I sat down with my mother, Evangeline Salazar, to show her this program. She was pleased and pointed out that the gentleman at the extreme left (white shirt and tie) @ 15:22 and second from right (@ 16:19 in front of Salazar's store) is her father (and my grandfather) Rudolph Salazar. My grandfather later opened another store in San Luis (San Luis Mercantile) and ran it until the 1980's. My mom was deeply touched by this story.

My Family till this day live in the San Luis Valley I am so Proud and Honored to be part of such a rich culture and beautiful community, and People who know how to live by FAITH and show what Love and Respect to one another truly is. I Love This Town.

I love the valley moved to Pueblo 20 yrs ago came back and I don’t know why I left my home I will live and die here!❤❤😊😊

Love the fact that he said no fast food! Preserving as long as they can 🙏

This makes me proud to be from Colorado! I love that Hispanic culture is being intentionally preserved in San Luis & So. Colorado.

Great documentary about the pride of the history of El Valle by authentic descendants of our Hispanic ancestors who know the Spanish language and the roots of our Hispanic culture. So proud of these presentors!

Gracias Rocky Mountain PBS

My grandmas hometown I love this story

I love the San Luis Valley...yes..it is a spiritual place. You need to see The Stations of the Cross!!

My grandfather was born in San Luis in 1878. My father was born in Del norte in 1950 , still have family In Center CO.

My home town !! love it.

I recently found out that I had relatives that had a ranch in Trinidad,Colorado. It is not longer in their family...they had to sell it. I must visit this part of the USA...the scenery is so beautiful....God's country

I travel through the San Luis Valley every summer when I visit and explore Colorado. I felt the history of the valley by observing its lands, waters and buildings. This video has given me a much better appreciation of its historical significance and the cultural forces that molded it.

The great frontier.Beauiful country.a beauiful place.

I have owned some property in the San Luis Valley ranches since 1996. Always planned to move there when I retire and build a straw bale home. The area is high altitude, cold yet sunny, and isolated. Perfect for living away from godless attitudes and crime we have in our large cities. People are people. You treat them with love and respect and it will come back to you the same. This kind of place you don't try to change. You live by the laws, which are not new. You have always had to have a permit to dig a well. Or develop your land with a dwelling. I like the idea of not having a chain fast food nearby, though I suspect Alamosa has a few, as well as a Walmart.

Beautiful...

My family's annual passage thru the valley on our way to South Fork and Big Meadows campground has been going on for the past half century. We truly love this area of Colorado.

Great history can’t wait to come back

Without ever having set foot in the American continent, I can say you guys have Precious gastronomic pieces of jewelry😊Along with L.A. Jambalata, I also cook Colorado recipees (love it)like corn based, St Louis, ones. Congrats!

I love the valley! This is interesting; however, there are some inaccuracies. My ancestors from the San Luis Valley were Genizaros, not just "Hispanic." There is documentation showing that they traded with the Southern Utes. They were not necessarily enemies.

Amazing place. Sacred place. We are all just visitors. Let us be humble and responsible.

Great video!

Yo vivi en san Luis Colorado me gusto vivir en san Luis Colorado Iv

Fascinating stuff.

Thank you for this. I wanted to know a bit more about the town I was interested in moving to. This is great!

Like Colorado documentary from India. No chance to visit on site.

