Oral History Interview with Boogie Mondragon
October 19, 2013
Interviewer: Cyns Nelson
Interview Transcribed by Cyns Nelson
[Interview takes place at the Valdez-Perry Branch Library in Denver, Colorado.]
00:00 CN: Today is October 19, 2013. My name is Cyns Nelson, and I’m conducting oral histories with residents from the Globeville, Elyria, and Swansea neighborhoods. This interview is part of the Denver Public Library’s “Creating Your Community” project, and the oral history will be archived with the Western History Department. Right now I’m talking with Boogie Mondgragon, a longtime resident of the Globeville neighborhood.
So, let’s start by having you state your full name; and tell me when and where you were born, and say something about your upbringing.
BM: My name is Boogie Mondragon. I was born in 1953 on the east side of Denver. I was raised in the Globeville projects, when it was named Stapleton projects. From there, I’ve been in Globeville until 1992. I came back after I retired in 2009. And I’ve been a leader in the community since.
CN: So, describe for me your neighborhood. If somebody had never been here, what would we see, what would we hear-describe your neighborhood.
BM: Right now, our neighborhood is-we’re kind of isolated between the highway, I-70, the Platte River, and the railroad tracks. So, we’re kind of a small neighborhood, but we’re an exciting neighborhood. We’re like a neighborhood that’s somewhat been forgotten. But we recognize that, and so we’re doing something about it by making changes and getting recognized; working with the city officials and everybody else that we can so we can be recognized as one of the oldest communities in Denver.
CN: What would I see; what are some of the buildings that are characteristic of the neighborhood?
BM: Well, some of the main ones are our churches. We have the Orthodox church, we have the Catholic church. We have a lot of little Christian churches all around the area. There’s about six to seven churches in our neighborhood alone. And those are like the things that have gone on since I was a kid, and they’re still going.
CN: What about places where people gather for social activities?
BM: We have a park-it’s the Argo Park. It was renamed at one point in the late ‘80s to La Gente, which means “The People’s Park.” But, for some reason, between the past 20 years it got changed back to Argo for some reason. But that’s our park area. We have two Rec Centers-one of them is owned by Denver Parks and Rec, and the other one is, right now, is run by Street Kidz, which I am the founder, of Street Kidz. And it’s a non-profit organization. So those are mainly the gathering places besides the churches.
CN: Um, so, tell me about different people in your community-people who stand out in your mind.
BM: Right now we have different groups of leaderships in Globeville. We have different organizations that have-some are fairly new and some are old. The people that have been involved with those are long-time residents, and the newer ones are somewhat longtime residents. Those are the people that are recognized in our community. There’s groups such as the groups that I’ve started, which is Globeville Kares, and Street Kidz, and Blood Brothers. These are organizations that I started after 2009.
The other one was the Civic Association, and I understand that there’s two of them. So, back in the ‘90s I was the president of Globeville Civic Association, until 1992. And then I had to move because they closed the Globeville Rec Center, which was by the city-they closed it down. So I had to move. I moved to Martin Luther King and retired from there, in 2009.
CN: I’m gonna-at some point I want to get back to all of your specific experiences. But first, describe for me what your earliest memories are of the neighborhood, so we can kind of get to the different changes that have transpired throughout the years.
05:00 BM: Yeah. As a child, Globeville community was one of the most beautiful places that you could imagine. It was-the people that lived there used to compete with their gardens, and yards. Their homes were beautiful. It was recognized as one of the most immaculate and beautiful places in Denver, at one point.
As I continued to grow, in the projects, we were not allowed in the park, in the swimming pool, or the Rec Centers, because of the colors of our skin. We had to walk in groups from the projects to Garden Place, our elementary school, because they tried to run us over or beat us up. So we weren’t allowed in Globeville. Our recreation was the Platte River. That’s where we used to swim; that’s when it was clean, before ’65 when the flood came and ruined everything.
That’s the thing that I remember the most, is: We weren’t allowed in Globeville, because we were from the project housing units. That’s the one thing that the change made-it changed from there and became what it now.
