del Castillo, Regis University educator; Judith Martinez- Saricchio, school counselor and Latina activist; Anne Trujillo, 7News anchor; Michael Miera, activist for Chicano youths; and the César Chávez Peace and Justice Committee.
Once a private school serving predominantly low-income and at-risk Chicano and Latino students, Escuela Tlatelolco recently became a DPS contract school for grades seven through 12.
Sunday’s event also generated $35,000 for tuition scholarships for students in the lower grades, Gonzales said.
Between award presentations, students from the Tlatelolco Voice Choir and DPS’s Bryant Webster Mariachi band performed traditional Chicano songs.
As it has for the past several years, Sunday’s awards brunch was held at St. Cajetan’s, the city’s first Spanish-speaking Catholic church built by the Mexican community in 1926 on what is now the Auraria campus.
“I am extremely honored and humbled,” said an emotional Michael Miera, a founder of the La Raza Male Youth Leadership Conference and winner this year of the lifetime achievement award.
Miera, who taught at Escuela Tlatelolco for three years, said he was introduced to the Chicano movement by Corky Gonzales decades ago.
“Corky was a man who stood up for human rights at a time when Mexicans and Chicanos did not speak out,” he said.
Staff writer Amy Brouillette can be reached at 303-820-1201 or abrouillette@denverpost.com.
