Activists in their 70s filed into a conference room on Denver’s Auraria Campus one morning last week, standing on land that used to be their sprawling, largely Latino neighborhood before the city razed it in the 1970s to build the downtown higher education complex.
As they have for decades, the displaced Aurarians — as they’re known — and their descendants gathered in a public meeting to ask for a say in what happens to the Ninth Street Historic District, the strip of about a dozen old homes on the college campus preserved through years of grassroots organizing.
The Aurarians say they have reached a tipping point with the Auraria Higher Education Center, the state entity with an 11-member board that manages the services, facilities and property of the shared campus that is home to the University of Colorado Denver, the Community College of Denver and Metropolitan State University of Denver.
“They humor us and give us a little here and there, and we have just realized that they’re not really letting us give the kind of input that we think the displaced Aurarians should have on the campus,” said Virginia Castro, who has been fighting against the city’s redevelopment of the Auraria neighborhood since first learning about it in 1969.
“It’s disappointing because everybody greets you with a smile on their face, and you start feeling like they understand,” she said, “but when it comes to really making something happen for the benefit of the displaced community, they make it a struggle and don’t want you to move further.”
The matter came to a head at the Feb. 28 meeting as the Auraria Board of Directors discussed a new master plan that will guide future land development on the campus — a plan the displaced Aurarians said they were left out of crafting.
“Unfortunately, AHEC has not acknowledged, understood or respected our heartfelt desires,” the Auraria Historical Advocacy Council, a collective of displaced Aurarians and their allies who work to preserve their neighborhood’s history, wrote in a letter to the board. “AHEC has never sincerely recognized our willingness or ability to provide meaningful input on the decisions made on the Auraria Campus impacting the displaced Aurarians.”
The Aurarians came with demands. They want the Auraria Board of Directors to establish a volunteer community board made up of three to five displaced Aurarians or their descendants. The board, they said, should have oversight and decision-making power over land use and messaging around Ninth Street and its history.
Colleen Walker, CEO of the Auraria Higher Education Center, said in a statement that campus leaders value the displaced Aurarian community’s participation as they plan for the future.
“We honor the families of Auraria and their sacrifice in the creation of this public campus of higher education that has benefited so many,” Walker said. “In working with the displaced Aurarian families over the years, we know how important higher education is to the community.”
As institutions like the Auraria campus increasingly reexamine their past and attempt to make public amends, the displaced Aurarians and their allies wonder how much talk of reparations is performative. Those displaced want a say in the future of their destroyed community beyond placating words, they said.
“It’s important you walk your talk,” Nita Gonzales, a longtime Denver Chicana activist, told the Auraria board during last week’s meeting.
The Aurarians are asking for an oversight role over the following:
The 14 original Victorian homes that still line Ninth Street on the Auraria Campus
Statues, arts, monuments, plaques, signage and messaging related to the history of Auraria
Restoration and upkeep of St. Cajetan’s church on campus
Free, accessible parking on campus for displaced Aurarians and descendants
Future development plans for the Auraria Child Care Center on Ninth Street
Garden areas on Ninth Street
“Our vision and goal is that generations of displaced Aurarians in the future will not have to research and re-investigate why and how they must be recognized, respected and honored,” said Frances Torres, 70, who grew up on Ninth Street with her family before being displaced in 1972.
Torres spoke at the public meeting but ran out of her allotted two minutes during the public comment period before she could read the demands.
“Colleen Walker cut her off, and that was the last straw for me,” Castro said.
In response to their demands, Walker told The Denver Post that the Auraria Campus will continue collaboration and dialogue with the displaced Aurarians and their descendants around many of the issues, including master plan feedback, strategy surrounding Ninth Street restoration and St. Cajetan’s.
“We are eagerly planning how to engage in partnership on these initiatives and look forward to inclusive community-led conversations around our collaborative future,” Walker said.
“This is an ongoing process”
The board in charge of the future of the Auraria Campus is a mix of university leaders and governor-appointed developers.
The new Auraria master plan, the first since 2007, focuses on real estate development and partnerships with the private sector to expand the campus and “catalyze future growth.”
The Auraria Higher Education Center’s “operating model is challenged by enrollment decline and reliance on state support,” according to the plan. “But the campus sits on some of Denver’s most valuable, contiguous, underutilized land assets. AHEC also has broad authority to partner with the private sector to unlock land value and create new streams of revenue.”
“It looks to me like they just want to spread downtown Denver across campus,” Castro said.
University and campus leaders voiced concern last week that the master plan hadn’t engaged all communities thoroughly enough. They discussed whether a planned April vote to adopt the plan should be postponed until there was more input and communication.
Following last week’s meeting, Auraria Campus spokesperson Shaneis Malouff confirmed that the April vote on the new master plan was being postponed to allow campus leaders to better communicate with the involved communities.
“We will continue to prioritize gathering community feedback on the upcoming plan,” Walker said in a statement.
As developers and the Auraria Higher Education Center plot real estate, Castro said the whole situation is reminiscent of the city domineering their neighborhood in the 1970s without their input, displacing 343 households and 770 people.
“It’s the same group that took over the site in the first place,” Castro said. “To not even be invited to hear what they were planning until it was time to present their completed plan is total disregard.”
Torres, though, said she knows there are good people with good intentions on the campus who want to work with her community.
“We know that this is an ongoing process,” Torres said. “Nothing ever happens overnight. I’m glad that there are supportive people on the campus. We have found people on the campus that are very interested in our history.”
“Makes me feel hopeful”
In 2021, leaders from all three schools on the Auraria Campus expanded a scholarship program providing free tuition to descendants of people who lived in the neighborhood from 1955 to 1973. In 2022, a bill adopted by the state legislature appropriated $2 million toward the scholarships.
A year later, CU Denver commissioned the renovation of one of the Ninth Street homes under the guidance of Regent Nolbert Chavez, a Ninth Street descendant. History Colorado, CU Denver and the Museum of Memories have worked together to preserve the history of the Auraria neighborhood and put on exhibits and workshops educating the public and engaging the Aurarians and their descendants.
These shows of support have bolstered Torres, who didn’t get to take advantage of the scholarship’s benefits but loves to help descendants apply for the program. She wishes the scholarship program was easier to apply to, she said, and continues to advocate for a dedicated staff to help the student descendants receive the free tuition they are owed.
After the Aurarians spoke at last week’s board meeting, the three higher education institutions’ leaders affirmed their commitments to working with the former occupants of the land.
“We look forward to getting this right,” CU Denver Chancellor Michelle Marks said.
Listening to the university leaders acknowledge the Aurarians, Torres grew shaky and weepy.
“That people even know who we are and acknowledge us makes me feel hopeful,” she said. “We want to work with this campus. Let’s do it.”
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