Pleas and Petitions: Hispano Culture and Legislative Conflict in Territorial Colorado

In Pleas and Petitions Virginia S nchez sheds new light on the political obstacles, cultural conflicts, and institutional racism experienced by Hispano legislators in the wake of the legal establishment of the Territory of Colorado. The book reexamines the transformation of some 7,000 Hispano settlers from citizens of New Mexico territory to citizens of the newly formed Colorado territory, as well as the effects of territorial legislation on the lives of those residing in the region as a whole.

S nchez highlights the struggles experienced by Hispano territorial assemblymen trying to create opportunity and a better life in the face of cultural conflict and the institutional racism used to effectively shut them out of the process of establishing new laws and social order. For example, the federal and Colorado territorial governments did not provide an interpreter for the Hispano assemblymen or translations of the laws passed by the legislature, and they taxed Hispano constituents without representation and denied them due process in court.

The first in-depth history of Hispano sociopolitical life during Colorado's territorial period, Pleas and Petitions provides fundamental insight into Hispano settlers' interactions with their Anglo neighbors, acknowledges the struggles and efforts of those Hispano assemblymen who represented southern Colorado during the territorial period, and augments the growing historical record of Hispanos who have influenced the course of Colorado's history.

Virginia Sánchez is an independent scholar who has presented her research to the American Society for Ethnohistory, the New Mexico Historical Society, and genealogical societies in New Mexico and Colorado. She is the author of Forgotten Cuchareños of the Lower Valley and the winner of the 2011 Miles History Award from the Colorado Historical Society and the 2018 Gilberto Espinosa Prize for Best Article in the New Mexico Historical Review. Her work has been published in the New Mexico Historical Review and New Mexico Magazine.