 The world changes quickly. Get the internet that moves even faster. Next light, gigabit fiber ties Longmont together and brings the world to your door. Thank you to Grupo as Teca, to Luis Lucali. They do such wonderful performances and we are very grateful for their blessing ceremony for our celebration this evening. I'm Ann Macca. I'm the curator of education here at the Longmont Museum. I'd like to welcome our online audience and thank you so much for joining us for this 20th anniversary celebration of Day of the Dead at the Longmont Museum and with the Longmont community. Also I'd like to say a big thank you to our museum members and our donors to the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District and this year's Presenting Sponsor for Longmont Museum's Dia de los Muertos Next Light. And I'd like to introduce Lyra Nickley of Next Light to give a few words. I'm the communications manager for Next Light and on behalf of Next Light I'd like to welcome you to the 20th annual and first virtual Day of the Dead celebration from the Longmont Museum. This time of year is an opportunity for us to celebrate our heritage and remember our loved ones. It's a chance to make a connection because we know that connections only make us stronger. We hope you enjoy the festivities and we thank you so much for joining us. Feliz de los Muertos. Thank you so much Lyra. We really appreciate your support. Without that we really couldn't do the work that we try so hard to do here at the Longmont Museum. Next I would like to introduce Alondra Vazquez from Elevations Credit Union. Elevations is sponsoring this live stream opening reception this evening. Hola todos. My name is Alondra Vazquez with Elevations Credit Union. I want to start by thanking you for your support and joining us tonight virtually. At Elevations Credit Union we take pride in all the good work we do in our communities through college sponsorships, sorry, college scholarships, community sponsorships and financial education. We value our partnership with the Longmont Museum and are happy to celebrate such a wonderful exhibition that's become a special tradition for our community. Hola todos. Mi nombre es Alondra con Elevations Credit Union. Quiero empezar por agradecerles su apoyo y por apoyarnos esta noche aunque no sea en persona. En Elevations nos enorgulleza el trabajo que dedicamos a nuestras comunidades a través de becas, educación financiera y apoyando a nuestras organizaciones sin fines de lucro. Valoramos nuestra asociación con el museo de Longmont y estamos contentos de estar aquí para celebrar esta exhibición tan especial que se ha vuelto una tradición en nuestra comunidad. Gracias. Thank you again so much for your support. Really without it we couldn't do our work here. The next part of our evening will be a conversation between Tony Ortega and his son Cipriano. Ortega's lifelong goal is to contribute to the better understanding of diversity by addressing the culture, history and experience of Latinx people. Through his vibrant artwork, the exhibition includes painting, prints, mixed media works, illustrations from book collaboration with George Rivera and a newly commissioned mural in honor of our 20th Dia de los Muertos celebration. That work will be installed downtown in Longmont very soon. So I'm to turn it over now to Tony and Cipriano. Good evening everybody and kind of cool to be part of this experience. Hello Facebook and everybody who's watching. So that's a conversation. Hello dad. Hello son. So I guess we'll start off by talking a little bit about your background and where you grew up. I've heard all this before but obviously the audience hasn't before. So tell us a bit about your upbringing and where you grew up and such. Well I was raised between New Mexico and here in Denver and traveled back and forth with my maternal grandmother, Trini Ortega. In fact I'm paying tribute to her and my mother and my great aunt at an altar here. But I grew up going back and forth between Denver, Colorado and Pecos, New Mexico. I would spend summers there and I would spend the winters here going to school. And my grandmother was a seamstress. She used to do alterations, make quilts, make clothes, etc. So I was always hanging out basically underneath the sewing machine cabinet. And my grandmother would give me a needle and thread and some material and I would start sewing. So that was the beginning of my creative career. Also my grandmother was a wonderful storyteller. She would share stories with me about her childhood, my mom's childhood, my uncle's. She would tell old book tales from the Southwest. So I think that was a way of me learning to visualize, to see things, to be creative. So my grandmother was probably the biggest inspiration for me being an artist. So I would be safe to say that she was probably one of your favorite people in your childhood. She primarily raised you, correct? Yeah, she was with me basically 24-7, especially when I was really little. And then she would be the person that would pick me up after school. She's the one that took care of me when I was sick. And because of her, I learned a lot about my identity, traditions, and culture. So I have a lot to thank her for. And with that being said, it being a deal to those, why don't those, do you want to