Spanish-speaking people have been in Colorado for many centuries. Between the 1540s and 1821, Colorado was the northernmost part of Spain’s colonial empire in North America. In 1828, Spanish speaking settlers from New Mexico began to settle in the San Luis Valley.  In 1851, San Luis became Colorado’s first permanent town in the San Luis Valley. The Hispano and Mexican settlers farmed and raised livestock. Their houses were built out of adobe bricks, a concrete-like mixture made of straw, mud, and water. Hispanos and Mexicans dug Colorado’s first irrigation ditch, constructed Colorado’s oldest church, and founded Colorado’s oldest continually existing towns. Learn about a few notable early Hispano Coloradoans.  

Felipe Baca, whose family had lived in New Mexico since about 1600, was born in 1828 near Taos, New Mexico. He and his wife, Dolores, and their children moved to the area around Trinidad, Colorado in about 1860. Baca ran a general store and was one of the town’s founders. Trinidad served as an important stop along the Santa Fe Trail. Baca was also responsible for construction of a 400-acre ditch to irrigate area farmland; it is still known as the Baca Ditch. In 1870, Baca served in the Colorado territorial legislature. (Colorado would become a state in 1876.)

Photograph, Don Felipe Baca

History Colorado

Teresita Sandoval was born in 1811 in Taos, New Mexico. She married at a young age and moved her family to the plains of Colorado. There she met Matthew Kinkead and moved again with him to Fort El Pueblo. Teresita helped run the fort and trading businesses. Though her family broke apart, Teresita remained strong and continued working.

Painting of Teresita Sandoval

Commissioned as part of Year of La Chicana, History Colorado

Painting, Teresita Sandoval

Dario Gallegos was born in 1830 and lived in San Luis, Colorado. He established the first mercantile business in Colorado, now called the R&R Grocery. Gallegos also helped with the building of the San Luis People’s Ditch in 1852 and helped establish the first water rights in Colorado.

The oldest mercantile store in the state of Colorado in the town of San Luis. Known as "Salazar's", the store was founded ca. 1857 by Dario Gallegos; in 1874, A. A. Salazar bought an interest in the store, which continued in operation by members of the Salazar family into the 20th century.

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Dario Gallegos

Casimiro Barela was born in 1847 and moved to Trinidad, Colorado in 1867. He published newspapers and raised sheep, cattle, and horses. He was elected justice of the peace in Trinidad when he was just twenty-two. He later served as county assessor, territory representative, and county sheriff for Las Animas. In 1875, Barela helped to write Colorado’s State Constitution. He fought to ensure that the constitution was published in English, Spanish, and German, making him a hero to many. He became a senator in 1876. In office, he supported women’s right to vote, pushed for New Mexico statehood, and made Columbus Day a holiday in 1907.

Casimiro Barela sitting in chair in office.

Photograph, Casimiro Barela in office

Josefa Jaramillo was born around 1828 to a wealthy family in Taos, Mexico. In 1843, she married the famous frontiersman Kit Carson. During the 1847 Pueblo revolt, she was with her sister, Ignacia Bent, and New Mexico Governor Bent. The sisters escaped through a hole in the adobe while Governor Bent was killed. At the end of her life, Josefa moved to Boggsville, Colorado with her husband.

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Josefa Carson's Gloves

Estefana Bent was the daughter of Ignacia Jaramillo Bent. Just after her husband, Alexander Hicklin died in 1874, she was granted 5,118 acres near Greenhorn Mountain in Colorado. Little by little, she lost her land until in 1892 there was no more. She died penniless in 1927.

During a time of racial discrimination and land dispossession, the Espinosa brothers became a legend in the Borderlands for defending and protecting their land and the lands of others.  The brothers were accused of committing a string of murders in 1863.  The Espinosa legend grew with sensational headlines that mythologized frontier violence and racially stereotyped the brothers as outlaw bandits.  Some in the Borderlands still remember the Espinosas as freedom fighters who stood up against American settlers wanting to seize their homes and land. 

Standards for Early Hispano Coloradans

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework