Several Latino elected officials on Thursday night addressed the challenges facing Denver’s Latino community, including education, immigration and equal government services.
“It is important to me to make sure our kids have access and justice in the school systems,” said Denver Public Schools board member Andrea Merida.
Citing the importance of well-rounded students, Merida said Colorado schools focus too much on test scores and not enough on other factors relevant to student education.
“These standardized exams were never really intended to do anything but give us a snapshot,” Merida said.
She wants DPS to slow down when approving policies and to make sure all kids are being served, she said.
Arturo Jimenez, vice president of the DPS board, also spoke to the small crowd at the forum at Su Teatro, which was organized by the Latin American Research and Service Agency.
He called for increased parent participation to transform schools.
“It’s about us creating policies that move our students forward,” Jimenez said.
He said that parents understanding curricula and taking a stronger role in school governance are essential steps toward that goal.
“It’s really important that we stay vigilant to ensure that segregation doesn’t return to our schools,” Jimenez said.
City Council members Paul Lopez and Judy Montero also acknowledged the importance of education. They want to see more Latinos civically engaged on a daily basis and proud of the achievement Latinos have made.
“There are too many people who walk around this city with their heads held low,” Lopez said.
He also pointed to the challenges faced by his District 3 constituents, which he said are largely “poor and underserved.”
“We have the most graffiti and a growing gang issue. We don’t have one grocery store . . . but five or six liquor stores,” Lopez said.
He puts neighborhood kids to work removing graffiti as a way to connect them with the community.
“We need to make sure we give our youth a community that is proud and that they can respect,” he said.
Lopez, like the other speakers, received a T-shirt from organizers that said “Somos America” (“We are America”).
Montero said the “food deserts” created in poor neighborhoods by the lack of full-service grocery stores contribute to childhood obesity because neighborhood families have few options other than convenience-store shopping.
“We deserve the right to be healthy, and we deserve the right to have a better store,” Montero said. She has fought one “food desert” with a program that opened a neighborhood greenhouse where the community grows some of its own food.
“I’m trying to bring us back to what we know, which is building sustainable communities.”
Heather McWilliams: 303-954-1698 or hmcwilliams@denverpost.com
