Early Hispano Coloradans

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

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.)