Margret Escamilla Oral History |
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Object Description
| Call Number | OH514 |
| Title | Margret Escamilla Oral History |
| Creator | Escmilla, Margaret, 1954- |
| Contributor | Colorado Voice Preserve |
| Date | 2013 November 15 |
| Summary | Margaret Escamilla was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1954. One of nine children, she was raised in a military family and lived in several countries. After she married her husband in 1971, she moved to the Globeville neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. In 1974 she began running her own day care. From 1994 to 2007, after twenty years of self employment, she started working with the Denver District Attorney overseeing a juvenile offenders program called Restorative Justice. Since her arrival in Denver, Margaret has been involved in several community organizations including volunteering at Garden Place Elementary, and teaching domestic arts at Stapleton Recreation Center. She was extensively involved with alley installations, road and street improvements in her neighborhood. She founded A-Graffiti Project in 2007, and served as president of the Globeville Civic Association until 2012. She has also worked with north side Treatment Park, the ASARCO contamination lawsuit, neighborhood tree planting, Globeville Clean-up Day, Graffiti Task Force Team, Nuisance Abatement, Neighborhood Ambassador, North East Steering Committee, Keep Denver Beautiful, Denver Forestry team, and Habitat for Humanity. An injury in the early 2000s has kept her from further community involvement. She currently lives in the Globeville neighborhood with her husband, a third generation Globeville resident. |
| Description | 1 audio file (51:21), 1 photograph |
| Is Part Of | Globeville and Swansea and Elyria Oral History Project |
| Subject | Escmilla, Margaret, 1954-; Globeville (Denver, Colo. : Neighborhood); |
| Geographic Area | Denver (Colo.) |
| Format-Medium | Audio; Photograph |
| Source | In this interview Margaret talks about first impressions of neighborhood in early 1970s, the introduction of gangs in the 1980s, disappearance of gangs in the 1990s, and the removal of Stapleton housing. She describes the uniqueness, ethnic diversity and history of the residents, importance of the South Platte River, its diverse wildlife and nature, bike trails, and the difference in the community from between 1970 and 2013. She talks about her many different civic and volunteer experiences and the history of the Globeville Civic Association (founded in 1877). Escamilla discusses at great length about her experiences as a lead plaintiff in the 1990s ASARCO-Escamilla litigation, and the subsequent environmental testing, remediation process, community reaction, and long term effects it had on her life. She discusses the influence of Habitat for Humanity, Argo Park swimming pool, waste management, and the future RTD-station in Globeville. She sees the future of Globeville as a long term change towards more local businesses, opportunities for residents, restoration of pride in neighborhood, and community unity. |
| Rights Contact Information | Copyright restrictions applying to use or reproduction of this image available from the Western History and Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library, at photosales@denverlibrary.org. |
| Reproduction Available for Purchase | No |
| Full-Text | Oral History Interview with Margaret Escamilla November 15, 2013 Interviewer: Cyns Nelson Interview Transcribed by Cyns Nelson [Interview takes place at the Valdez-Perry Branch Library in Denver, Colorado.] 00:00 CN: Today is November 15, 2013. My name is Cyns Nelson, and I’m conducting oral histories with residents from the Globeville, Elyria, and Swansea neighborhoods. This interview is part of the Denver Public Library’s “Creating Your Community” project, and the oral history will be archived with the Western History Department. Right now I’m talking with Margaret Escamilla, and Margaret has been a longtime resident of the Globeville neighborhood. So, let’s start by having you say your full name, tell me when and where you were born, and share anything that you would like about your upbringing. ME: My name is Margaret Ann Escamilla. My location of birth was-I was born here in Denver, Colorado. CN: Year? In, what year? ME: Oh, I’m sorry. April 24, 1954. And, my upbringing was: I was not raised here in Denver. My dad was military, so we traveled. That’s pretty much it. We traveled all over