Boulder County’s Community Planning & Permitting (CP&P) Historic Preservation Team and Parks & Open Space (POS) are partnering on a two-phase initiative to more accurately and equitably document and uplift Latinx and Chicano histories through a countywide Historic Context Study and an equity-rooted outreach plan focused on unincorporated Boulder County.
Phase I will move beyond existing records and surface-level summaries to engage in deeper, anti-racist research that centers racial equity and cultural resilience — surfacing the systemic forces, community networks, and untold stories that have shaped these landscapes. This includes questioning what narratives have historically been centered, identifying what and who has been left out, and laying the groundwork for a community-informed and justice-oriented approach to historic preservation.
This work directly supports Phase II – Resilient Roots, an initiative led by POS that has already begun to take shape as a long-term blueprint for inclusive interpretation of public lands and historic sites. The project is beginning with a pilot effort at Las Barracas, located on N 119th Street in Longmont — the only standing structure on Boulder County open space currently known to be directly associated with both Latinx and Japanese American communities.
The final deliverables for Phase I will be used to guide not only Las Barracas interpretation and management, but future place-based storytelling across the County at County-managed sites.
