More than $3 million has now been raised for the building of a museum near downtown Denver that will celebrate Hispanic history and culture.
The project is slated to go up on the Auraria Campus at the intersection of Auraria Parkway and 11th Street, and may be three stories in height, depending upon future fundraising.
So far, what is being called the Colorado Hispanic History Museum appears to be a structure measuring 300 feet by 50 feet on a campus where plans are already underway for the construction of a nearby student housing project that will belong to the Metropolitan State University of Denver.
The 150-acre Auraria Campus is shared by three institutions of higher education: the Metropolitan State University, Community College of Denver, and the University of Colorado at Denver.
The campus also houses the Auraria Higher Education Center, which is working with the supporters of the museum to make it a reality.
As envisioned, the museum will be a “pioneer initiative for the Hispanic Latino community to honor Colorado’s earliest settlers,” Ramona Martinez, a former member of the Denver City Council, told members of the AHEC board of directors last month.
Martinez added that the museum will serve as an initial step in the telling of “untold stories that shaped our state.”
Plans call for exhibits at the museum to explore the early Hispanic and Native American settlement history of Colorado, as well as the activist Chicano movement in Denver in the 1960s, among other themes.
According to the latest U.S. Census, Hispanic residents of Denver comprise nearly 28% of the city’s population.
July 29, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