the world, until 19-I believe, 1971, when he retired. And that’s when I came to Globeville. CN: Siblings? ME: Siblings-I’ve got five, FOUR brothers and five sisters. Five girls and four boys. So, there’s nine of us. Large family. CN: Okay. So you, then, came to Globeville in what year? ME: I came to Globeville in 1974. And, at that time I had just gotten married to my husband-the reason why I came to Globeville, because we got married. My-HE was third generation of the neighborhood, so my children are fourth generation of the neighborhood. And I loved the neighborhood, because of the rich history. You know, when I came to the neighborhood in the early ‘70s, it had such a unique vibe about the neighborhood. Everybody knew everybody. All the families-there were generations of families in the neighborhood. Everybody knew whose kid was whose; where everybody lived. So, then, if one of your children got in trouble, they come knocking at your door: “Hey! Your kid did this, you need to fix it.” And that was the way it was done in the early ‘70s. It was just a very tight-knit community back in the ‘70s. And then later on, like in about the ‘80s, we started having problems with gangs. You know, early ‘80s. I would say, for about almost 10 years we had really bad problems with gangs. And then, once the litigation of Escamilla vs. ASARCO was completed, since the Stapleton homes were taken down-the Stapleton Projects were taken down-a lot of the gangs that had moved IN-to the neighborhood, had moved out. Not all-they still lived throughout the whole neighborhood, not just Stapleton homes. So, with that-them moving-they had other family, throughout the neighborhood, so then THEY decided to move. So we got rid of the Bloods and the Crips and a lot of the crazy little villains. We had a lot of gang problems in the beginning. But then, working with the police department, and with the DA’s office, and going forward, we got rid of a lot of the gang problems. CN: Tell me what your address was, when you first moved here. Do you remember? ME: I cannot remember. My address NOW is 4845 Lincoln Street, and I’ve lived there for 34 years. I really couldn’t tell you my address when we first moved here. I don’t remember. Too long ago! (Laughs.) CN: Yeah. So, I’d just like to have you describe for me your neighborhood. We’ll start, actually, with now, present-day. Somebody who has never been to Globeville, never been to this neighborhood, what would they see, hear. 05:00 ME: Well, I’d have to start with the uniqueness of our neighborhood. Because, the rich history of it-they couldn’t SEE it, but they could HEAR about the rich history that we have. We have the Slovenians, the Russians, the Germans, the Polish; the Hispanic that came. Like my-the Escamillas were one of the first Spanish families in the neighborhood. So, they would hear stuff like that. To SEE, they would see that we have the river. It’s beautiful down there, the river. We have beautiful animals down there. We have the turtles; we have blue herons that go down there. We have owls, we have bats. We have a lot of animals that come along the river-raccoons. We’ve got foxes that come and eat my grapes. (Laughter.) You know, the raccoons come and eat my grapes every year! We’ve got-what else. Oh, we’ve got a beautiful red fox that comes from the river. So, we have a lot of nature, which is awesome. We have the bike trails that connect us to downtown. We can go north to go-go north, it goes all the way-we’ve taken it all the way up to the flea market, up on 88th and-what is it, Highway 85 or something? So, there’s a lot of awesome things in Globeville. What I LOVE about Globeville IS the uniqueness and the history of our little-our little diamond in the rough. CN: So, now take me back to the ‘70s, when you first came here. What would it have been like then, if you were to describe it? The structures and the people; the same kinds of questions. ME: Yeah. I would say, when we first came-when I first came to Globeville, the lawns-it was, I have to say, it was nicer in the early ‘70s, than it is now. The lawns were more manicured. People would take more pride in their homes. Now, it’s just-in the early ‘70s, I noticed that it was a different era, I think, and people took more pride in their homes. The reason for that is, I think, because now we have a high volume of renters. And they don’t take care of the property. So, that’s what I see from then to now. But it’s-and, the other thing about what I see from then to now: It’s not as many generational