talk a bit about the people in the altar? Yeah, in the altar I'm paying homage basically to the three women that I consider were my mothers. My mother, Mary Martinez, my grandmother Trini Ortega, and my great aunt, Pauline Segura. Sort of, they sort of did the baby shuffle or the title shuffle when I was small. They all helped me in various ways. I didn't meet my father until I was 19 years old. But then after that it became more acquainted with him, got to know him a little bit, got to see sort of the DNA from that side of the family. And I'm also paying tribute to him there in the altar. And the other person I'm paying tribute to there is my stepfather, Max Martinez. So let's go a little bit more into the art itself. And do you want to talk about the creative process about creating these stories with George Rivera and also involving me? Well, George Rivera is a good friend of mine. He's a professor at CU Boulder. I've known him for well over 20 years. We started the first story Jumping Over the Pyramid, which is not here. We have three other stories. And he came up with the idea of creating a storybook, a storybook about our energy. He wanted to do it bi-lingually. And he wanted a story to come from us, from our culture. And so we had worked on a project previously to that. Our leader, Guadalupe, we did a fundraising, an auction to raise money for scholarships for college students. And then he started collecting my work. He became more and more friends. And he approached me one day, I'd like to do a children's book. Would you be interested in doing the illustrations with me? And so he got to know me and my family, and he saw my son growing up. And from that, he said, well, I'm going to make a story about your son and my two little dogs. And his two little dogs, Chodo and Vato, who are in all the images, and you. So I used you as my model. So you become the characters of all the stories of the adventures of Chodo, Vato, and Pano. Do you want to talk a bit about the book, then particularly the ones behind us and on these walls over here? Yeah. So back in 1992, George Rivera organized a show with Chicano artists, and we went down to Michoacán, to Zinzunsan in Pazcuaro. And we went there for Day of the Dead, which Chicanos just didn't know a lot about Day of the Dead. We had been doing some art, some reading, some research. But to experience it is incredible, because you get to see people in the cemeteries, people cleaning off the graves, burning off the weeds, decorating with candles and marigolds. So that informed my work. But we wanted to have the stories, or George wanted to have the stories with a little boy and two dogs, the Chicanos, learning about their heritage. So we involved you and them. So basically you were probably, I guess, eight or nine years old, and I staged you and the dogs, pretending that you were in front of a tomb, or pretending you were in front of the cemetery, or learning about marigolds. So I used photographs for, as an inspiration, as a point of departure to create the work. And all of these pieces are pastels, pastels on black paper. Yeah, it's interesting that you mentioned, back in 1992, how Dia de los Muertos really wasn't mainstream like it is now. So I think it's fair to say that we did, before Pixar did Coco, we kind of did the concept before they did, but not trying to make claims. But anyway, I've been just thinking about that. But yeah, I just want to talk a little bit about my experience, and I remember looking around at these paintings and being able to have the fond memories, because I have a pretty photographic memory of being able to photograph for these. At the time that I did them, I didn't really remember or think about what I was doing. I should say I just didn't know it was really for a book. I just figured you wanted to just take pictures and we posed with the dogs and stuff. I remember Cholón Vato when I was a kid. And I just remember slowly understanding, because how old was I when we first did the first book? For the first book, you were probably three or four. And then the second book, Migrant Child's Dream, which is also here in the exhibit, you were probably more like five or six. And then this Day of the Dead was about ten years old. You're a mic dad. Remember your microphone. Yeah. So, yeah, I just remember a lot about being able to pose for these and being able to take those photographs and then transferring them into pastels. Do you want to talk a little bit about how you did that process? Yeah, well, I had images or photographs drawing studies from Day of the Dead from Potspot when we went. And then I had those photographs of you and the dogs. And so I would use those as a point of departure, a way to inform the work. And then I would do some sketches. And then I would lay out the compositions. And then I would do the pastels. One thing I always remember is when you were really little, George and I, we would organize these exhibitions with these stories. We would take them to a trans-mutant museum, to pediatrics wards, to libraries, children's libraries, et cetera. And we would bring you along, even when you were little, and George brought these little stamps, the paws of the dogs. And we would sign the books for the kids. And then you would sign, you weren't even old enough to even