Greeley’s untold Mexican-American history

By Aramis Loma Guzman

KGNU intern and Greeleyite Aramis Loma-Guzman brings us this report on the recently published “Our History Our Voice: The Mexican American History Project of Greeley.”

The project began in 2022, when the group of people behind the project realized that there had been no documented history of Mexican Americans in Greeley. Some of those have lived in Greeley for four or five generations. They came north to work the sugar beet fields, then stayed, built homes, and raised families. But their stories have remained largely untold.

In the early 1920s, the sugar beet industry needed hands, and recruiters went south to Tex as, New Mexico, and Mexico itself, bringing workers north. What was supposed to be seasonal became permanent. People put down roots.

Lead author Lorretta Chávez said she wanted to document Mexican Americans’ contributions to Greeley’s economy, and to Greeley itself.

The workers settled into neighborhoods and built their own churches and social clubs. They were essential to Greeley’s economy, but largely invisible to its official story.

Two realities at once shaped life in mid-century Greeley. There were deep roots, a tight community, and a shared identity. And there was exclusion.

Restaurants that wouldn’t serve you. A town that needed your labor, that reaped your benefits, without giving you the credit you deserved.

Head researcher Juli Sarris said described stories of Greeley in the 1920s and 1930s with signs in the store windows that read No Dogs or Mexicans.

“I think that that’s reflective of what the community was facing,” said Sarris. “So they started their own businesses, and they started their own beauty salons, and their own stores, and their own groceries, and their own restaurants and everything. Because they weren’t being treated the way human beings should be treated.”

The history in this book isn’t a story of victims; it’s a story of people living fully, on their own terms, in a place that, honestly, didn’t always make it easy.

“ One of the biggest stories for me was the creation of the Catholic church,” said Sarris. “Needs were not being met at the first Catholic church, so they started their own… it reflects the persistence and the determination and the resilience as well of the community of saying,  I don’t like the way I’m being treated here at this church.”

Greeley today is one of the most diverse towns in Colorado. This book provides evidence, names and dates that say these families were here before many of us, and they helped build the place/the city we live in.

For some readers, this will be confirmation of something they already knew, a history they lived. For others, it will be an introduction to new stories.

“We just really felt that that was very important to get that out there,” said Chávez. “To give not only us, but the newer generations a sense of pride to say, Hey, we were here. We contributed. Greeley would not be what it is today without us and what we have done.”

This story aired on the Morning Magazine, KGNU’s weekday morning show featuring in-depth discussions on local news issues. Click here to listen to other episodes of the Morning Magazine.