families in the neighborhood, as it was back in the ‘70s. Because a lot of them have moved out. Because we don’t have stores there. We’ve been asking for stores, forever. CN: Grocery stores? ME: Grocery stores. Even shopping stores, shopping departments. We don’t have-we have to go either north, east, west, or south. What’s nice about Globeville, though: It’s so centrally located. You can go any way, either direction, to go to the store. So, it’s really not an inconvenience. But, it WOULD be nice to get a store in the neighborhood. To walk, so we can walk, and that kind of thing. That’s what I see-the difference from then and now. CN: So, tell me about the different ways that you have been involved. We’ll kind of move through the decades. Your activities in the ‘70s-involvement in the community. ME: Okay. In the ‘70s, I started out with volunteering at the school-Garden Place-and at Stapleton Recreation Center. At Stapleton Recreation Center, I would teach. I would be a volunteer, and I would teach sewing, crocheting, knitting, quilting. Any form-canning. I used to teach canning, because I’ve always loved to can. So I would teach a class in canning, and also in sewing. I would put everything under there-the crocheting, the knitting, the quilting. Embroidery. All those. So, that’s where I got started. 09:49 And then with the school, I would volunteer as-she was called a “Super Champ” lady. I was called a Super Champ lady. And what I would is: The children in the school would earn so many points for doing either extra homework, or turning in their homework on time, so they would get extra points. And with those points, they would bring them to me, which is the store, and we would get donations from people like, places like Pepsi. I remember, mainly, Pepsi. And they would donate the money, and I would go out and by erasers, pencils, backpacks. Anything to do with school. So, I would go out and purchase the materials the kids would need for their schooling. They would bring their little coupons to the Super Champ store, and then they would buy whatever they needed. This way, instead of them having to go-mom and dad having to buy a lot of supplies for the children-a lot of people had four, five, six, eight kids-this would help the family out. CN: What school? ME: This was Garden Place. At that time it was called Garden Place Elementary School. So that’s where I first started my volunteerism. CN: Right. And what was your occupation? What has it been? ME: My occupation has been daycare-I ran a daycare for 20 years. And then, after that, I ended up working with the Denver District Attorney’s office. And I ran a Juvenile Offender Program, for the DA’s office. It was called Restorative Justice. That lasted for about-probably about 13 years. CN: Okay. So, what about the ‘80s. What kinds of involvements did you have at that time? ME: Okay. [Whispers something.] CN: Yeah! ME: Okay. The ‘70s-there was still a lot of stuff done in the ‘70s. CN: Please, please. Yeah. ME: There was still a lot. We started working on widening of Washington Street, which still to this day hasn’t gotten done. We worked on the new bridge that went up, over the Platte River, on Washington Street. CN: And when you say “we”-who is the “we”? ME: “We” was-well, a lot of us. Before I got involved with the Civic Association, I would do a lot of things on my own. I would go out there and call the city: “We need this, we need that.” So then, the Civic Association found out that I was doing this work on my own; so they asked me if I wouldn’t mind getting involved with them, working together with them. I would do things off the side, by myself, and then I’d also work with the Civic Association. So when I say “we,” I mean the Globeville Civic Association. That is the-THE oldest Civic Association in Denver. It’s been around since 1877. CN: The Globeville Civic- ME: The Globeville Civic Association. CN: So we, the Civic Association, at that time in the ‘70s, we worked on lots of projects. One of them that I remember was the bridge. There was a really old bridge that was going over the Platte River on Washington Street, between Pepsi-well, actually, it was on Ringsby Court and, I can’t remember the other street right there. But anyhow, between that area right there, there was just this two-lane, old, decapitated bridge, that every time you drove over it, it would make noise, that sounded like you were going to fall in the river! So, we worked on that, with the city, and the city was able to get us a new bridge. So that