write yet, you would sign them, and then you would put the paw prints. Yeah, I remember that. You remember that? I do remember that, yeah. Yeah, I'm glad you remember that. That was a pretty fun doing that. And the other kids who were in the audience, because we'd read the story to the kids, and they got a kick out of it. And then we would sign the books for them. And you would, too. Yeah, it was a pretty good, like, little tour that we did with that book. And I just have good fond memories about that a lot. Yeah. So do you want to talk a bit more about the other books, regardless of, we just talked about the De Los Muertos book. Do you want to talk a little bit about the subjects of the most, let's talk about the most recent one, the one we did back in 2012. Yeah, the, in the entry hallway here is the Sink of the Mile book. Those aren't pastels. Those are etchings. They're hand-colored etchings. So an etching is a printing process. So I would do the drawings. Then we'd make a film positive. And then I would burn it onto a plate. It was all photographic processes, trying to get the image on there. And then I would print them and then hand-color them. What was different about that book, it was in 2012. You were already in college. Yeah. You were at Regis University. Yeah, I remember when you were working on it. So I found these old Polaroid photos of when you were a kid, when you were wearing different costumes, playing different characters. So I would take George's story and then try to fit these costumes and that narrative, follow more of us, historical narratives. Yeah, I was about to say this particular, most recent book is more about history and involving, you know, Cholo Batampano's journey through those knowledgements of history. So that's the difference between these other books. And this one, Adielos Muertos, is it's not as personal in the sense of being based off of family or experiences is more about the Mexican history, essentially. Correct? Right. Yeah, the sequel to Batampano characters from history, yes. Where did you get those images, the historical ones? Many of those images, I appropriated off of the internet and some of the other images, I put photographs that I took, like the one that you see out there with you're singing like a mariachi. Mm-hmm. I actually, Brian Webster and Denver in elementary school, they have mariachi classes for kids and I have some photographs and I use that as the backdrop for that particular image. What I like about your work and what we've done is that a lot of the things that we do in the backgrounds at least are things that we've been familiar with, like George's house is the porches over here and then the swing set and the park is Woodbury Park and I just remember what I like about that is I have a personal connection, obviously, to those backgrounds but it's also not just involving backgrounds that I'm familiar with but also the community of Denver as well too. Yeah, George has been an incredible person to work with. We've been doing this for over 18 years. We have a total of five stories, bilingual. Most of them are written in poems and they're all couplets in rhyme. They're in Spanish and English. So the Spanish translation isn't exact as the English but it's close because he wanted to keep it in rhyme. Right. But George, specifically for the Migrant Child's Dream story that you can come and see here at the museum, he actually interviewed his aunt who traveled the migrant trail to the different states, Wisconsin to pick cherries. Yeah, do you want to explain what that really means historically? Yeah, well, migrant workers are the people that pick our fruits and our vegetables that have to be hand-picked and they're very important to our economy because they help feed us. That's how we get those foods or those items to our grocery stores. So George, as family members and my wife has family members who are migrant workers and so we wanted to pay homage to them, recognize them, let people know that, not keep them in the shadow. So this brings a story about a little boy who followed his family on the migrant trail through different states throughout the Midwest. And it's not just about your or my family experience. It's about, like you said, it's about people who still to this day do that occupation. Yeah. It's a very important factor in our economy and also in our way of being in this country and I think we forget how much of that kind of story is important to tell everybody, especially, you know, common people who aren't familiar with that kind of lifestyle and pursuit of survival, essentially. Yeah, I think that's one of the reasons the museum wanted that story here in Longmont because Longmont has a history of growing sugar beets and having migrant workers pick the sugar beets. In fact, your grandfather, Frank Montero, who I want to acknowledge also, he was a migrant worker and he picked sugar beets. So he'd picked sugar beets for part of the year and the other part of the year he would go up to Washington and they would pick apples. Yeah. Kind of a fun fact. This is my grandfather's leather jacket I wore tonight kind of an homage to him. He's still with us but he's not doing the best in health at the moment but my thoughts go out to him. But yeah, let's talk about a little bit more about