History Colorado

Take a tour around the Dog Patch neighborhood to see some of its most important locations. If you made a map of your neighborhood, what would you include?

Around the Neighborhood

Sylvia Fransua’s family in their home in Dog Patch, with many other family photos hung on the wall behind them (2006)

Family in Dog Patch

Use this timeline to explore how Dog Patch has changed over time.

Dog Patch Over the Years

Sam Guerrero, Juanita Guerrero’s father, receiving a plaque from the Pueblo County District Attorney Jeff Chostner in honor of his life long service to the community (2009)

Activism in Dog Patch

Six kids, including Bertha and Vera Valenzuela and Darlene Gallegos, pose in front of a car in Dog Patch

Changing Times

Many primary sources from Dog Patch show or tell about the activities people did for fun. In their pictures, kids play with kites and pinatas or make snowmen. Music and art helped connect the neighborhood through shared culture. Sports like basketball and cheer, and holidays like Halloween, Memorial BBQs, Christmas, and the 4th of July are often pictured. 
The St. Anne’s Festival was a community wide event that everyone played a part in. Some residents believe events like this will be how they are able to make their community stronger today. 

Fun in Dog Patch

Many residents remember the importance of religion in Dog Patch. Religious events like baptisms, weddings, communions, and funerals were reasons for the whole community to get together. Listen to the clip linked below from an oral history interview with sisters Elaine Madrid, Marsha Montoya, and Priscilla Hernandez. Then add in speech or thought bubbles to this picture of Elaine and Priscilla to imagine what they might have been thinking about as little girls preparing for Easter.

Religion in Dog Patch

What does the name Dog Patch have to do with life in the neighborhood? Longtime resident Thelma Moore explains that Dog Patch was the name of a movie and that the neighborhood got the nickname because people used to drop their dogs off there when they didn’t want them anymore. She told a story of how her mother insisted she call the neighborhood its official name, Eiler’s Heights. A 2006 Pueblo Chieftain article says it was named Dog Patch because of the lack of sewer and electricity services in the early days of the neighborhood.
No matter what the reason it’s named Dog Patch, many dogs are featured in pictures of the early neighborhood. If photographs were much more difficult to take, like they used to be, what would you take a picture of when you had the chance?

What's In a Name

Dog Patch is a neighborhood in the East Side of Pueblo, CO, founded in the 1950s. Its majority Hispanic and economically disadvantaged residents live there still, advocating for fair treatment and working to combat stereotypes about their community. In many ways, the themes discussed by Dog Patch residents reflect other majority-Hispanic communities across Colorado.

Nuestras Historias: Mexican American/Chicano/Latino Histories in Denver

Dog Patch- Exploring Change in a Colorado Hispanic Community

U.S. History

Social Studies

Listen from 14:22-16:12 (click play before trying to navigate to 14:22)

I love the church festival. It’s something that we would prepare for all year. I remember even as I got older, I would always request that weekend off, since the first part of the year, for like a year out if I was working somewhere. I’d be like, “I can’t work this at all. I will call off. Cause I’m busy.”

My grandma, Connie, used to have a Mexican food booth, and as a family we all ran it. It had monster burritos, which is her homemade chorizo with beans and rice, and it was put in this huge tortilla, and it was so good.

And I just remember yes, it was fun helping the church, and yes, you were tired at the end of the weekend. Because on Friday, you set up, and then you had all weekend to work, and then on Monday you helped tear down so that everything would be put away properly until you got it out again the next year. 

But it was just amazing to see all the people support our little community, whether they played BINGO, or they walked around and played booths, or they came to us to eat our food. Because a lot of people would come to us and say, “I’m not going downstairs for the Mexican food because your Mexican food booth is the best, and it’s right here.” And my grandma would be so proud because it was not just her, but her whole family represented at the church. And I was happy to make her a little more proud that day.

So it was just fun. When you’d get off you’d go walk around and see people you hadn’t seen for a while. It was amazing how it all ran so smoothly.

Resource Kits

Object Library

Museums

Dog Patch- Exploring Change in a Colorado Hispanic Community

Fun in Dog Patch

Selina Ozuna remembered how important the festival was to her.