was in the ‘70s. And then also, too, we started working on the widening of Washington Park-Washington Street-and still, today, the widening still hasn’t been completed. I can’t remember everything in the ‘70s that I really worked on. But, there’s been a lot. There’s been a lot of things that we’ve worked on over the years. CN: Yeah, just talk about the different things. It make AS much difference, specifically when. ME: Yeah, because I really can’t tell you what years, exactly. But we also worked on-there was a lot of things. We worked on the-when they closed the highway, our access into the highway, up on 49th and Acoma-they closed off the highway there. And, with that, we asked them: Okay, if you’re going to take that away from us, what can you give us? So, what the Department of Transportation gave us was the lighting, the historical lighting throughout the neighborhood. We got that. And then we got some other things done. We got some sidewalks done, some curbs and gutters. So we got a couple of things done, kind of like: Well, you’re taking this; what can you give us back? So that was another thing. 15:15 Another thing was: We worked on the alleys. I remember Paulette Hirsch, and myself, went to a hearing, and we were the only two people to represent Globeville. And my husband. Wait a minute, I’m lying. It was: Father Joe, Paulette Hirsch-Father Joe Hirsch, Paulette Hirsch, myself, and my husband. And, I took my niece. She was six months old. I never spoke in front of anybody, in my life. So, I told them: We need alleys. We can put the man on the moon, but Globeville doesn’t even have any alleys! I think they felt sorry for us-or for ME that day-or for us, I think. Because I was representing us, the neighborhood, not me. So, with that I asked them for FIVE alleys. They gave us 15. Then we went back to another bond hearing; we asked for 15, they ended up giving us 32. So, it was pretty cool that we were able to get the alleys done. When I moved into the neighborhood, there wasn’t too many sidewalks. Right away we started working on getting lighting throughout the neighborhood, getting sidewalks, curbs and gutters. Just improvements-simple, quality-of-life improvements FOR the neighborhood, because it’s the second oldest neighborhood in Denver. At one time, Globeville was its own little town. We were annexed, I think, back in-I really shouldn’t say the year, because I don’t remember-but were annexed in, I THINK, Dave might have hit on this-in ’64 maybe, right around there, we were annexed in. I can’t remember; I shouldn’t say. So we worked on a lot-I worked on a lot of projects: Everything from curbs and gutters to sidewalks to lighting to the Northside treatment-plant park [Northside Park]. My husband and I were the lead plaintiffs in Escamilla versus ASARCO [Escamilla v. ASARCO]. CN: Talk about that. What was that? ME: What that was-was a litigation against ASARCO, because ASARCO had been polluting our neighborhood, at the time, for over 100 years. This was in the late ‘90s-no, no, no. This was in, I think, in the ‘90s. I don’t remember the year. NO! We started in the ’80, but the litigation took effect in the ‘90s. What that was about was: My husband and I-well, being new to the area, I kept hearing things since-since we bought our house, that we were contaminated. CN: Say what ASARCO is. ME: ASARCO is a company that-they were making batteries. So, in the batteries was cadmium. So, what they were doing was: They were burning-they were processing-cadmium, lead, arsenic. I believe there was something like 107 heavy metals throughout everything that they were emitting, they were processing at the plant. And when they were processing it, it was coming out of the plume, which was a high tower. In our court hearing, process, ASARCO was trying to say that it was only landing on their land, and it didn’t go past their fence. So, what we asked-WE, meaning my husband and I-had asked, is: Okay, they’re saying that it only polluted their land; well then TEST the lands. See how far out you can find cadmium. So that’s what they did. They found cadmium as far out on the north-the north, they found 62nd. And then the east was Franklin. And then on the south, was 46th Avenue, north of I-70. Because there’s two 46th avenues, one on the south and one on the north. So it was on the north side. And then Broadway. 