CN: Well, talk about that change.
BM: What had happened was: It was mainly Germans, Polish, and Italians that lived in Globeville. Um, Chicanos, Mexicans, and Blacks were not allowed. It was, it was a time when we didn’t know anything other than the projects. It was kind of like our world; we didn’t care about anything, really. We knew where we weren’t wanted, so we never went there.
As time went on, a lot of the elderly people had passed away, and we were in school with their kids. So a lot of the homes were handed over to their kids and they knew us. So, during the-after the flood came, Globeville changed. It was 1965, and-
CN: Yeah, say more about the flood, I’m not-
BM: There was a flood that happened in 1965 that flooded all of Globeville and ruined a lot of homes and everything. People were moving out, homes were destroyed. So, as the people would leave from that point, and also from passing away, the homes were being rented. And because we were in school with some of the children from those people, they knew us. So they would rent it to use; some of them would sell it to us. And the homes were getting pretty beat up and stuff. So we were able to afford from the projects down to Globeville. That’s how we started making the change.
And then we started having a relationship with a lot of the Globeville residents, and stuff. They started to recognize how, you know, we weren’t all that bad. So we started getting along as neighbors, and stuff-and started creating, and doing different things. So, that’s how we ended up becoming a part of the neighborhood, from the projects into the neighborhood-and owning homes and renting and stuff. That’s what’s happening today.
CN: So, you had mentioned Globeville Kares, Street Kidz, Blood Brothers. Walk me through each of those and what YOUR experience was with those.
BM: Well, Street Kidz was-I started Street Kidz back in 1989. And, in1989 I recognized that a lot of our kids in Globeville was involved with a lot of criminal activity and stuff. So I decided to-me and a friend of mine, Julian Nieto, decided to start working with these kids. I was a city employee at that time. I started with Denver Parks and Rec in 1972. And I ended up doing 36 years with them. So, I retired in ’09.
But in 1989 we decided to take the kids and introduce them to prison systems, to help change their minds, make better choices-similar to Scared Straight. We did that from 1989 to 1992, when the Denver Parks and Rec decided to close the Globeville Rec Center, which I worked at for 20 years. They closed it and I moved. So Street Kidz kind of faded, slowly, but it faded.
CN: So, it wasn’t a physical structure, it was just sort of a set of activities?
BM: It was a-yes, it was a set of activities during the time, whenever we could, outside of our work schedule.
10:06 But in 1992, when I had moved, I still planned to continue Street Kidz. It was difficult; the city didn’t allow me to do that, so I ended up letting it go in 1992. In 2009 I retired, so I came back to Globeville and I started it up again. I had a contract with the city for the building that they had closed-Globeville Rec Center. And that’s where Street Kidz is open right now. It’s a non-profit, it’s free-it’s at no charge. We serve the Globeville community kids. It’s in existence right now.
Through that same program, I-when I came back, I started working-because I was the president of the Globeville Civic Association, and I had a lot to do in the community, a lot of the needs and stuff, working with politicians and city council and everybody else that I can. When I came back, I found out that there was two different associations, and nobody wanted to work together, and nothing was really happening in Globeville, for like 20 years. So I came back, tried to get everybody together, but it seemed like they didn’t want to.
So I decided: Well then, I’m going to start a program. And it’s called Globeville Kares. I worked with the Globeville residents, to bring them in. I educated them about stuff-how it works. I then got them registered in the program, we got it registered with the city and the state. We then started working in our community. We started doing cleanups, taking care of things and issues that we can take care of. We started working with the politicians and the city services and stuff. Started getting some things done. And it’s in existence today. And it’s working very strong; and I’m proud of them.
I also started a group-it was a men’s club started back in 1988-and it’s called Blood Brothers. And it was just a Globeville men’s club, so that we guys can hang out together and do things like clean up alleys and all at one time-just something for us to do. Well, that lasted until ’92 also, when they closed the Globeville Center and I had to move out. But I brought Blood Brothers back also, and that’s happening right now. Right now there’s 13 of us. We’re going to be doing our Christmas toy run this year, with the bikers from Denver. We give out free gifts to the kids, food and stuff.
