Feliz Cinco de Mayo

Colorado and the West are rich with influence from Mexican culture including one of the country's largest Cinco de May celebrations.

Enjoy this gallery curated to celebrate Mexican culture in Colorado.

Mexican culture

Shows a young man and woman dressed in Aztec costumes for a production presented by Fiesta Alegre de Denver and sponsored by El Centro Cultural. The man wears a feathered head piece, and carrys a shield. The woman wears a decorated bodice with fringe and a headband.

A young Mexican American boy in an Aztec dance costume dances. He wears a smock with decorative trim, a headdress with feathers and he holds an arch of paper flowers.

Members of a Chicano theater group identified as the National Chicano Theater, directed by Enrique Montano, pose on a rise looking over the skyline of Denver, Colorado. They lean against or stand near two automobiles from the 1940's. The men are dressed as Zoot suiters and the women wear vintage style dresses and skirts and blouses. Two men wear long jackets, pegged pants, long chains and hats.

Painter John Flores, a Chicano artist from Denver, Colorado, poses with paint brushes as he works on a painting.

A boy in a blindfold swings a stick at a pinata in Denver, Colorado; Chicano boys and girls look on.

Louise Campa, Lucille Campa, a well known dancer and teacher of Mexican, Spanish classical dance and flamenco, poses in a classical style Spanish dance costume. She wears a short blouse with long sleeves, has a bare midriff and has a short skirt with a long train. She wears a Spanish style wide brimmed hat and holds castanets. Louise Campa was the wife of Professor Arthur L. Campa, Sr., and author, renowned scholar, historian and professor of cultural anthropology.

Photograph of several older female students from Ebert Elementary School performing a hat dance. Five girls stand on stage dressed in traditional Mexican clothing. They have a sombrero on the floor between them. They are all in the middle of dancing, while an unidentified boy sits on the stage with an accordion and wearing a sombrero. Several other girls dressed in the same costumes sit on the floor in front of the stage.

Teenage boys and girls, members of the Ballet Chicano de Aztlán, a Chicano dance troop and part of the Crusade for Justice, dance in Mexican costumes on a stage, in front of a painted drop in Denver, Colorado. The girls wear print dresses decorated with lace and lace mantillas. The boys wear white pants and shirts, one boy holds a candle.

Mexican-Americans Michael Pando and Debbie Vigil pose with a tin mask at the Centro Cultural in Denver, Colorado.

View of bullfighters in small stadium in Gillett, Colorado, includes a matador in Mexican attire, a wooden arena, bulls and wooden bleachers in the background. The matador's costume includes hat, vest, sash, epaulets, "pink" stockings, slippers, and an embroidered ornamental jacket and pants. The matador, possibly Senor Jose Marrero, holds a cape. He is one of three Mexican matadors hired by "La Fiesta Bullfights" promoter Joe Wolfe, August 24-26, 1895.

Unidentified musicians, members of the Guardiantes de Cultura pose in the Concilio Superior of La Sociedad Protection Mutua de Trabajadores Unidos meeting hall in Antonito (Conejos County), Colorado. An unidentified woman sits and holds a guitar, she wears eyeglasses and has gray hair, a man is beside her.

Ilse Velásquez, a young girl, poses in a traditional Mexican regional costume at the celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Holy Family Church in Fort Collins (Larimer County), Colorado. She wears a hand woven dress decorated with ribbon, a bead necklace and has ribbons woven into her hair.

A ticket for the Mexican Bull Fight held August 24, 25, and 26, 1895, in Gillett, Colorado, has a picture of a bull, a matador, a banderillero, and a picador in a bullring filled with people. Written around the edges is: "Mexican Bull Fight, Cripple Creek, Dis't. Colo. Aug. 24, 25 & 26. Good August ,̲ Fiesta, Admit One, No.,̲ $5.00, J. H. Wolfe, Manager." Joe Wolfe was the organizer of the event.

Antonio Esquivel, a champion Mexican vaquero and star of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, rides a bucking horse in a dirt arena during a performance of the show at Earl's Court in England. He wears a cowboy hat and a short, dark jacket. A group of cowboys stands in the background watching Esquivel ride. A backdrop with a landscape scene painted on it is at the far end of the arena.

Teenage boys and girls, members of the Ballet Chicano de Aztlán, a Chicano dance troop and part of the Crusade for Justice, dance in Mexican costumes on a stage, in front of a painted drop in Denver, Colorado. The boys stand behind the girls, they wear headbands, the girls wear print dresses with full sleeves and pleated, flared skirts.

Benjamin J. Hodges, a Mexican Black man, poses with a horse, a rifle, and a pistol in a holster.

A Mexican-American man dances at Civic Center, in Denver, Colorado; he wears a bullfighter costume and twirls a cape. People look on.

Three year old Chico Stange, a member of Azteca Art Colorado, plays a carved wooden drum in Denver, Colorado. He holds two carved, wooden drum sticks. He wears a feather headdress decorated with beadwork, and a fabric loincloth and apron decorated with Aztec patterns highlighted with glitter.

A man smokes and stands near his display of "Santa Fe Pottery" on a sidewalk at the Cinco de Mayo Festival hosted by the West Side Coalition on Santa Fe Drive in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, Denver, Colorado. The pottery is displayed on tables covered with Mexican blankets and sheeting. A sign in a window reads: "New & Used Furniture."

A crowd gathers at a covered stage to hear music during the Cinco de Mayo festival hosted by the West Side Coalition on Santa Fe Drive in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, Denver, Colorado. Shows musicians and a large crowd that includes Mexican Americans.

View of unidentified Mexican folk dancers at a Cinco de Mayo celebration in Denver, Colorado. A woman in a blue costume decorated with purple and white frills dances with a man wearing a Mexican serape and a sombrero. The woman has ribbons and a bow in her hair.

Caroline Garcia teaches a young Dorothy Ramirez the step of a Mexican dance at the El Salvador Baptist Church in Denver, Colorado. Dorothy Ramirez wears a traditional Mexican dress and sombrero.

Men, women, girls and teenagers, members of Jeanette Trujillo-Lucero's Fiesta Colorado Dance Company pose on Broadway during Cinco de Mayo celebrations in Denver, Colorado. The girls and women wear traditional Mexican style dance costumes in bright colors decorated with lace and ribbon. They all have their hair pulled up with flower decorations. The men wear white shirts, bandannas and straw hats. Booths and high rise buildings are in the distance.

Ciriaco Arellano, a Mexican immigrant to Colorado and self tough artist, poses with two of his paintings in probably Denver, Colorado. The painting on the left shows a herd of sheep caught in a blizzard, the one on the right is the Mexican national flag. It shows an eagle with a serpent in its talons, it stands on a cluster of banners over a stylized string of prickly pear cactus.

A group of Mexican vaqueros poses on horseback in a dirt arena for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show at Ambrose Park in Brooklyn, New York. The men all wear sombreros and bolero jackets. A man in the center of the group holds a Mexican flag on a pole in his right hand.

Girls, members of Jeanette Trujillo-Lucero's Fiesta Colorado Dance Company pose near Civic Center Park during Cinco de Mayo celebrations in Denver, Colorado. The girls wear traditional Mexican style dance costumes in bright colors decorated with lace and ribbon. They all have their hair pulled up with flower decorations.