20:06 So, what they did was, the toxicologist-I remember his name was-oh shoot, now I forgot his name. But anyhow, he did the sampling, and he just kept sampling until he found the cadmium. Because the arsenic comes from cars, they said, and also from the pesticides that you put on your grass. So they couldn’t say that the arsenic pretty much was-so we mainly went with the cadmium. So, it was cadmium, lead, arsenic-I really can’t remember all of them. But the main one I remember was the cadmium, because it-when it falls, if it’s in water, it goes all the way to the bottom. So it’s a heavy metal. So, at that time what they did was: We went to court, and I-my husband and I-were the lead plaintiffs in the case. The reason for that was because, we had been at the table from the beginning, beginning, beginning. CN: What even brought this to your attention? ME: What brought this to our attention was, people kept telling us that we’re contaminated. And then we kept hearing people that were working at the plant, that they were getting sick and they were dying of cancer. So, we wanted to know: Is it true? And the only question I had was, are we contaminated? And nobody could answer me. I went to the EPA, I went to Colorado Department of Public Health, I went everywhere, everywhere. And nobody could tell me if we were contaminated. So the next step-we would have meetings, left and-we had so many meetings, I can’t remember how many. And a lot of them were in our basement. A lot of them were over here in Swansea, with-I remember-Michael Mayo, Lorraine Granado, Michael Mestes, from Swansea and Elyria. We would meet with those folks. And, Lorraine was running a program at the time, called Neighbors for a Toxic Free Community. She says, “Margaret, we really need to get together, because something needs to be done with ASARCO.” So, that’s when we started having meetings: at my house, over here in Swansea and Elyria. And then we would have big-then, we ended up taking it to the city. We would have public meetings. And then Lorraine goes: “Well, we need to find a lawyer. Because, they keep telling us there’s nothing else they can do. So we need to find a lawyer.” So, Lorraine goes, “We’ll put together a panel, to find this lawyer, and then Escamillas-you guys run with it.” So that’s what we did. After Neighbors for a Toxic Free Community, the panel, found the lawyer for us, which was Macon Cowles, from Boulder, we- CN: Say that name, again? ME: Macon Cowles. CN: Macon. Oh. M-A- ME: Macon. M-A-C-O-N, C-O-W-L-E-S. Macon Cowles. He was our lead lawyer, and he was the lawyer that-how we found him, he was the lawyer that did the Valdez oil spill. And he’s an environmental lawyer. So then, at that part, Neighbors For a Toxic Free Community dropped off, and then it went to us, like a football. Now it’s your turn to take the ball and run with it. So, what we did was: We did. We got all the information we had, and we met with Macon, and Macon says, “Well, Escamillas, you guys have been there from day one. Will you be the lead plaintiffs?” And we were like, “I guess.” We didn’t know what we were in for. So, we went ahead and did it. We didn’t know that it was going to be named after us. We didn’t know the lawsuit was going to be named after us. Or, the dirt. So, the dirt was also named after us, too. (Big laugh from interviewer.) It’s called Escamilla’s dirt. It was produced in, uh, in Fort-no, in Longmont, no, Fort Collins, no. Fort Lupton! It was made in Fort Lupton. The dirt was processed and made in Fort Lupton. And it was called “Escamilla Dirt.” So, that’s the dirt that they ended up remediating our land with. What they did was: They took off-the remediation process went, uh. Let me get back to, after we went-we were in the trial and the process. 25:00 The trial was a six-week process, I believe, if I remember correctly. And at that time I was doing daycare. I had to shut down my daycare, and I had to tell my parents-you know, the parents of my children, that I was taking care of-about my litigation. And they were all-of course, they were concerned. So, I stopped doing daycare. At that time, I told my husband: I’m not going to be able to do daycare anymore. I don’t want to-any of these children to eat that dirt. Because if they do eat it, it WILL get to their kidneys. That’s what they were telling us: Don’t eat it. If you come inside, wash your hands, wash your shoes. Make sure your shoes are washed, your hands are washed. Make sure you don’t plant a garden. So we couldn’t plant a garden for like, I can’t remember how many years. But we couldn’t plant a garden. So, at that time, I had to shut down my daycare. And then AFTER the daycare, I decided-during this process, there