So, Blood Brothers is just a bunch of Globeville resident guys, old timers.
CN: Uh-huh. Nice. Um, so let’s kind of get back to the positives and negatives about things that have changed in the neighborhood. What do you see as a longstanding “positive” in the neighborhood?
BM: Well, the longstanding positive that I see is that: Right now there are groups that are working on building up Globeville, having Globeville be recognized as a community. Globeville, for many, many years was-from the city standpoint, from the city-and from our standpoint, I mean, the city would kind of break a lot of promises to Globeville. So many throughout the years. Everybody else-the highway department, even city council, everybody would break all these promises, to where the people got to where they didn’t believe anybody when they said they wanted to help, because of all the broken promises.
Well now they’re starting to see that things are happening within ourselves instead of a lot of outside help. And there is a lot of outside help; but, to me, because of where I’m from, what I’ve seen and stuff, I’m kind of embarrassed to have a bunch of people from the outside come in and clean up my alleys when I know that WE can clean up our own alleys. We don’t need that. And that’s where the embarrassment to me comes in. But, the positive standing for Globeville is that that’s being recognized now, and it’s being talked about. And people are excited now and wanting to do and help their OWN community like it was back in the day when Globeville was so beautiful.
That’s kind of like what I’m-my viewpoint is kind of: How come we can’t get back to that? And we can, and that’s kind of one of the longstanding goals, I think, that Globeville’s going to be a positive.
15:01 CN: So, let’s talk about some different challenges (light laugh). There’s been a lot of change in the neighborhood; tell me what you see as-whether it’s negative, or a challenge-something along those lines.
BM: Well, one of the challenges is: If people understand politics, you need to have a voice but it can’t be a single voice. It has to be a group voice, where everybody’s on the same page, in order to get a response or to get things done that’s needed in your community. And right now, the negative is that there’s so many different groups in Globeville, and nobody really wants to work together. If they did, we can get back to a point where, if we demand things or ask for things that’s needed in our community, then the city agencies and everybody involved would notice us. Right now, one’s doing something; another one’s doing something else; nobody’s focusing on the necessities or a priority in our community. And that’s the negative that I see. It’s going to take longer and longer.
People are getting older, people that have a lot of knowledge about that stuff. And they’re not sharing it with the kids today. So our kids are kind of lost, and they’re not going to know what to do in the future. And when they’re going to have a need in their community, they’re [not] going to know how to ask for it, how to go get it. And then again, they’re going to lose out again. And that’s the negative that I see in our community.
CN: Mmm. Mmm-hmm. So, there’s some specific issues that are kind of coming down the pike: Let’s start with the highway, what are your thoughts about that?
BM: Well, the highway was actually completed in 1962. There used to be a tunnel going-it was on Pennsylvania, I believe.
CN: A tunnel?
BM: Yeah, it was a tunnel-it was a walking tunnel that I used to walk through from one side to the other. Well, when they did the flyover-and it was in ’80, late ‘80s-they did the flyover, which is now-the highway was expanded height-wise. During that time, they claimed that they HAD to do it. But it had to be high enough because of the drainage problems. So when they came to the community and told them that, we had a division within the closure of the tunnel. Because a lot of people used that to get from one side to the other-to the churches, to the park. And if it wasn’t there, they’d have to use Washington street, which was dangerous, and then Lincoln, which was a longer way away-a long walk. So, it was a big, big-we had community meetings on it. Half the people wanted it to stay, and half the people wanted it closed.
So, I was the president of the association at that time. So I talked to highway department and I said, “Tell me the truth. What’s going to happen, whether we make a decision or not?” They said, they have to close it. No matter what, they’re going to close it. We asked for another location; it didn’t work, because of the drainage. So, I knew they were going to close it. They said they were going to close it. And I said, “Well, if you’re going to close it, what are you going to give us in return?” They asked: What did we want?