the philosophical meaning behind Day of the Dead and the symbology and what it means for the Mexican people and where this whole concept comes from. Okay. Well, yeah, it's basically the pre-Columbian indigenous people of Mexico already had a day set aside or days set aside to remember their ancestors to remember their families. Well, when the Spanish came they brought Catholicism. Well, it mixed. The cultures mixed. In fact, I consider myself a mestizo. I'm part of my cultured heritage as Native American. Part of my culture is from Spain, right? And so it mixed. So it became part of All Saints and All Souls Day. And so Catholic icons and imagery were introduced then later on as it developed and evolved and started including photographs which probably didn't happen until the early part of the 20th century. And so on an altar or at the grave site there's a feeling that the spirits have a divine right to come back and visit us. Well, they had to be able to find that way back. So they used candles to light the trail. They used the marigolds to send to the marigolds in the color to bring them back. Obviously they recognized themselves when they see photos of themselves. They put their favorite food or their favorite crossword puzzle that's what I did for my grandmother or hearing aids from my aunt. So when they come back and visit us on those days they can say, oh, these are people here on earth that are remembering this. And it's not only just for the spirits to come back it's also a way for the people who are still living on the earth to be able to use materialistic items to remember their loved ones because it's a way of we forget how much, you know, energy and time we put into materialistic items and just myself seeing those things on the altar remind me of, you know, Pauline and Mary and Victor as well too. So it's an interesting beautiful practice I think. I think that's why a lot of people beyond the Mexican people really find it quite a moving festival and an event and a way of living. Yeah, we call it Adilos Murthos the day of the dead, right? But in a lot of ways it's the day for the living. And we're the ones who celebrate we're the ones who are remembering we're the ones who are paying homage to, right? And what's by going down to Zinzunsan, Mexico in Michoacán it made me realize that people in Mexico take time off they stop working they stop going to school because kids participate teens participate seniors participate it's really a family event. I remember when we finally took you to Oaxaca you were like an eighth grade I believe and you asked me what are we going to do in Mexico? And I told you we're going to cemeteries and we're going to spend the night there and do you remember that reaction when I told you that? Well for me I don't think it was very much that's what's interesting I wanted to talk about that for me it wasn't a very big deal but I remember telling my teachers when I went to Denver School of the Arts about where I was going because I had to miss a couple of weeks of school and a lot of the teachers like you're going to go and do what you're going to go to Mexico and like because this is before you know day of the dead you know popular but for me going back to your question is it's not really uncommon for the Mexican people and other indigenous cultures around the world to embrace you know the calavera or the scholar to see literally death and to make not humor of it but to make it humanized because it is part of the human journey so to answer your question it wasn't a big shock for me I mean to play with the candy skulls and the little puppets and you know the shrines and the Catholicism behind it I didn't necessarily understand all of it but I think I understood the bigger meaning of it even when I was younger so yeah definitely so do you remember Cholón Vato? yeah I do I do remember them yeah what do you remember about them? I just remember you know George having those toys in the back of his car that he would get for the dogs but he would always let me pick a couple of them before they tore him apart that's the biggest thing I remember as a kid yeah I remember I would meet George at my studio and you were really little and you'd be running around and you'd be touching the art and you'd be touching art materials and George would every two minutes would say aren't you getting nervous? he's touching that stuff I kept you entertained right? yeah I still touch some of your stuff in the studio so when George and I were having a conversation about putting these books together or he was looking at the art my son was touching some pastels I was working on a tile mural and I was laying it out on the floor to see what it looked like and he would move one color to another area and George would get all nervous like are you gonna let him do that? it's keeping him entertained yeah I mean that kind of relationship still develops even now I mean I do my own art and still need your power tools and stuff and you're up there working or teaching and whatever and I just go up there and grab what I need and go down and work on it and come back and put it away so the behavior really hasn't changed that much I think we're gonna wrap it up here about two minutes here but I just wanted to kind of go back to the idea of you know day of