Lena Archuleta was the guiding light in our community, for the Hispanic people, but for all people Lena cared deeply about education and the elderly Lena was a change agent within Denver public schools she open people's eyes and gave hope to a lot of Latinas She was a role model for all of us A lot of women learned to be leaders Through Lena As strong and enduring as the Rocky Mountains they stood beside as visionary as the views of the grand plains they looked across.

The women inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame are trailblazers, whose work has improved and enriched our lives.

They are teachers, scientists, ranchers, leaders in business, education, religion, and the arts.

Wen who have been recognized for their many contributions to our state, our country, and the world.

I'm Reynelda Muse, and these are the stories of Great Colorado Women.

When you think back on our history and the country, we know about the more prominent figures, whether in politics or in the military or in sports or in music But when you think about community leaders, how many are there out there that we remember?

And I want people to remember Lena Archuleta and look to her as a role model of someone who loved the community Telling Lena's story is so important because we need to know who has gone before us They are our foundation She was known in the Hispanic community as a force for equal educational opportunities for all students get an education, that's the most important thing.

You just cannot progress in this world unless you get an education.

Don't give up, try hard, make good grades.

She believed that education should be free and it should be quality So she became an educator, a teacher, and later a principal She was the very first Latina principal in Denver Public Schools It was not an easy time for women, and it was not an easy time for Hispanics Lena was a very forceful person and a change agent within Denver Public Schools and you might ask, why did that happen?

How was she able to do that?

At a time when Denver public schools were still institutionally, and I'm going to use those word very carefully, racist The facts speak for themselves.

They got sued twice Their case went to the Supreme Court twice, before DPS finally responded to these allegations of discrimination That was the context in which she was working, and yet she was effective She showed us That regardless of how Hard it was, it can be accomplished that if you have the will and the drive, you can see it through.

And she carried that philosophy in all of the capacities that she held, whether it be in the library, whether it be in the schools Lena paved the path for many Hispanic women to believe in themselves She broke the glass ceiling in so many ways and so many organizations She was involved in Mi Casa In fact, she started that organization Lena spread her wings in many different areas other than just education And establishing local organizations.

But she went back to DU and got her certificate in library science And she at one point was the librarian for the school district Lena made sure that the library system was in the neighborhoods and that they were open to and responsive to the broader community She was very prominent with AARP She worked with state legislators for Hispanic issues She was the Colorado State Spokesperson for AARP And then she became the national spokesperson.

So she wrote many articles regarding Medicare, healthcare, education So while she was very proud of her ethnicity, proud of her background She was still able to say, I'm a citizen in Denver I want to help all people She left that legacy for us to aspire I hope That Young women can see that If somebody from Northern New Mexico, in the time that she was growing up, could become such a renowned leader Why can't I?

Lena was born and raised in a very small town in New Mexico Very humble beginnings Her father fixed shoes Her mom was a homemaker But They always instilled in Lena and her sister the importance of education In school, Lena was an excellent student She was determined that she was going to be the very best.

She did become the valedictorian of her class She was also the homecoming queen, she would add But because of her outstanding academic achievement in high school.

She earned a scholarship to The University of Denver It wasn't a full ride.

It was a partial scholarship.

So her mother and dad had to scrimp and save so that she could follow through with her education at DU, but it was extremely unusual.

It was unusual for women in general and much more for a Hispanic woman to be given a scholarship to the University of Denver.

that's changed a lot.

But back then, it was very hard for someone like a Lena Archuleta from New Mexico with her humble backgrounds to get into DU.

But she did, and she did very well after she finished her bachelor's degree she did return to Northern New Mexico, where she taught Spanish and she taught music At the school, there was a gentleman whose name was Wallace.

And Wallace was the gentleman who did everything around the school.

So if something needed fixing in terms of the building infrastructure, that was Wallace She and Wallace used to take dance classes.

In fact one of the things that she loved the most was to dance She actually was a part of a dance group of Latina women who danced for different community occasions They made their own costumes.

They practiced faithfully My mother-in-law talks about how she and Wallace were always the beautiful couple on the dance floor And Lena was just enchanted by Wallace.

And eventually they married At that point She and Wallace decided that they would leave Northern New Mexico and come to teach in Denver It was a time when they had saved $8,000, and they were ready to buy a house.

And they went looking for their house, and they ran into a realtor that was helping Lena Lena had German heritage.

And so she was Fairly light skinned She was well dressed and well spoken and Very smart and they found the house And they were ready to close the deal And Wallace came, and the realtor met Wallace, who looked very Hispanic.

And by the end of the conversation, that house was no longer available to them.

It broke Lena's heart That was the context.

That was the atmosphere of Denver back in the 1970s.

It affected elected officials.

It affected business people And part of that thinking Stayed in institutions, whether they were financial institutions or real estate institutions or public schools Lena had to operate in that environment But she excelled in those years.