During that time, they were putting in the pedestrian lights down 38th Avenue. I had mentioned, can we-what about some lights? In our community, light us up! They said, “That’s a good idea.” But, what had happened is: I asked for Washington, 45th, and Lincoln. I kind of spaced out 47th Avenue. So, they agreed to do that. Well, after that agreement came, I had a lot of people come to me and say, “Well, Boogie, what’s wrong with 47th?” It was kind of-I was like, “Man, I’m sorry. I kind of forgot.” So anyway, they agreed to do 47th, but 47th was not my idea. But I wish I would have.
But anyway: We did get it. And that was a tradeoff for that tunnel. During that time, McDonald’s came in, around the same year. But McDonalds had a sign that through the state ordinance wasn’t high enough from the highway. So, they needed to expand their McDonalds sign. So, they came to me again-Globeville Civic Association-and asked if we as community can help them. I said, “Well, you guys are brand new, but. We can help you-but you need to help my community.” They wanted to know how I can do that. And I said, “Well, you can do that by giving us the jobs there, offering us the jobs.”
20:11 The response was that they couldn’t do that. Through law they had to give out the applications to everybody. So I said, “Well, why can’t you give us the applications first?” So they said, well that would be a good idea. So they did. And during that time, Globeville people were kind of embarrassed to work in McDonalds. And I was like, that’s crazy.
So, they said: Well, if-what about you? If you go get hired, we’ll go with you. So, I was working for the city. I was off on the weekends. So I said, Okay McDonalds, I’ll work for you guys on Saturday, Sunday. They said, Okay. They wanted to right away make me some kind of assistant manager. I said, No, I don’t know anything about this stuff. But just hire me like the rest of them, and see what happens. So, they hired me. Then a lot of the residents started coming in, getting hired. So, about-I think, like, five months after that I quit. And all the residents were working for Globeville, which was a-it was kind of good little thing to do. But that’s what happened.
CN: What about, like, the National Western? What are your thoughts about that, and what do you know about its history?
BM: I really don’t know much about them. As a child growing up, we were never able to afford to go there. So, we were never a part of that. We had one incident YEARS ago, when I was still pretty-a teenager. A couple of kids from the projects-two black kids and two Mexican kids-went to that area. They were small, they were in their-12 and 13 years old. They came back to the projects with their hands bloody; and they were beat up, crying. Everybody was wondering. Well, a couple of the teenage cowboys over at the stockyards got them and shaved their heads with sheep-the sheep shears. Cut their scalps and stuff, and beat them up.
So, all of us in the projects were just upset with that. We didn’t understand-why would that happen? So, because we were tough teenagers, we all got together-there was about, maybe, 100 of us-went down there. And we started beating up every cowboy we could find, for that incident, for those kids. And we would tell them: Don’t you ever touch one of our kids like that again. That was the last time that anything-I ever did anything with the stock show.
And I don’t know what they’re doing. I see the expansion, and I see-I heard that they were leaving, at one point, and debating on whether they were going to leave or not. But I really don’t have any knowledge with them, other than that negative time, and that’s it.
CN: Mm-hmm. Well, another aspect-historical aspect of the neighborhood-is different cleanups that have needed to go on. Do you have any direct experience with the EPA’s work on cleaning things up? Any of that?
BM: Yes. There was a-the ASARCO plant has been there since I can remember. Matter of fact, everybody I know from the projects-as a child, we used to play in their fields. We used to dig underground tunnels and play in there, all the time. Same with all my brothers. We-at one point, ASARCO was considered a contamination place, because they were developing arsenic and lead and cadmium, which has cancerous substances. And, I do have cancer-throat cancer. And I’ve never smoked a day in my life. I’m one of many people in Globeville who has cancer for no reason-don’t know where it came from, and stuff. But there’s no proof of where it can come from. So it’s kind of a no-win situation.