San Luis Valley, is beyond awe inspiring. I live in The Wet Mountain Valley near Westcliffe CO, to the east of The Sangre de Christo Range. My entire view is this unbelievable range. Both of these valleys are a hidden treasure from the outside world. I love taking the drive from Salida, or Westcliffe, all the way down the San Luis Valley and on to Taos and Santa Fe NM. Endless wonder and beauty. We are all so blessed who are fortunate enough to live here. Personally, I think our culture and history is so rich and wonderful. I can never get enough of it. My family financed the construction of all the Railroads that went all through San Luis Valley from Denver, as well as, The Denver Santa Fe Railroad into New Mexico. My goal now, is to develop my own foundation apart from my family foundation in Denver, and devote funding to create big-budget Films, TV programs, Book Publishing, the Arts of all kinds that broaden appreciation and education regarding Southern Colorado and New Mexico culture and heritage for generations to come. At some point the public at-large will begin to be notified of this massive undertaking. It will create many thousands of well paying jobs focusing from Pueblo south to Silver City NM. My main goal, is for our children to have fabulous opportunities right in their own small communities to be highly educated and then, excellent career opportunities that will help keep their families, and communities not only alive but thriving for countless generations to come. My family foundation, has been doing this since the late 1800’s from Denver. Now I will be doing it from Aspen, and Santa Fe. Thank you PBS for this excellent video. You will be hearing from me.

Thanks for such a great video!

To everyone complaining about the valley, you don’t have to be here or even pass through. We will be fine with out you.

My wife and I purchased 5.5 acres in the SLV near the Rio Grande a few years ago. The area is beautiful and pretty much unspoiled. The views are awesome and I get a sense of real history when we go out to the area. My wife is Navajo and I am Shawnee/Cherokee/German. We live in Kentucky but love the South West. The only thing I dont like about San Luis is that someone sold our information when we purchased the 5.5 acres and we get two or three letters a week from people trying to buy our property out there. They are low ball bids. It is a racket ! Shame on the ones who make money on this scheme.

This is where my blood comes from ❤

Yo vivi en san Luis Colorado trabajando con la familia Trujillo

My dad's dad's dad still live there! Spanish pride! New spain

3:30, "The first people to come through here were the Spanish". Why is a historian saying that, right after he said that the Ute, Navajo, and Hopi were here first? Dehumanization of Indigenous people runs deep. Then claims it was named after a French King, "even though there was no people here". I know many Chicano, Genizaro, and Indigenous people who prove otherwise.

Watching this makes me wonder, are Anglos not welcome in the San Luis Valley? This portrayal makes it sound like they may not be. This part of the program made me sad.

great video

Any Utes still live their?

Sad that this documentary didn’t spend time on other parts of the valley. Only focused on the southern portion and it’s people. Would’ve been interesting to learn about the Baca land grant around Crestone & other towns like Saguache & Del Norte.

At the 15:45 mark , the tractor the guy is sitting on looks an awful lot like the 1927 Farmall Regular.

European & Spanish Conquistadors settlers left their genetics and language in SLV , but those of European descent and outsiders are largely not welcome today. It should belong to the Utes, but gold and silver was found there......

Mi tierra

San Luis is oldest town in the valley,but CAPULIN is the capital of the valley!!!!

He keeps saying there were no people there but we know the Utes lived there.

✊🏽

Back in the 1980s, I lived in northern New Mexico and traveled around the San Luis Velley and other parts of southern Colorado. I was surprised to find all those Spanish speaking communities. At first I thought they were descendants of mexicans. But immediately noticed their different culture, traditions and language. Everywhere I went (supermarkets, banks, stores) I heard their spanish, which reminded me of ladino (Spanish spoken by jews). I went back in the early 2000s and noticed a big diference. Very few spoke spanish on the streets. I felt so sad. They are loosing a unique language and culture

The San Luis Valley is sacred!

This is quite a distinct history from 'popular' United States history, but it's still a colonizer history. Robert Rael says it himself, "We were the first ones here, short of the American Indians." Ok, that would be the SECOND group there. The FIRST group of colonizers. Just as Anglos love to do, this history romanticizes the settlers and through this lens the original indigenous people are somehow thrust from memory, except as a tokenized caveat. It's indigenous land.

Is videos cool but I live in the San Luis Valley and the oldest church is in antonito I don't know what to dude said but he said it wrong if he met antonito oldest church in Colorado is in antonito

well, all true, but a friendly community? not so sure... you have to live here first to find out

i don't know if i will move here. i think we would be unwelcome

The skinwalkers are very friendly there in the San Luis Valley.

