Campus home to neighborhood's echoes

By Vanessa Delgado
delgadov@mscd.edu

Every year, hundreds of students graduate from Metro, a college celebrating 40 years of higher education. And yet, many of those students are blind to the neighborhood and memories the Auraria Campus once held.

In the wake of an opportunity to give lower income and non-traditional students a chance to attend college, several hundred residents were asked to leave their homes in the 1970s so that the Auraria Campus could be built. The campus is now home to Metro, CCD and UCD.

Still, residents who call themselves "displaced Aurarians," many of them Hispanic, hold the memories of a once close-knit, diverse community and now are working to preserve the history that remains at 9th Street Park.

"I am fortunate to have been part of this neighborhood," said Gregorio Alcaro, 42. "There's a lot of history here ... the feel of that oldness is something a young kid never forgets."

His grandparents, Ramon and Carolina Gonzalez, lived in the West Side for more than 50 years, 40 of which were spent at 1020 9th St. The Gonzalez family lived above their restaurant Casa Mayan, one of the city's first Mexican restaurants, Alcaro said.

Sitting on the steps of the front porch, Alcaro talked about summers he used to spend at the restaurant with his mother, who worked there as a manager. He also remembered the large window on the second floor where, until he was 7 years old, he would watch the sun set over the capitol.

"For some reason I remember the sunsets better here than anywhere else in Denver," Alcaro said.

Now, the 13 restored Victorian homes that were saved on 9th Street serve as campus offices. The homes were built between 1872 and 1906, making 9th Street one of the oldest neighborhoods in Colorado.

"It was a cultural gathering center and there was a lot of activity going on here," Alcaro said of the restaurant. "It was a very festive and exciting place."

In its time, Casa Mayan was the hangout for the some of the city's well-known artists and writers. Alcaro remembers the big parties held on what was then a courtyard on the east side of the building.

In the late 1960s the West Side was chosen by the city to be the spot where the Auraria Higher Education Center would be built. In the mid '70s the Denver Urban Renewal Authority converted the neighborhood. DURA offered residents financial aid at all three of the colleges.

By 1977, the campus was opened for all three schools.

Tony Garcia, 52, who used to live in the neighborhood with his parents and 14 brothers and sisters, remembers the good times he shared in the West Side.

"There was a sense of community," Garcia said. "I knew everybody and we were all kind of connected ... seldom, as kids, did we leave the neighborhood. Everything we wanted was right there."

He and his family lived at 917 Champa St. and in other parts of the neighborhood until they moved in 1967, but Garcia said he still hung out with friends in the neighborhood.

Working as a part-time faculty in Metro's Chicano Studies Department, Garcia is not far from his old stomping grounds.

"I remember that we would all gather and play on the street corner and the older guys would sing harmony," Garcia said. "I remember that there were open houses at Christmas time and right before midnight mass, they would have tamales at Casa Mayan."

To preserve the history of the West Side Auraria neighborhood, both Alcaro and Garcia are working with others on separate projects to enlighten students and the community of its stories.

As the artistic director at El Centro Su Teatro, Garcia has already begun rehearsals for a play opening Dec. 13, which talks about the lives of seven generations in the Auraria neighborhood.

The play is part of a project called the Saint Cajetan Reunification Project. Its purpose is to remind people and try to bring the West Side community back to campus, Garcia said. The project is now in its tenth year of organizing events in the community.

"The idea was to get students to remember a community that sacrificed their homes to develop a campus," Garcia said.

The Auraria neighborhood was founded by William Russell in November of 1858 and was incorporated by Denver in 1860 into what was then known as West Denver.

Alcaro said he is working with others on a documentary to give attention to the history of the West Side and to tell the stories through the people who used to live on campus.

"There is something very extraordinary about this block, this neighborhood," Alcaro said. "You have a sense you're in a different time (here)."

Alcaro said he is working with his cousin Trini Gonzalez on recollecting the stories, records and photos of the Auraria residents for a documentary, for which he said he plans to make a refined version available next year.

"Seeing old neighborhoods like Auraria ... you could see the first generation of buildings," said UCD history professor Tom Noel. "(Auraria) is really the place where Denver began."

In studying the history of Auraria, Noel said he was fascinated by the different cultures that lived in the area. Noel teaches Colorado history and has written and co-authored 35 books on Colorado's history.

In the early- and mid-1900s Auraria was home to German Catholics, Irish Catholics and others all living together in the same neighborhood, Noel said.

For residents who used to live in the neighborhood they say they will preserve the history and memories they and their families have shared.

"There are still times when I think of where things are on the campus and what used to be there," Garcia said. "So when I think about the Mercantile, I remember it used to be Eddie's Market and when I go by the Library, that is where the Lopezes used to live."

A plaque stands in front of each house preserved along 9th Street Park that tells the stories of people and history that was there.

"One consolation is that it's not all gone," Noel said.