Anyway, the EPA started checking out the Globeville community for contaminants and stuff. And they found some. The state level was at a certain level of contamination, recognized. But the testing of Globeville found that it wasn’t at that level-it wasn’t contaminated. So they decided to make a change on the level of the state recognizing contaminants. And they lowered it to that level, which then means we are contaminated.
So then there was a lawsuit. And the lawsuit went through for the Globeville community. A lot of the homeowners received a-received some cash awards. And there was a cleanup; it went all the way from 51st all the way down to 43rd. So all of Globeville was cleaned up at one point.
25:22 CN: And what does that mean, when you say it was “cleaned up.” What was that process?
BM: The process was removing soil from yards and replacing it with clean soil. Air quality-they were doing air tests all over the place. They had removal from the site itself. They also removed all the building materials from the site. And a safe thing-we had several, several meetings, to make sure it was done legally and safely. And, according to the EPA, it was all done right. So those are the things that were done, and stuff, for the air quality.
One of the things that’s still happening, though, is the highway. Because, off the tires of the highway, lets off the same cancerous substance called cadmium. And it comes off the tires. That’s the black soot that you see on a lot of the south-sorry, north side of the buildings, depending on what side of the highway it is. If you put a hose on your house and start watering, some black stuff comes off of it, and stuff. That’s actually the soot of cadmium. Stuff that we’re breathing, still.
So the highway department is familiar with that; EPA is familiar with that; they just can’t stop it. I mean, it’s like impossible.
CN: Well, there are plans now to-
BM: Widen.
CN: Yeah. So talk about that, what you know about that and what your thoughts are.
BM: Well, my thoughts are: I know that they’re planning on widening it, and stuff. And I know that they’re looking for-they’re looking for something to help transportation. But, I don’t feel like it’s worth destroying a community, to do that. Because, we have been fighting for years-it’s been in the history books about trying to close down Globeville, Elyria, and Swansea, for years-not to develop them. That’s why we’ve been-the broken promises have been to all three communities.
Because they don’t-it’s surrounded by industrial, Platte River, highway, railroad. So they figure: We’ll make it all industrial. That’s been their plan forever. They just don’t know-they’re going about it, but they’re not doing it all at once. We that live there, we know what’s up.
Now they’re looking at another excuse, widening the highway. But in order to do that, they wouldn’t go to the south side, which is the Purina, because Purina brings in money to the state. So, they can have a highway and still continue receiving their money. So they rather go to the other side-take out the school, the library, some homes and businesses to accomplish the widening of the highway BUT destroying a community. So the smaller your community is, the easier it is to destroy and get rid of. And that’s kind of like another, another step in their side, to accomplish their long-term goal. And that’s what people see about that.
CN: Are you participating in the conversations with the DOT?
BM: I was, yes, I was involved with a lot of those meetings and stuff. But since I’ve been sick off and on, I haven’t been able to fulfill all the meetings, and stuff, and get all the information.
CN: So, do you have any sense for what the different options are? For what they’re-
BM: Yes, there was different options. But that’s-see, the options are the things of the-which makes it different. People don’t understand that: When the highway comes in and says that “we want to do a widening,” they’ve already set up a plan. It’s already a time-framed plan. Now, when they present it to the community and everybody else, all the city officials, that’s the one-time thing. But their plan is already set. They know what they’re going to do, and that’s exactly what they’re going to do.
Now, their job is to present it to the community. The community is going to observe; they’re going to look at it. But, remember: There’s a time frame. Now, within that time frame, the community now sees what’s going on, what’s asked about, what’s going to happen. So then, other businesses and contractors come in with different ideas of how to do that. So that’s another time-consuming frame.
30:08 And eventually it gets to the point where all these options come aboard, and people are choosing, but they don’t recognize that the time frame is coming to an end. So pretty soon, the time frame has ended, and nobody’s decided or made a decision or final-to do what? We might throw some stuff in and out of there, but the actual plan is DONE. It’s already set and ends up being accomplished. It ends up having a little bit of community input, but it’s a done deal. At that time frame, it’s done. That’s just a-that’s just how they work it. And people don’t know how that works, but that’s exactly what happens.