Isn't this valley one of the poorest places in the country?

Like

Trees, shrubs and old rocks all have spirits.

The San Luis Valley is an amalgam of influences. It looks like the hispanos were the first to be able to make a go of it in terms of living year-round. From what I've heard over the years there were plenty of depredations committed by Anglo settlers. I heard that on the Eastern side of the San Luis Valley the protective unions were able to hang on better. This is all stories conveyed over the years to me. Perhaps there is a Resurgence of the Hispano culture stemming from Northern New Mexico, which itself is an amalgam of arabic, old spanish, Mexican ,genizaro and other Native American influences.. during the years of political and economic uncertainty there were plenty of horrible things done by folks of different cultures. Now it's time for people to reconnect with their roots and bring about the positive attributes of their different cultures .

Never been there . . . closest came was Colorado Springs !

Hiway 285 through there is straight as an arrow and flat as a pancake for 50 miles makes for a monotonous drive.

If you want to “keep the McDonald’s and Taco Bell’s out” you e already failed because of lack of community. I’ve lived here my whole life and I’ve never felt like my community had my back

The rhetoric of the current administration neglects to recognize the long rich history of both the native people and those with Spanish and French heritage that dates back to the 15th century. When someone approaches me and asks where I am from I am taken aback. My family can trace its roots to this region, from the Mora Valley in New Mexico up into Southern Colorado and the San Luis Valley to the 1600's. My mother's maiden name is Gallegos, like the woman in the film, my father and my last name link us to the Spanish with Moorish heritage that are mentioned in the section on water rights law. Yet, whites continually think I am the newcomer, that my family swam across the Rio Grande, or entered illegally when it was really YOU who took OUR land by force and are the illegals.

No water

That's funny they talk about preserving the culture because almost everybody here in the San Luis Valley drives a vehicle almost everybody in fact everybody in the San Luis Valley get food from store nobody lives 100% off the land anymore so I'm just wondering what is being so preserved we live a modern lifestyle in the San Luis Valley just like everywhere else

I have windows 10 which I believe is rubbish..but my son lives in the southern part of Denver. We have just returned from that visit, I hope he can remove the rubbish part of windows10. I recall a colorado guy wanting a hispanic to go home but colorado was their home :)

People first came to the valley in the 1840’s? Surely you mean to say something else. Europeans? We know there were Ute people and people of other First Nations.

The end was hilarious. “We’re trying to preserve our home” in the same breath as promoting diversity? Well… which is it?

if you do not want Taco Bell and Walmart and to catch up with Society. you need to disconnect from electricity disconnect from water disconnect from internet.

one thing they don't mention is that it's the poorest county in the state. there isn't very many jobs. there are a lot of people moving there who don't want to follow the county rules and codes. to build you need permits. there are squatters who move in and live in RVs who don't feel they have to follow the same rules everyone else have been following for the past 150 years.

Going on my 12th year here in the San Luis Valley and never heard anybody call a sopapilla whatever the f*** that dude called a sopapilla

This is so wrong. Plaza Manzanares or Garcia is the oldest town in Colorado. The Sierra was part of the Baubien land grant, not the Sangre De Christo land grant. This little film is way too Eurocentric and favorable to the private land owners of the Sierra. They DID not work with the locals to help them keep their access rights, they have fought the people since the beginning. Why this propaganda? Somebody update this crap!

Very wast full way of irrigation ,fooding

I love how all these people in this video contradict themselves is there a bunch of historical evidence that shows Spanish the Mexicans and the natives were never on the same side but then at the end of the video to wrap it all up there like talkin about how they were all born big family or something let me tell you something about this area nobody was on the same f****** side nobody was f****** family there was white there was Mexicans and there was natives three different sides three different races lived in one area never was there a so-called quote on quote what the man said in the video family they talk about the San Luis Valley like we're all one big race or not don't contradict yourself you said it from the beginning in your video they were different races different people we were on different sides three different cultures in fact so preserve the culture what culture there was three different cultures to choose from from your video and this is your own facts

The valley was stolen by the white settlers from the Ute.