the dead and understanding where it comes from but also just kind of want to ask you what would you like to have on your altar I mean obviously you won't be there but if I do it for you how do you envision it? well I would hope you put some pastels on there I should be taking notes here have some paint brushes maybe some acrylic tubes right oh you know what you definitely have to put on there is that apron yes my grandmother I have this apron she was a seamstress so when I was in art school she knew I had to get an apron so she would make that for me so I have this apron that's made out of denim and it's got layers and layers of paint yeah so it's almost bulletproof and I had to fix the straps remember so I've had that apron probably 40 years since I was in art school so you'll have to put that on there yeah definitely but again it's a way of not making lighter thinking death is silly but being able to understand that it's a part of life and obviously with COVID and everything that's going on it's a much more serious in-your-face subject even especially more so now but I just wanted to for anybody who's lost lost loved ones during this time period I think it's really important to look at these you know type of practices and be able to just find comfort in those things so I think I think that's a good way to wrap it up so but yeah thank you so much thank you I hope you can come to the museum and wonderful conversation to be a part of so thank you very much for taking the time to be with us this evening and thank you for sharing your artwork with our community so we have gotten to the portion of the evening where we are going to recognize and honor some of the founders of this celebration I'm going to start by reading a statement from Jill Orr she was the curator of education before me and was responsible for initiating this celebration bringing these community members together and kind of getting it going so I reached out to Jill to see if she wanted to tell us something to the conversation this evening and tell us what it has meant to her to see this celebration grow and change within this community over the past 20 years Jill said good evening I'm honored to be part of this very special celebration it's hard to believe that it has been 20 years since we began this incredible journey together I could have never imagined in 2001 when 170 people attended the first event that Dia de los Muertos would become one of Longmont's signature multicultural community events attracting thousands of people becoming the largest in Colorado and one of the best in the U.S. wow I remember the first event extremely well it was downtown in the former museum building on Kimbark street I had recently come on board as the new curator of education when Marta Clevenger the museum's director asked me to create programming for an exhibition called Mexican Folk Toys our goal was to connect with the Latino community fortunately our friends and colleagues Caroline Gonzalez and Carmen Ramirez were more than willing to help not only did they encourage our team to connect our programming to a holiday celebration such as Dia de los Muertos but they also helped open doors and introduced us to several people in the community during the first years we forged new relationships and partnerships with people including Carlotta Loyola Hernandez at Casa de la Esperanza Marta Moreno at El Comité de Longmont Mary V. Hill from Alternatives for Youth and so many others I wish I could name everyone personally but we'd be here all night we've listened we've learned we've laughed together and we've cried together by coming together to create to create and build Longmont's Dia de los Muertos event we found common ground while the programs on the exhibits are undoubtedly important vehicles for our work what has made this event incredibly successful are the trusted relationships the friendships and the ongoing support among our communities it's because of collective generosity it's because of all of you to this day I'm incredibly grateful for being part of something so impactful authentic and genuine it's been an absolute joy to see how it has continued to evolve over the years I can't wait to see what's next Jill Orr, Executive Director with Love Oregon so just like Jill said I feel so honored to have inherited responsibility for this event and the exhibition to have inherited the relationships that she began to build within the community and we have some of those people here that she mentioned this evening so first I'd like to introduce Carmen Ramirez to speak for a little bit on what it has meant for her to be a founder of this event and to see it grow and change in this community over the years Carmen Good evening everyone I'm really honored to be here tonight and to be talking after 20 years on something that started with a very simple question and the question was why don't Latinos come to the museum and then our response was we didn't know we were welcome we didn't know we were invited and what do you have that would attract us so that's when with Martha Clevenger and Jill Orr we started reaching out to the Latino community and I think what is so important is not just the opening of the doors but it's the gems that you bring in through the doors if we look at now 20 years later what we