How Mexican war refugees created Denver’s dopest art district

Mexican Revolution Refugees Built Denver’s Santa Fe District

Denver’s Santa Fe Art District has roots in blood and hope. As the Mexican Revolution raged from 1910 to 1920, it killed 1.5 million people and sent nearly 200,000 refugees north.

Many found work at Denver’s Burnham Railroad Yards, settling in nearby Hunt’s Addition where Latino and Anglo families lived side by side.

By the 1940s, the Denver Housing Authority built projects that soon filled with Mexican families. Their kids would later lead the Chicano Movement that shaped the city.

The vibrant streets and colorful buildings of today’s art district still echo with this powerful history of survival and community.

Blood and Chaos Drove Thousands Across the Border

The Mexican Revolution from 1910-1920 killed about 1.5 million people and forced nearly 200,000 refugees to run to the United States.

Mexican migration jumped during this time, with legal migrants growing from about 20,000 yearly in the 1910s to between 50,000-100,000 yearly in the 1920s.

Violence caused Mexican immigration to the U.S. to grow five times larger, with 100,000 Mexicans entering by 1920.

War refugees ran from the bloodshed, while others left rural areas looking for steady jobs and safer lives.

Trains Carried Refugees North to New Lives

Most Mexican Revolution refugees came to America by train through El Paso, with no strict border between countries until 1924.

Railroad jobs for Mexican workers peaked between 1880 and 1915, right before the revolution and new limits on Mexican immigration. Denver & Rio Grande Railroad hired many Chicano workers.

Refugees joined Mexican traqueros who had been working on U.S. railroads since the late 1800s, often taking farm jobs while working their way north.

Denver’s Railroad Yards Became Magnets for Workers

Burnham hired up to a thousand workers in the late 1800s to install brakes, wash trains, put together trains, and build wheels.

Areas near Burnham Railroad Yards housed European and Russian immigrants alongside Mexicans running from the 1910 revolution.

Many D&RG railroad workers lived in Hunt’s Addition just east of the railroad complex, including Joseph Lucero, a D&RG machinist who rented at 966 Mariposa.

City records from the 1920s show Latinos and Anglos living next door to each other in Hunt’s Addition.

Modest Brick Homes Created Tight-Knit Communities

By the early 1900s, these areas filled with modest worker housing for families.

People built brick homes on small lots, making close communities with rows of houses side by side and neighbors living and working near each other.

Most homes were single-story cottages in simple Italianate and Queen Anne styles built between 1879 and 1889.

During the early 1900s and more in the 1930s, Mexican-American, Hispano and Latino families moved into La Alma Lincoln Park in growing numbers.

Railroad Collapse Hit Worker Families Hard

In 1918, the Denver & Rio Grande went broke, forcing the government to take over the railyard. Money troubles led to worker layoffs and a big employee walkout in July 1922.

This pushed the D&RGW to bring in strike-breakers, including as many as 500 at Burnham alone.

There are still two union halls in La Alma/Lincoln Park and one in Baker, showing the strong worker history in the area.

War Created New Opportunities for Mexican Workers

In 1942, the Bracero Program started, covering both farm and railroad work, bringing in Mexican contract workers for railroad jobs.

Mexican workers were in high demand in the 1910s due to the 1917 Immigration Act that cut immigration, though the government made exceptions during World War I.

During World War II, the U.S. and Mexican governments brought Mexican workers to keep railways going from 1943 to 1945.

A 1936 newspaper mentioned more railroad car building at Burnham, which needed 908 men.

Public Housing Projects Welcomed Mexican Families

In 1942 the federal Braceros program brought Mexican workers to fill wartime shortages, with the Denver Housing Authority opening the city’s first housing projects in north Lincoln Park.

At first for whites only, the housing authority dropped this rule later, and the mix of work and cheap housing drew many Mexican immigrants during the 1940s.

Mexican residents soon filled these homes, calling them the “red projects” and “yellow projects” based on the brick colors. These homes became places where Movement organizers and supporters lived, worked and gathered.

Latino Culture Took Root in Denver’s Westside

By the mid-1900s, thanks to new waves of people moving in, the area had many Latino, Hispano and Mexican-American residents and homeowners. In the 1950s, the area became packed with Mexican-American families.

Mexicans mostly lived in the Westside neighborhood, and La Alma grew from the nearby Auraria neighborhood.

Young Latinos in Denver played lots of sports, with Lincoln Park offering basketball courts, a baseball field and open space for football.

Neighborhood Kids Grew Up to Lead a Movement

Denver became the center for the Chicano movement, with boxer-turned-activist Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales starting the Crusade for Justice.

The city led the national Chicano Movement, with the neighborhood serving as its heart and a key part of Denver’s Chicano/Latino story.

Gonzales helped organize the West High School walkouts of 1969, when students left classes to protest racism and show support for the 1968 Los Angeles walkouts.

In the 1960s and 70s, La Alma Lincoln Park became the center of Denver’s Chicano Movement.

Murals Told Stories of Chicano Identity

The nationwide Chicano Movement mixed political activism with cultural education through art, mostly murals, to show Chicano histories and strengthen communities fighting racism.

Emanuel Martínez brought artistic energy to Denver after his father studied muralism with David Alfaro Siqueiros and told him to start painting murals in his own city.

Martínez painted his first mural outside the housing projects in the neighborhood. Experts believe more than 40 historic Chicano community murals exist across Colorado today.

Santa Fe Art District Grew From Revolutionary Roots

Between 1940 and 1970, more than 80 percent of housing project families’ children became leaders in the Chicano Movement.

The Chicano presence, which relied heavily on arts and culture to define their movement, laid the groundwork for the art district we know today.

Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe welcomed waves of immigrants, first from Europe and Russia, then Mexicans running from the Revolution of 1910, with many buildings now showing large murals featuring images from local Chicano culture.

In 2021, La Alma Lincoln Park Neighborhood got recognized as a Historic Cultural District by Denver, becoming one of the first historic districts in the country celebrating the Chicano Movement.

Visiting Santa Fe Art District, Denver

The Santa Fe Art District runs from West 13th Avenue to West Alameda Avenue between Kalamath and Inca Streets, where Mexican Revolution refugees built a community in the early 1900s.

You can explore over 100 galleries and studios for free daily, plus visit Museo de las Americas at 861 Santa Fe Drive Tuesday-Friday 12-6pm and weekends 12-5pm.

Check out thirty historic Chicano murals throughout the neighborhood depicting the refugee community’s history, or join First Friday Art Walks monthly from 5:30-9:30pm.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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