CN: So, what do you think is going to happen?
BM: They’re going to widen the highway, and they’re going to take out the Globeville-the Elyria, Swansea community. It’s already in their plan, or they wouldn’t have presented it.
CN: Mm-hmm.
BM: And that’s exactly what’s going to happen, in the future.
CN: Do you think the viaduct is going to stay as it is?
BM: Yes. They’re not going to spend money; they’re going to try to do it as cheap as possible and get it accomplished. They’re not about spending money, they’re about making money.
CN: Um, what about things that you see in the future, that might be positives for the neighborhood? Coming down the pike, in the future-what would you like to see?
BM: I would like to see the Globeville community-I can only speak, really, on Globeville community. (Loud thump in background.) I would like to see Globeville community be recognized AS a community. Right now there are people that have lived around Globeville all their lives. And when you ask, “Globeville?” They say, “Where is that at? Never heard of it.” Because we’re isolated, and the city knows that. So it would make it a lot easier for them to close us down, because people don’t know or care about us anyway.
CN: What about the light rail? How does that-
BM: The light rail is not going through Globeville, it’s going around. And that’s another thing that’s happening. If you just look at the map frame, how they’re setting things up and stuff, it’s only obvious that there’s no great concern of us as a community. They’re not trying to do stuff to serve OUR community, like they do others. They can-it’s like: We’re like the stepchild to Denver. And that’s a shame, being one of the oldest communities in Denver.
There are just so many SMALL things that people don’t even recognize in our community that I point out to City Council. To them, it’s about the size of a pebble, but to our community it’s the size of a boulder. And that’s the difference. You know, we’re trying as hard as we can to get people to recognize us as a community.
CN: So name some of those things that you’re-that you would refer to.
BM: First of all, our streets. Our streets are narrow. Our street curbing, gutter, are old as old and they’re falling apart. When they repaved the street-when you go to the curbing gutter, there’s supposed to be a six-inch curb, and then there’s going to be a 12-inch apron. It’s the actual gutter. If you looked at Globeville, the pavement goes from the middle of the street all the way up against the actual curb. There is no apron there, no more. So the drainage is impossible to go anyplace but set in puddles. And when it sets, and it’s a heavy rain, then water climbs up on top of the sidewalk, puts the cracks into the sidewalk. Our sidewalks get deteriorated by water. Plus they lift up and they’re all jagged.
So, we have to constantly be concerned about our sidewalk replacement, curbs. But, if they would put our streets level, the way they are supposed to be-like every other community-and leave us have the curb and the apron, where the water could drain, we wouldn’t have sidewalk or curb issues. This I’m working with right now with City Council. So that’s one of the things.
34:50 The other one is: I hate to talk about the railroad, because those are good guys. But there’s a few areas in Globeville-one’s on Washington, one’s on Broadway-they need to be replaced. They’re terrible, there’s holes. A lot of traffic; cars get damaged, tires. I get constant complaints. I’ve talked with City Council several times throughout the years I’ve been retired. Still, nothing has been done. I don’t know who to contact when it comes to that kind of stuff, besides our city council, representatives. So, those are two issues.
There’s another one: It’s a smell. The smell comes from the sewer-sewers that, from Broadway down to the-we call it Pollack Valley. We’ve called it that since we were kids; everybody knows it as that. But it’s a valley that’s down on the other side of the railroad tracks from the park. And that’s in a-right now going to be redeveloped for the first time in its history, which I think is great. But the sewers that go through there are very bad, and they need-it’s been brought to City Council’s attention, we’ve had some meetings on it. It was taken care of at one point, where they sealed it. But the smell traveled from one area to another. So, that wasn’t how to resolve it. But it was a quick fix; we were happy. We didn’t know any better. But the smell is still around, and it’s foul.
People have a tendency to say: “Globeville-it smells over there.” That’s kind of embarrassing to us, but it’s actually true.
CN: Mmm. Mm-hmm. What are the businesses that are still thriving in your neighborhoods?
