Bike Leans - Paco Sanchez Park

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Who is Paco Sanchez? Why does he have a park? I took this photo this morning during my ride - Agent Gravel leaning on the Paco Sanchez sign. But why? Born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1915, Francisco Valadez Sanchez and his wife Hilda Maria were performers (Sanchez worked as a magician and opened for mariachi shows in Mexico.) He came to Denver in 1948 as a master of ceremonies for a Mexican music show. He realized that Denver had no Spanish language radio station and moved his family to the city, taking work in a furniture store. He used his money to buy time on two local radio stations and broadcast his own Spanish language shows. Paco Sanchez became a U.S. Citizen in 1951; by 1954 he had purchased his own radio station, KFSC, making it the first Spanish language radio station in Denver. Paco then turned to activism, starting the Good Americans Organization, which started a credit union that made obtaining loans and saving money easier for Denver’s Latin community. In 1968, the Good Americans Organization became the first private entity in the city to found and build a low income housing project. In 1968, Sanchez was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives, where he served one term. That’s Paco Sanchez. That’s why he has a park named after him. And that’s why I took a photo of my bike next to his name. Link is to a local news story on Paco Sanchez and his impact on the Denver Latino community: