6. Community Gathering

Rachel Gross: Face the grand doors of the church building.

This is San Cajetano, as the old-timers called it. It was built in 1926 as the first Spanish language church in Denver.

Seventy years ago, this would have been a far noisier place to stand. Former students at the St. Cajetan school recall walking under the Lawrence Street Viaduct to get to class. Inside, the Torres sisters’ organ playing competed with the sound of cars rushing by as though traffic was right on top of the church.

St. Cajetan was a true home for the Westsiders. Community members recall the power of hearing their own language in church for the first time and gathering in the beautiful building.

This church was where baptisms and communions took place. It was a parish school for many of the neighborhood’s children and a credit union where neighbors could access credit.

Katelyn Puga recalls the big role St. Cajetan played in her grandparents’ lives:

Katelyn Puga: They were just very involved in the Catholic Church in St. Cajetan’s and you know, Grandma would, would talk about how they learned how to play all their musical instruments at St. Cajetan and in all their schooling. And then Grandpa Torres was the president of the St. Cajetan’s Credit Union. And I don’t know how long he did that, but he played a big role in that as well.

Rachel Gross: James Mark Tafoya also remembers how important the church was.

James Mark Tafoya: The beauty of St. Cajetan’s church as a community center, as a gathering place, as a healing place, as an art place, as a music emporium, was really dynamic, and we lost that.

Rachel Gross: To raise money for the church and the school, congregants would host a festival called a bazaar. Here, mothers and grandmothers sold tamales, green chili plates, and other homemade dishes. Others sold tickets for games like bingo, egg toss, or a dice game called chuck a luck.

These were the steps where happy families gathered after weddings, a scene captured in an iconic painting by local resident Carlos Fresquez named “Westside Wedding.” In it, the church is rendered in bold rose pink and vivid blue, with stained glass windows reflecting the blazing Denver sunset. A shiny, curvy green sedan is decked out and ready to whisk a newly married couple away.

For Frances Torres, the Fresquez painting captures the place of St. Cajetan in the community celebrations. She sees the scenes on the steps of St. Cajetan’s as something bigger than just one wedding.

Frances Torres: First of all, there were a lot of marriages. And if you remember during that time, marriages were big. And, you know, that’s part of the Mexican culture, too, is having a big wedding.

But the funny part about that painting is when I show it to people, when they see it at my house, everybody thinks it’s them. It’s the whole West side of Denver.

Rachel Gross: Turn your back to the church.

There is the downtown skyline that St. Cajetan’s school children would have glimpsed from under the viaduct. In the late 1960s, city planners were trying to shed Denver’s image as a cowtown. As part of that vision, they imagined downtown as a home for a set of urban universities and colleges. The question was where such a campus would go.

Increasingly, city planners turned their attention towards the neighborhood west of Speer Boulevard and north of Colfax Avenue, an area they called Auraria.

By 1969, a new proposal from the city threatened to destroy the tight-knit Westside community, but its residents wouldn’t go down without a fight.

Retrace your footsteps by walking back down Ninth Street Plaza towards the historic homes. Partway down on the right, you will see a large parking lot. Pause here for our next stop on the tour.