were still parents that still wanted to bring their children to me, because they were in the neighborhood. So I did finish doing that, until I ended up working for the DA’s office, in 1994. So I did do that for a little while longer. And then, after that, I just retired from the daycare. Because I didn’t want, I didn’t know-I didn’t want to hurt any of the children. Because, they said, “Yes, we have clean dirt.” But I still didn’t want to be liable for anything that happened to the children. So, at that time I ended up retiring from daycare. And then-Oh! To get back to the court proceedings, THAT was tough. CN: Yeah. Say- ME: We were walking-because the lawyer wanted more people to come to the court, to give us support. After the court hearing-it would be 10, 12-hour days, some days; 14-hour days. And after that he’d want us to go door-to-door, talking to people, telling them to come on to the court, we need you at court. Well, we would do that; people would slam their doors in our faces. Tell us: “Don’t you know we were contaminated?” Some guys came to my house, literally threatened me, and wanted to beat me up. CN: Why? ME: “Didn’t you know we were contaminated???” That’s what they told me. “Didn’t you know we were contaminated?” And I’m like: “I’m not from Globeville.” That’s what I told them. “I’m not from here.” I’m not a toxicologist. How am I supposed to know if we’re-my question, it all started with: ARE WE CONTAMINATED. That’s all I wanted to know. From then, people were angry with us, because we were making Globeville look bad. And they didn’t understand that, they way we were feeling is: If something is WRONG with something, you’ve got to try and fix it. You can’t just leave it. You just can’t leave that dead animal sitting in the street and let it stick. What you got to do is go out there and pick it up, put it in a plastic bag-three or four plastic bags-and then throw it in the trash. You don’t leave something there. The mindset, in Globeville, when I moved in was: Everybody was OKAY with what was going on. Don’t say nothing, don’t do anything. It’s okay. Just leave it alone, don’t say nothing. We know what’s going on. Leave it alone. But see, ME, I’m an outsider. I moved into Globeville, and my aspect of life was different than the people in Globeville. Because, the way I felt was: If something’s wrong, make it right! If something’s dirty, make it clean. That’s the reason why my husband and I did the lawsuit, was because-well, the first question. Because I never got my answer. ARE WE CONTAMINATED. And then after the trial, we found out: Yeah, we were. It was a six-week long trial. My husband came every day after work, straight over there. Because I had to be-since we were the number one plaintiffs, one of us had to be sitting at the pod-at the, at the-(whispering)What do they call it? At the table, the defendant and the prosecutor. The prosecutor’s side, and then the defendant’s side. And we had to be at the defendant’s side. So every day I would hear things. And I was like, “We gotta get out of here!” Just hearing all the stuff that ASARCO had done to this land. I was beyond myself. 30:00 At the end of the six-week trial, we didn’t go for punitive damages. All we went for is the land. If the land is contaminated, then clean it up. That’s all we wanted. AND, my own vision was: I wanted to shut down ASARCO, which eventually did happen. So, at the end of the six-week trial period, we had a-well, in the middle, we had a mock jury. Macon Cowles put together a mock jury, just to see how he thought maybe, how it would go. We lost in the mock jury. A mock jury is a pretend jury, pretend jury. So, he put together this-a group of people from all over the city, that he knew, just to give them all of the information that we had, and then to ask them: Would we win or lose? Well, at the mock jury, we lost! Because the people that were there at the mock jury, they felt that we didn’t have enough evidence. BUT, in reality we did win. CN: Yeah. How did that impact what you did preceding, from that, from the mock jury. How did that change what your approach was? Didn’t? ME: It didn’t. Well, I think Macon looked at a different angle, to try and, you know, go at it at a different angle. So he did change HIS angle of which way he should continue the proceedings of the court hearings. So, he did do that. But at the end, you know, we were amazed. But then, people were still ANGRY with us-UNTIL they got money. Then when they got that $9,900-almost $10,000 dollars-they still