By VICENTE MARTINEZ ORTEGA
Pueblo’s Cinco de Mayo committee is moving the annual Cinco de Mayo event from Ray Aguilera/Bessemer Park to Plaza Verde Park. For most of the event’s 56-year history, Bessemer Park has been the venue.
This year, the 56th annual Cinco de Mayo will take place at Plaza Verde Park on Ash St. and Glendale Ave on May 5. The program starts at noon and will include cultural singers, folklorico dancers, educational speakers and mariachi performers until 6 p.m. The theme this year is “Brown and Proud.”
The event is organized by El Moviemento Sigue’s Cinco de Mayo committee made up of Pueblo Chicano community volunteers. Earlier this year the committee held meetings to discuss the idea of moving the event due to the fence being built around Bessemer Park.
Velia Rincon, Cinco committee co-chair, says, “We were definitely disappointed to hear the news. As a co-chair of the Cinco de Mayo committee this year, we listened to the concerns that were voiced about access to Bessemer Park when the fence went up before making the decision to move to Plaza Verde park this year.”
“Bessemer Park with 1,287 linear feet of fences and gates and having only a few entrances, is harder for elders, relatives with different physical abilities or medical issues, families with young children and our vendors to set-up for the event,” says Rincon.
On Oct. 27, 2025, Pueblo City Council voted to move $400,000 from the Colorado Lottery funds from the park construction of Eagle Ridge Park to the Ray Aguilera Park Perimeter fence. The reallocation passed by Counselors Mark Aliff, Brett Boston, Roger Gomez, Joe Latino, Dennis Flores, and Sarah Martinez. Regina Maestri opposed pulling money from the Eagle Ridge Park, as the $400,000 comes from the park that is in the district she represented at the time.
The construction of the fence around Bessemer Park was in reaction to the community members, who live across the streets from the park, who complained of unwanted activities during the summer hours after curfew — from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. The undesired activities including alcohol and drug use, represent .0098% of total hours of the year. The undesired activity is during 0% of the hours that the park is open. Resolutions were placed on the agenda by Pueblo Mayor Heather Graham and championed by District 4 Councilman Roger Gomez to the City Council for their “yes” votes. Gomez lives near the park and owns a hotdog stand one block away.
Gomez said he has been told families are afraid of taking their children to the park.
Community outrage was heard at a Pueblo Urban Renewal Authority community town hall in late February before the fence was installed. PURA was unveiling their community plan for the Bessemer Tax Increment Finance District and the whole meeting was hijacked by concerns and challenges to the Bessemer Park fence installation. PURA was proud to announce a new micropark being developing, two blocks from Bessemer Park on Northern Ave and Routt Ave. with no fencing planned.
People who live directly across the streets from Bessemer Park reportedly love the idea of fencing in the park. People who live and work two to three blocks from the park have different opinions about the fence. These neighborhood folks and small business owners, from those surrounding blocks of the park, spoke out about the physical and social ramifications of this being the only fence around a city park out of the seventy city-run public parks. PURA, Mayor Graham and Christina Trujillo, of Steelworkers Museum of the West, were facilitating the meeting but could not defray the comments being made about the upcoming Bessemer Park fence.
The 56th Annual Cinco de Mayo is a free event celebrating the Chicano/Mexicano culture and history. Advertisements, social media, friends and family will help people navigate the change of location from Bessemer Park to Plaza Verde Park.
“El Movimiento Sigue is about removing barriers, not creating new ones for our community,” Rincon said. “We hope to see everyone at Plaza Verde Park on Tuesday, May 5!”