started with bringing in folks that knew how to make wooden toys we've brought in artists more importantly our community altars these are people from the community that come and they share their stories of their families the pain of those they have lost the gratitude of being able to display not only their culture their heritage their food but to share that with community I think that's so important over the last 20 years and I've been involved with making altars my own personal altars which has given me the opportunity years to mourn people that I've lost from my family to remember them remember by their favorite foods remember something maybe a cup maybe a little figurine that belonged to my aunt so that kind of connection to community but more importantly to share that with the rest of the community so they can learn about us but they learn about as a Latino community by looking at us as an asset a gem as we share our hearts we share our stories and we share everything about our community and I think that's really important because if we're going to have a community that is inclusive values everybody and understands how to be multilingual and multicultural we needed to start with our Latino community and as Anne was reading Jill's piece where she was talking about how many other people came forward Marta Moreno and Mary V. Hill and everybody else that came forward and they too shared but again it was because they wanted to come forward and highlight the gems in our community the gems in our culture the gems in our food and share that with our community and for that I am grateful to everybody that has shared over the last 20 years and hopeful that the next 20 years we're going to have a bunch of other people that are going to be sharing their ancestors sharing their stories and their food muchas gracias a todos es un honor estar aquí con ustedes después de 20 años pero más importante es un honor que ustedes han compartido de parte de la comunidad latina gracias thank you so much Carmen and thank you so much for your participation thank you for everything that you've taught me I really appreciate you sorry guys now I'm going to cry next I'd like to introduce Marta Moreno she's become a really important person in my life in the past few years Marta is a really powerful and wonderful woman she is a strong member of the community she's one of the founders of El Comité de Longmont which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and she was also one of the founding members of Longmont Museums Dia de los Muertos Celebration so Marta would you like to come up please Buenas noches good evening my name is Marta Valenzuela Moreno Elias known in Longmont like the Boris number one don't forget that I've been part of the museum for the past 20 years and the founders were Carmen, Jill, whatever it's been an honor my pleasure to bring to the museum this cultural event because when I moved out here I said what goes on in Longmont and in the museum I said Dia de los Muertos yeah we should they wanted to build an auditorium they said what for we have the museum we built an auditorium in the museum and we don't spend money on another auditorium so I've been part of the Dia de los Muertos bringing memories from my family I'm a family of one dad, three moms my dad had won his first wife the second he had five with my mother he had about 13 so it's un chorro a whole family this year I added my brother David who I called El Pacino Valenzuela because he resembled a lot and all my brothers and sisters and to me having the altar has been very personal because I bring the stuff that my mother used to do used to wash by hand board make tortillas chile mole chocolate everything that you see there my mother know are my brothers and sisters and my father was a tough man you know you don't mess with Mr. Valenzuela you know everybody he whistled you had to be home and we he was very strict very loving father my mother and my brothers and sisters many of them were in the and the military Navy Army Marines and all they all served and I am very proud of a big family I just lost my brother by El Pacino and August the 31st I was able to go see him in forward even though the COVID I said I don't care I have to go so I went and he was still there and I when the person is dying the last thing that goes is your hearing so I said brother David it's time to go that's okay you can go and join my mother and my father and my brothers and my sisters you save a spot over there for us because we will soon join you you know when our turn comes about it's been a very honor grateful to be part of the museum and to show what culturally you know competent the museum has become you know allowing us to bring our cultural and introduce our family how we grew and what we use you know in our daily household it's been a pleasure to be part of the museum to be able to exhibit all my family with all the things that my mother used to do at home when she was doing tamales washing hand the my brother who was the last one who read I called Al Pacino Valenzuela with his hat and I thank him and you the honor of going to say goodbye to him and brother there is time it's okay that you go there to join you with my mother and my brothers and save a spot for us when the time comes all that represents