There, first of all, was not a lot of Latinas who were joining the educational profession And that the Denver Public Schools hired her was extremely impressive, but they may not have known how much they were hiring for, that she was such a powerhouse Lena was an advocate for her students.

She was also a bilingual teacher And she knew the things that bilingual students needed One of the places that she was Employed was at Del Pueblo Elementary, and Del Pueblo Elementary at that time The principle there did not really believe in bilingual education He didn't believe that children should be taught in their native language So Lena went to get the materials and the kinds of things that would assist and help the children at that particular school Lena Believed in bilingual education because she believed that the language was a very important aspect of our culture She respected and valued where her students came from and brought those cultures, those languages into her school She became a leader in the Denver Public Schools.

People respected what she said and how she said it.

You know, she could say things in a way that didn't offend, but made people think about what was happening Because of that, The Denver Classroom Teachers Association asked her to become their leader and so she left the classroom so that she could go work with the Denver Classroom Teachers Association She was a wonderful representative on the rights of teachers and that they be paid the right salary that they have the support they needed in the schools to do the jobs they were hired to do She was always in touch with the broader community, and so people were supportive of her too.

And that's why she was so effective.

And the administrators in DPS knew that she had those connections.

because of that leadership with the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, she was invited back to the Denver Public Schools, and that is when they put her in Some administrative positions and that eventually earned her the appointment of the very first Latina principal in Denver Public Schools in the 1970s, the Denver Public Schools had a horrible reputation in addressing the needs of minority students One can only imagine when you're the only Latina principle, the pressure that you're under from all walks of life She was not afraid to be confrontational She was passionate about educational excellence for every child If you would walk into any of the schools where she was principal, you saw a multicultural spectrum of respect for the families, the children and the community.

And I think she set a standard for other principles who followed her to say, that's the way you should lead That's the way you should relate to all kids, all parents, from every walk of life, with dignity, with respect At the time, Lena became the first principal in DPS It was a male dominated world that glass ceiling, about what the expectations of what we could do as women were very limited.

And Lena was an individual who pushed those expectations, who said, we can do so much more not only for herself, but for other women, and particularly other Latinas who were entering the educational workforce because she was the first one, she held her hand out to all of us and said, come along with me And so together, we were able to change the face of the leadership of the Denver Public Schools Lena and a couple of other Hispanic women decided to form a group a mentoring group so that they could encourage people like me who were new to the district, to become leaders By the time we formed Las Viejas We were already beginning to understand that Latino students were not being treated equally.

It was also in the period of desegregation.

And at that moment, we saw the inequities between schools that had a majority of Latino students or a majority of black students.

And what was being delivered or provided for schools That were primarily for White students There were walkouts on the part of Latino students from the Denver public schools because it was their feeling they just weren't getting the attention and the respect that they should get from teachers But that was really a difficult time because I suffered not only because I felt guilty, but some of the people leading the activist group were angry with me because I just didn't walk out.

too, because they felt I would have had more influence There were beginning to be more principals of color More Latinas who were principals and so they created a coalition in a group of the Congress of Hispanic educators who came together and they worked together and created movement for change In the Denver public schools The Keyes case, which was the desegregation suit, was just about coming to the forefront And at that particular time, the Congress of Hispanic Educators then became interveners in the Keyes case so that the Hispanic children in the Denver Public schools would be treated equally and fairly I moved here in 1973 as a young lawyer.

And I started working with the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund.

And one of the biggest cases we had was the Denver Desegregation case.

It was the Keyes case Lena was part of that Congress of Hispanic Educators that helped Move that forward She was the one who pushed us to move forward.

And even though she couldn't be at the forefront with us because by this time she was already a school administrator, she was the one that says, don't give up.

Keep pushing, keep pushing.

We can do this together So she was under a lot of that pressure and strain, and still, she was able to maintain her balance, her humanity, and be an effective insider for DPS, because we needed people on the inside So she was very helpful to us in thinking through our arguments for bilingual education, for more Latino teachers, for more cultural instruction.

She was the expert.

And so she was quietly giving us information for the case and of course, we won Bilingual education became a part of the court order in order that we service the needs of the kids at that particular time And to this day, the Congress of Hispanic Educators is still monitoring the school district and taking part so that was a long lasting effort way back in the 70s, a group of Latinos came together encouraged by leaders like Lena to move forward and to push for this quality education That's how the change began to happen As a result of those issues back in the 1970s, in 1975, I was a young lawyer with the Chicano Education Project, and we decided to sponsor a statewide bill called the Colorado Bilingual Bicultural Education Act Lena was part of that team giving us advice And she helped us frame the legislation in a way that was responsive to the needs of the students which then had a statewide impact And that was Lena.

Here is a need in our community.

We need to do something about it She knew what it took to find the common values and issues that would bring people together Lena played an important role in founding a lot of different organizations, whether it was Mi Casa or Las Madrinas or LARASA, Servicios de LARASA.