BM: A lot of the businesses that are there today have been there, I’d say, around 25 years at the longest. The businesses that were there before are all gone. These are new-to ME they’re new, but to a lot of the Globeville community people-because people move in and out of Globeville, constant. It’s a rental place more than anything. But, the businesses that have been there: There’s a couple liquor stores that [are] still open. Of course it’s been new owners and stuff, but they’re still open. The bars are new owners but they’re still open. It’s places like those, old-time things.
The actual businesses have changed. New ownerships; new businesses. But there isn’t really a whole lot of long-term businesses in Globeville, that have survived-the I know of.
CN: Right, right. Um. So, we’ve kind of come down the list of areas I want to cover. But I want to give you the opportunity to talk about anything that I haven’t specifically brought up. What else would you like to say?
BM: I don’t know. I’m not really sure. (Light laugh.) There’s thousands of things that I’d like to say, but some of it-I think that Globeville, Elyria, and Swansea-one of the things that happens with us is that: There are several organizations and stuff, that, because of our community’s-they have opportunities to USE us as a community, to get themselves where they want to be. It’s recognized; people are afraid to talk about it. I’m not. I’ll approach anybody. I just don’t appreciate people using my community, to better off themselves.
That happens with a lot of grant writings. A lot of little programs that would write a grant on behalf of our communities, and receive those grants; and then the actual grant monies, and stuff that they were initially for, doesn’t happen. They’re the things that I see a lot. I really think that we as a community need to get a strong group together-or groups-work together so that doesn’t happen anymore.
39:56 It’s been happening, and it’s continued to happen. And, until WE get together and find some community leaders that want to work together on these bigger issues, instead of piecing off here and there and doing-putting up a sign, or-that’s easy work. Our community, we have to remember that our community is the future of the children that we have there. Because, if we don’t set it up for them, they too are going to fail, just like we did.
And, when I say we failed, it’s because we’re still here. We could have benefitted. We could have had a lot more in our community. We shouldn’t have to depend on people to give us promises and then break them; we should be fulfilling our own. Our own community, by ourselves, we can do it. It’s been done before. So I believe that we can still do it. It can still happen.
CN: So what’s it going to take, to get there.
BM: I believe-again, the people that are placing themselves in the leadership of our community have to be open enough to work with each other, so that we can get things accomplished. I mentioned earlier that: A voice isn’t any good when it comes to politicians, City Council, Denver city agencies, city services. It has to be GROUP voices; it has to be the community. When the community speaks, things get done. Until then, nothing’s going to happen. And that’s what’s happening in our community.
CN: Well, that about wraps it up, unless there is anything else you wanted to say-anything about, you know, people or-
BM: Well, I’m pro-youth. I just believe in-everything that I do is focused on our youth. I mean, that was my profession for 36 years. That’s all I have in my heart; I just can’t do anything else. All I care about is them. I do the best I can.
I hope that, some day-you know I’ve had a lot of successes; I’ve worked with a lot of-you know, I’ve coached people like Chauncey Billups, Kaniel Dickens [sp?], Josh Hamilton, LenDale White-from the Broncos-everybody. I’ve coached them all. Those are successes in MY life. But, there’s a lot more. The kids that I had back in 1992-it was the Globeville wrestlers, _____ Warriors. We were city and state champions. Even though we had that success, the city still closed our center down.
When I went to Martin Luther King and retired from there, I ran a national basketball team that won a national title in 2000. It no longer exists. And it’s the things like that. You know, through my life I’ve seen a lot of good accomplishments-good, positive stuff. But, I want to give them to Globeville kids; I want THEM to have that stuff. I want them to be able to experience it and get full scholarships to colleges all over the county. And it came happen, but it takes more people than just me. And that’s what I’m trying to find. I’m trying to find those people.
CN: Well, that’s a perfect way to end. I just want to thank you so much for taking time to be here. We really appreciate it.
BM: You are very welcome.
45:45 [End of recording. End of interview.]