my brothers I'm involved in the museum has been a great honor this city has been culturally recognizing the days of the dead for all the families who have been able to carry to the top and it's a respect for our loved ones who have gone and all the others who are here joining their altars with their things que han sido muy favorables. Doy un mil gracias al museo y a todos que están, he estado aquí, thanks to Ann and all the staff that has allowed us to be part, is an honor, because when I moved here, que hace long man. So Mark is here, the butters is here, we're gonna do a lot and learn. Gracias, and anosis, Dios los bendiga. Thank you, God bless you. Thank you, Mark, so much for sharing your family, your history, your culture, your language, your traditions with this community, and being such a very important and strong leader as well. The things that you've done for this community are gonna last forever, so thank you. Next, we have one more person to hear from this evening, another strong woman who's been a leader in this community for many, many years, a former Boulder County commissioner and a former representative. I'd like to welcome Jan Amendez to please come forward. I'm very thrilled that El Comite's founding fathers who have passed away are being honored here. Edna Varo, or Moon, and Tony Tafoya, and my ex-husband, Richard Mendez. We have all brought mementos and things that they loved. Ed and Tony were, I think, president four times each of El Comite, they were there the first night when we all came together after the shootings, and they stayed with it for many, many years. Ed came to us from Pueblo, and Tony from Santa Fe, and they really made Longmont a part of their lives. Richard was born in Longmont in the house that still stands on Terry Street where his mother died, and they were all outstanding men, and we miss them very much. All the children and grandchildren honor them daily, and remember them. You can come and see some of the things they loved and cherished in their lives, and I hope you will appreciate what they gave to the city of Longmont and to peace and justice, because it was very necessary at the time, and they gave, and gave, and gave. Ed was a wonderful attorney and helped many, many people with their issues over the years, and was a great photographer as well. He was a photographer of many, many sports teams, all over the state, I think. He loved it, and Tony was a man of peace. I think he coined the El Comite from something he had done earlier, and he was there the first night, too. I have wonderful memories of these gentlemen, and after Richard's and my marriage ended, he married a wonderful woman who was a fellow teacher, not at his school, but, and they were able to travel the world on every vacation, and some of the places he went, China, and Hungary, and England, and Africa are remembered on this occasion, and I wanna thank the museum for their wonderful work in making sure the culture has recognized the wonderful Latino culture in Longmont. Richard was very proud of his heritage, as were Ed and Tony, and I think we don't want to remember, but we must remember that there were days when my Richard's brothers came back from the Korean War, and there were still signs up that said no dogs are Mexicans. It was a terrible time, and I think it's changed, but we must always remember because history cannot be allowed to repeat itself. Thank you, Anna, and I hope you'll come and see the beautiful displays. And thank you, Jana, for sharing your words with us. Thank you for your service to the community. Thank you for everything you do. I also just wanna thank our audience. Thanks for being with us tonight. Thank you for supporting the museum. We invite you to come and see the exhibit. It opens tomorrow. It will be up until January 9th, so you've got plenty of time to come in, make sure to wear your mask. And we're open Tuesday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Also, don't forget to check out additional live stream performances. Our celebration's not over yet. This Sunday, we have a local talent showcase featuring a number of performers that you will recognize from festivals past, and then again on Sunday, November 1st, on Day of the Dead. Every week, check our Day of the Dead website, longmontdayofthed.com, and longmontdiedalosmortos.com, where you can find new content every week about the history, the traditions, how to build an altar, the food, the arts, the crafts, all the different ways that the celebration is held in different parts of Mexico and Guatemala. So we welcome you to check that out every week for new information. And of course, we have, since we can't have a festival this year, we can't all come together in person. We have free celebration kits. We've made 500 of them. We'll be handing them out to the community. So check our website for those details to find out when and where you can pick up yours. And just one more time, a big thank you to all of the people who have made the celebration so wonderful and who have made it grow and thrive for the past 20 years. We hope you'll join us again on Sunday for the next performance. Be well. The world changes quickly. Get the internet that moves even faster. Next light gigabit fiber ties longmont together and brings the world to your door.