And probably because she was a really good organizer She was able to work outside of the institution in the community.

So the parents knew her.

The organizations knew her.

And she helped form those organizations, like LARASA and Mi Casa Mi Casa Resource Center is now in the west side of town They train Latinas in business and economics And it has helped so many Latinas get into business, grow financially, understand economics incredible impact in our community that still exists today in terms of LARASA That was the oldest Latino civil rights organization Formed at least in Colorado and maybe in the United States It was about research It was about advocacy and leadership, developing Latino leaders Lena was one of the founders, again, extraordinary impact on our community for decades, for decades, and still doing that work today Another example of what Lena was able to do that's affecting so many people years later.

I started being active with LAEF and it was just a small organization, but I thought it was so important because it helped young people go to college.

Lena help found the Latin American Education Foundation focused on raising money for scholarships That organization that she helped form is still operating today and still helping thousands of kids over many, many years to go to college.

As a teacher, she realized that Libraries were a place where young people could thrive.

And so she decided to go back to DU And now she went for a Masters to become a librarian And she at one point was the librarian for the school district.

And then she got involved with the Denver public library system Lena made sure that the library system was in the neighborhoods and that they were open to and responsive to the broader community because for a lot of people going to the library was not a common experience.

You didn't perhaps feel welcome If you're a young child and you've got a parent who's too busy and working, you may not want to go to the library by yourself.

Making the libraries comfortable and accessible to young people was one of the contributions that Lena made and telling the library system, you've got to be more accessible to everybody, even low income kids and minority kids She became a part of the library acquisitions for the Western History library and encourage people to give their papers And that just means what kind of work did you do?

What kind of speeches have you done so that generations of Hispanic students later on in life will be able to look back at what people have done previous to them.

In her later years She started writing a diary about her work and about her life and about what she did the diaries are still in the archives at the library.

They're very interesting to read you get to know a little bit more about her And how she came to be who she was I'm so thrilled that a library is being named after her because Again its literacy, its reading the development of knowledge And Lena believed in that so much husband Wallace worked with the Denver public schools also When he retired She decided that She needed to retire also so that they could enjoy their future years together But Lena with her drive She could not just stay at home And so She became involved with AARP Lena got involved in AARP because she got very concerned about seniors because she realized that retired people, elderly people, needed to have the support of that organization.

And we all needed to know about AARP and the benefits of AARP, because a lot of us didn't know that.

But Lena made sure that we knew we were educated and we got involved.

She soon became the state president of AARP.

She was on the board In fact, I think she was the first Latina to serve on the National Board of AARP She really felt the need for AARP to address the needs of our elder Hispanic community.

And so she formed this group, the El Comite And that is a committee that Meets and discusses the kind of legislation that's being proposed every year.

And if any of that proposed legislation affects senior citizens.

This particular group will either support the legislation or oppose it So I have organized a group of 30 women, all Latinas who are busy people, and we do our lobbying by telephone.

So AARP really is actually working with the business roundtable and a union group to try to say we've got to do something about healthcare for everybody.

So when she started this Latina calling tree, it became well known within the national level, and they found it to be very effective As a matter of fact, it was so impactful that the legislatures finally said When are they going to call off the dogs?

Because that's what kind of an impact she was making Lena became the presidential appointee delegate for the aging and was able to meet Bill and Hillary Clinton at the White House Lena Archuleta was recognized by countless organizations where her work, her sacrifice, and her leadership.

The list is so long, it takes several pages to read all of the accomplishments and recognitions and awards that she received But she always receive them very humbly Lena Archuleta received the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame award And she paved the way, I think, for a lot more Latinas that followed because there have been a lot more Latinas achieving that The library has an award for also a called the Lena Archuleta Award for education.

And every year somebody in education is Given that honor because of her hard work and a lot of people supporting her nomination, we finally have a school named after Lena Archuleta in 2005.

I was appointed As principal of that particular school And so what I can tell you about the school is that I really believe all of the kinds of things that Lena had worked on in education for all those years are embodied in the school called Lena Lovato Archuleta Even when She had developed Lou Gehrig's disease Lena was participating in boards and committees about 11 different ones at the age of 90. so that shows her dedication to our community and her beliefs on what needed to be done She was always active, always trying to help people.

And that's something that is very hard to do when you're going through an illness like that.

But people loved her for it and loved her.

And we all miss her.

Well, I just hope that they think I did more good than harm.

I guess that one hopes for that.

And if I've been of any inspiration, I hope it will help other young women of the Latino community and others.

We need more Americans today like that, who can relate to all walks of life, who can bring people to who can unify a community, unify an organization It's hard to describe the impact that she made not only on us, personally, but professionally I don't know how Better to describe A more beautiful person.

when I look at myself and I think about who I want to be.

I want to be someone like Lena who shows who you are in every way that you live in the values that you hold, in the presence you create But most importantly to Teach me what it is to be A woman of substance