DENVER — DENVER — This small north Denver park is filled with history. People started calling it La Raza Park back in the 1970s and it became a focal point of Denver’s Chicano movement.
Guadalupue Manscha, who has lived across the street from the park for 26 years, says she’s only known the park’s name to be La Raza and not as Columbus Park.
She says she’s happy the park is now officially named La Raza because it pays homage to part of the Mexican and Latino culture in her neighborhood.
Her neighbor, Amelia Saucedo, who lives across the street says the community has changed over time.
She says what was mostly a Latino neighborhood decades ago is now is decorated by new shiny homes and different faces. That’s why for her it’s even more important to have a name she identifies with permanently stamped onto this north Denver park.
It's something Councilwoman Amanda Sandoval had been advocating for months.
"We changed the name of a park from Columbus to La Raza, the people," Sandoval said. "The people for the people’s park, and I think that there’s more symbolism there than I have time to get into but the fact that it was on the Winter Solstice and now we’re headed into the light, I think it’s something that we all needed in 2020 was some hope."
For now two empty poles show the space where the Columbus Park sign used to be.
Denver Parks and Recreation says the new La Raza park sign will be installed before spring of next year.