Ok, let's get this straight... the people instituted the government in any form "to secure these rights" and "to effect their Safety and Happiness." The people instituted Government and all powers come from the people. The people are without authority to tax, regulate, impose, rule, license, permit etc anything when it comes to the people and their rights so the government (agents) cannot have more power than the people (principles)! Thus imposing, licencing, permitting etc is without authority, without law, lawless, criminal! Not knowing this is ignorance of the people, not knowing this as an agent is criminal and sedition, acting on it is treason. 18 US Code "If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any inhabitant in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured- They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death." And guess what, there is a law against the use of codes to ..well here it is 18 US Code 242 "Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to different punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such person being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed for the punishment of citizens, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; ..." So, there is the law, and the Constitution is the "Supreme law" well, here it is ... "2: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding." "any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."!!!! Now as to the public servants (including and especially cops) "3: The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution;" As to property, one owns property "alodial" ("in their own right, without overlord"), one is the sovereign of their land, property, effects, things, body, paper etc. thus .. well this is how the Supreme Court put it; "The individual may stand upon his constitutional rights as a citizen. He is entitled to carry on his private business in his own way. His power to contract is unlimited. He owes no duty to the state or to his neighbors to divulge his business, or to open his doors to an investigation, so far as it may tend to criminate him. He owes no such duty to the state, since he receives nothing therefrom, beyond the protection of his life and property. His rights are such as existed by the law of the land long antecedent to the organization of the state, and can only be taken from him by due process of law, and in accordance with the Constitution. Among his rights are a refusal to incriminate himself, and the immunity of himself and his property from arrest or seizure except under a warrant of the law. He owes nothing to the public so long as he does not trespass upon their rights." (Hale v Henkel p.74 last paragraph.) Are you getting the picture yet? Depriving others of their rights for any reason except if they are trespassing on your rights, your property. That's it! "He owes nothing to the public so long as he does not trespass upon their rights." Bullying is a crime as is threat, intimidation, oppression and injury, deprivation of right or privileges, "the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States". Here is a good way to look at it; if you would not want them to treat you that way then don't treat them that way. "Judge not lest ye be judged, with what ye meet shall be met unto you". If you don't like how your neighbors yard looks like then perhaps you should make his yard look the way you like it and he will make your yard look the way he likes it... problem solved. You can smile and be happy when you look at your neighbors yard and they will be happy looking at your yard.... or perhaps be grateful that we are all different. After all you can;t take it with you when you go! So appreciate those that are different and find out that they may have a special contribution which will make your life better. On a personal note, as an inventor and having lived off grid on a sailboat for 6 years as a child, I know that there is abundance for everyone once you learn how to access it and that includes water. I noticed the special handshake of those on the board and others who are railing against the so called "newcomers". it leads me to believe that it is true that they are all in cahoots on monopolizing the pot trade and don't want competition. its called a "Monopoly" and that selfishness will cause an investigation and imposition of the Federal government to enforce its drug laws. (dumb asses). and on a lighter note, I do not recall a prohibition on covered wagons so why a ban on the modern version now?? If one had rights 200 years ago you still have them today! Oh and as to building codes that is for corporations building housing for profit under an entity of the state, LLC, Corporation etc. Article I Section 10 " No state shall make any law abridging the obligation of contract." Constitution Amendment XIV "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." So you see the laws are here to protect us not to Fuke us or you, you us us you ...the people, united we stand divided we ... get Fuked.

ooohh seems like san luis is ready for gentrification

Technically half of it was part of Texas. Still should be

And even before that the Spanish had it considered a white European race natives might have lived on the land but they never controlled of the land they can't stop white men from coming and the Mexicans didn't have the land for very long this was white man's land from the beginning

Flood irrigation is very wasteful

"Don't come here" and "we send you back"---- Obama 2014

Thoses are injuns not Mexicans