Ricardo Falcon Still Remembered at Annual Event

The political unrest that marked the late 1960’s and early 70’s was felt in Colorado with the assassinations of activists in the Chicano movement.  In Denver last year eight of those activists were remembered at a 40-year commemoration honoring the lives of Los Seis de Boulder, six students and alumni of the University of Colorado who were killed in two separate bombing incidents in Boulder in 1974.

Another life remembered every year since 1972, was that of the late Ricardo Falcon originally of Fort Lupton.   This year at the annual memorial walk from the town of Fort Lupton to the cemetery where he was buried, marchers carried symbolic coffins displaying the names of martyrs of the Chicano Movement who were killed the following years.

Every year since he was killed, the Colorado community comes together to remember the life of civil rights activist Falcon, gathering at Pearson Ballpark in Fort Lupton and ending  at Hillside cemetery a mile away.  Upon arrival to his graveside, those who remember him educate those who never knew him creating and inter-generational event.

Falcon was a student at the University of Colorado Boulder and organized with the student group UMAS, United Mexican American Students that still exists today.  Those in the youth community who never knew him, shared what they have learned from their elders about the Chicano movement and the martyrs at a post-march gathering.

This year the commemoration included the honoring of other martyrs of the Chicano movement including Luis Jr. Martinez who was fatally shot by Denver Police on March 17, 1973, Carlos Zapata who was also killed in 1973, and Los Seis de Boulder:  Una Jaakola, Reyes Martinez, and Neva Romero whose car blew up in Chautauqua Park on May 27, 1974, and Francisco Dougherty, Florencio Granado, and Heriberto Teran whose car blew up two days later on May 29, 1974 in the Burger King parking lot on 28^th Street in Boulder.

Integral to the commemoration each year is the accompaniment of the Chicano Bikers Club, some of whom knew Falcon personally.  This year, the date of the Falcom commemoration was changed so that the group could accompany the march.

Falcon’s wife at the time, Priscilla who still carries his name, talked about the struggle that continues and some of the advances that have been made for which her late husband fought: