Joseph “Eddie” Montour: Sunrise Nov. 6, 1947 — Sunset Aug. 15, 2025
By JUAN ESPINOSA
Renaissance man, Joseph “Eddie” Montour, 77, has moved on to the next world.
To his community, he was a cultural warrior, leader of the Brown Berets, accomplished orator, artist, war veteran, teacher, counselor, and diplomate who mixed with Nobel Peace Laureates and represented the Chicano nation of Aztlan on the world stage.
Born and raised on Pueblo’s Lower East Side, Montour got his parents permission to join the Air Force when he was 17. He served a tour of duty in Vietnam.
“I came home from a war to a war and I‟ve been fighting ever since,” he often said. In an interview with Rocky Mountain PBS in 2005, Montour said he had a lot “coraje,” (anger) and was speaking out against the war.
“He worked with organizations such as the Crusade for Justice and the Brown Berets and has spent the better part of his life as an activist working to improve the social conditions of Chicanos living in Pueblo,” PBS’s Lisa Olken said in her report.
As a leader of the Pueblo Brown Berets, Montour became a close friend and confidant of the late Rodolfo Corky Gonzales, founder of the Crusade. Montour and the berets were called upon frequently to provide security at Denver events.
At the L.A. Moratorium in 1970 — an anti-war demonstration attended by an estimated crowd of 30,000 Chicanos erupted into a police riot — “Montour and the Pueblo Berets were there. Along with Gonzales, 25 to 30 Puebloans were arrested in the melee including Al Gurule, Manuel Silva Cilff Martinez, Pat Gomez and the late Martin Serna,” wrote Karen Vigil, for The Pueblo Chieftain in 2002.
Though he was not arrested, Montour played a vital role in securing the release of the jailed Puebloans, Vigil reported.
Montour wasn’t even born when the Zoot Suit Riots broke out in Los Angeles in 1943, but he saw a connection to those long-ago events, Vigil reported.
“He views the zoot suiters as the first barrio warriors, people who paid a heavy price for simply speaking their mind, standing up for their rights and refusing to take a back seat to the rest of society.”
Long before the current ICE roundups of undocumented immigrants, Montour drew parallels between the treatment of Mexican-Americans during the Great Depression and the internment of thousands of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
The year 1970, was pivotal for the Chicano Movement in Colorado with the founding of La Raza Unida Political Party. Gurule was a candidate for governor in Colorado and the LRU fielded candidates for numerous local and state political races.
In 1976, Montour ran for Pueblo County Commissioner under La Raza Unida. At that time, Montour stated that “his campaign would be concentrating on those issues affecting the community, including attacks on health centers and professional Chicanos.”
He was referring to successful attempts by local officials to cut funding of the Pueblo Neighborhood Health and Spanish Peaks Mental Health Centers. Despite community support, both centers eventually lost federal funding.
For the last quarter of the 20th century, Montour was the go-to-guy for all things Chicano. He was often interviewed by television and newspaper reporters. He was critical of the quality of public education and said Chicano kids are not failing their schools, their schools are failing them by not teaching about Chlcano contributions to civilization, values and the cultural concepts. As an example, he noted that books used by District 60 for teaching Spanish contain words not used in this area.
He also advocated for parents to get involved in their children’s educations. In 2000, he was involved in the opening of the Cesar Chavez Academy on Pueblo’s Westside. That program grew to a K-12 campus with over 1,000 students. After 25 years, the District 60 Board of Education refused to renew the Chavez-Huerta Preparatory Academy’s charter and the schools have closed.
In an interview with Arturo “Bones” Rodriguez in the 1980s, Montour talked about the “common denominator” of the Chicano Movement.
“Corky talked about the common denominator we all have and that’s nationalism” Montour said. “We are indigenous people. We’re Mestizos, We’re Chicanos. We use nationalism as a tool to politicize and organize our people… We are unique in that we have to uneducate and reeducate ourselves because of the lies and hypocrisy we have had to deal with in this country. The distorted history that has been presented to us by a repressive system of people who came here with guns because they didn’t have the courage to stay in their own part of the world and fight for justice, equality and freedom of speech, and freedom to represent themselves. They didn’t utilize the philosophy of self-determination which is a big factor in the Chicano Movement.”
Montour often spoke out against police brutality. At a demonstration on the steps of the Pueblo Police Department in 1977, following the death of Bobby Fernandez who was beat to death by two police officers in his own living room, Montour told the protestors “If we can’t get justice in the courts, we’ll get it in the street,” according to La Cucaracha.
His willingness to take it to the streets didn’t deter Montour from seeking peaceful solutions. In 1996, PeaceJam was formed in Denver. He became involved with the organization built around Nobel Peace Laureates who work personally with youth to pass on the spirit, skills and wisdom that they embody.
Some of the Nobel Peace Laureates who have participated are: the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Jose Ramos Horta, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Betty Williams and Aung San Suu Kyi.
“Eddie Montour of Pueblo has sponsored about 125 local youngsters at the conference since he was first asked to speak at a session featuring the Dalai Lama five years ago,” said Dawn Eagle, co-executive director of the PeaceJam Foundation, in a Pueblo Chieftain article written by Karen Vigil in 2002.
In the article, Vigil reported that Montour had been asked to sit on the PeaceJam’s Rocky Mountain regional steering committee. Rudy Balles of Pueblo was one of the local youths Montour recruited to PeaceJam. He says it changed his life.
“Eddie introduced me to the Dalai Lama,” Balles said in a recent interview with La Cucaracha. In a 2016 Denver Post article, Balles talked about his transformation from his gang lifestyle. After a heated meeting with Pueblo Poiice officers, Montour approached Balles.
“It was the first time an adult really spoke to what was going on in my life, understood the frustration I had as a young man. I decided to pay attention.”
Montour persuaded Balles to join the center’s leadership program – PHD (Peace, Harmony and Dignity).
“He had self-determination and self-respect, but he used it for the wrong reasons,” Montour said of Balles. He directed Balles toward other community leaders and encouraged him to participate in PeaceJam.
Early in his career, Montour was quoted as saying: “It’s very upsetting to a system for a Chicano or a Chicana to stand up and say, ‘I know who I am. I know what I want. I know where I’m going and I don’t need you. I don’t need your help. I don’t need your sympathy.’”
Montour knew who he was, where he was going, told the “system” he didn’t want its help, or sympathy. He was a Chicano who walked the walk and talked the talk.
iViva Eddie Montour — Rest in Power!
Obituary
Joseph “Eddie” Montour, of Pueblo, CO passed away on August 15, 2025. He was preceded in death by his parents, Joe and Betty Montour; and brothers, David Montour and Joseph Montour. He was survived by his children, Lisa Montour and Eduardo Montour, grandchildren, Antonio, Martin, Brianna, Eduardo, Leticia, Julian, Ricardo and Ramon; great grandchildren, Jerico, Marcelino, Antonio Jr, Xavier, Zion, Irie, Martin, Alex, Asher, Issoria, Nando and Adeleya; siblings, Christopher Montour and Mary (Chris Ortega) Montour; numerous extended family and friends. Eddie enjoyed drawing, painting, planting, ceramics and being a community activist for more than 50 years. Eddie fought for social justice as a life long Brown Beret in the Chicano Movement. He loved to travel, going out to eat and shopping for his grandchildren. Above all, he cherished the time spent with his family. Eddie is a honored elder of the community who will be deeply missed by all who loved him.