wouldn’t come to the table and try to help Globeville out, or adopt a stop, adopt an RTD stop; clean up some trash, pick up some trash; do this, do that. People, their mindset was still: This is Globeville, and we can do anything we want here. And see, I come from a different (laughing)-I come from a different place. That’s not what you do. Your home is your castle, and you try to make it-where you live-the best you can. With that, I started teaching my kids to do volunteer work. They were always telling me: “I’m never going to volunteer, I’m never going to volunteer.” But today, my daughter is volunteering at her children’s school. She always told me she wouldn’t do that, because she’s seen the heartache that I would through. And she didn’t like it. But now, today she does; she volunteers a lot. Like I said, there’s been a lot. From the litigation in the ‘80s to the ‘90s, from that-we’ve planted almost every tree at the park. Every April we would get free trees from the city, and we would go out and we would plant the trees throughout the neighborhood. That was another thing we would do in the neighborhood, was planting trees. I remember one year, we used to clean up the-we used to have a-it was called Globeville cleanup day, and we used to have to go around cleaning up people’s yards. People would just sit in their yard, looking at us, like we were stupid, and wouldn’t even offer us a drink of water, while we were cleaning up THEIR yards, their trash. BUT, we would still keep doing it, because we wanted to make our neighborhood a better place to live. And, we wanted to show our children that: Your home is beyond the fence line. So, what we would do is, we would take our children with us. I’ve been doing graffiti cleanup in our neighborhood for 40 years now. CN: Yeah, you mentioned the name of a- ME: A graffiti project? CN: Right. ME: Yeah, I started- CN: A (emphasis on “A”) Graffiti Project? ME: A-Graffiti Project. I started A-Graffiti Project in 2004. But, my husband and I, and my son and my daughter, we used to clean up graffiti since the ‘70s. We would buy our paint, and we would put the kids in the wheelbarrow; and another wheelbarrow would be our painting. You know, the paint and the brushes, and the rollers. 35:07 We’d go around-it all started with just doing our alley. You know, right behind our alley. And then told my husband: We need to go a little farther out. So then it went a block, then it went two blocks, then it went three blocks. Eventually, we would just do a whole Saturday, just walking through the alleys and covering up paint, and our children along with us. Then, in about 2007 [misspeak of year], I started A-Graffiti Project, which was: All I did was ask businesses in the neighborhood-residents, churches, schools-if they would adopt an area, and they would keep that graffiti clean. And I will-call me up and I’ll bring you the paint, I’ll bring you the brushes. Because the city has paint and has brushes, and gloves, and things to remove-and also these wipes that you can remove the graffiti off of signs. So I would provide-I would go, at least once a month, and get the supplies and then bring them to everybody who was on my list of taking care of a certain area. I started that in 2004, and the Denver Police Department-District Two at that time, when we were part of District Two-because right now we’re part of District One. As of July 14, 2013, we’re part of District One. But when we were part of District Two, at that time the commander, Marco Valdez (thinking), he asked me to share what I’d been doing in Globeville. So I did. Since then, the police department has taken MY vision and spread it throughout the whole city. I don’t know what they call it in other neighborhoods. Whatever their name is-but ours was, “is,” A-Graffiti Project. And it’s still going on. Now, I don’t have to pick up the supplies anymore. Now it’s just: The person who’s cleaning up, and the city. So now, I’ve backed off. And now they’re doing it on their own. So that’s one less thing that I need to do. There’s been a lot of things that I’ve been very fortunate to be a part of, in Globeville. And I feel very honored to have been able to, you know, sit on committees and advisory groups. I was part of the Graffiti Taskforce Team. I was part of the-um, what other ones. The Graffiti Taskforce; the Nuisance Abatement, the Northside Treatment Plant Park Committee. I was part of the Neighborhood Ambassador Program training, and I was an ambassador for them. Also, the Northeast Steering Committee, with District Two. Denver City Forestry, planting trees. Keep Denver Beautiful. And that was the cleanup that we would have every year. I did all of this up until I hurt my back, in 2000. So, since I’ve-and then I had back surgery in 2004. Since 2004, I haven’t been able to plant trees or clean up, and stuff, anymore. I don’t do any more labor-intensive projects throughout the neighborhood. But I do, do-like, right now, we worked with President Carter, bringing him to Globeville. So that was my last, big project that I worked on. CN: Yeah, talk about that. Oletski touched on that, and he’s the only who I’ve spoken with who has talked about it, really. ME: Yeah, well, that was-that was a whole year-and-a-half, work in progress. We started a year and a half ago, with our vision of cleaning up the neighborhood even more so. Because, Globeville, to date, has the least graffiti throughout the city. AND, the police department, and the mayor’s office, and the city council all contribute that to the program that I started back in 2004. 39:52 With the project with Habitat for Humanity, Dave was mainly our spokesperson. Because, we didn’t want all these people from Globeville to be-we just wanted mainly one person to be the spokesperson. Since I stepped down as being president a year ago, from the Neighborhood Association, I asked Dave to go ahead and go forward with this project. Because, he had been wanting to do something big. So I told him: “Well Dave, you know what? Go with this. I’ll be on the back burner; I’ll be the one pushing”-you know, the little engine, pushing-“and I’ll get sponsors, and donations, and whatever we need. But you be the lead force.” So Dave Oletski would go to the meetings and let them know what we all decided. WE, again, like I said, is the Globeville Civic Association. Number One now, because we have two civic associations in Globeville. [Some amount of quiet talking, meant to be off recording.] But yes, now we have two associations in Globeville: Globeville One and Globeville Two. Globeville Civic Association One, and Globeville Civic Association number Two. And I think it’s great. Because, the more people that try to help the neighborhood out, I think it’s awesome. Anyhow, to get back to Habitat for Humanity, Dave pretty much-all I did was get donations, for food, water, whatever we needed. I would get the donations, because I’m good at getting donations. So I would work on the donations and Dave would work on the committee part. We worked good as a team. That’s all I can really elaborate on Habitat for Humanity, because I really wasn’t at the table, table. I was in the background, doing the work. So that’s pretty much it. There’s been a lot of-I think, for Globeville, I think Habitat for Humanity is going to put Globeville on the map; as well as light rail-light rail, and the RTD maintenance facility that’s been going up right there on 41st and-right around 41st and Fox. It’s on the north side of I-70. And then, it’s going to bring improvements, along the street, as far as street improvement, lighting. I think that will be great. RTD is in our neighborhood. They’re over here along the Platted River. Globeville goes all the way up to Cuernavaca Park. So, they’re in our neighborhood right there. Oh, and then I was also very instrumental in getting McDonald’s brought to Globeville. Because we didn’t-you know, Globeville, when I came to Globeville, we had a lot of things here. We had the cleaners, we had a pizza-De Salle’s Pizza [?]-right there on Washington, on 46th and Washington. We had the Slovenian Hall. We had the old Globeville Jail, which is now Engbar Pipe and Steel. We had Yellow Front, which is DenCol now. That used to be Yellow Front. We used to have a lot of stores and restaurants in the neighborhood. And now, since the revitalization of Washington was supposed to take place, they started getting rid of places along Washington to widen it. But the city never widened it. CN: So they just got rid of things, and that’s- ME: They got rid of things and that was it. The city got rid of things and that was it. Oh, and then I also work-to get back to-I also, Paulette Hirsch and I also worked on the pool, our Argo Park Pool. It used-I think it was in the ‘90s-it started cracking. So, Paulette and I got on that. We were asked by the city to be on that committee to help refurbish the pool. So anyhow, that’s the only handicap pool in Denver. CN: Really! ME: We asked them to put it to be a handicap pool. AND, if you look at it from the sky, it’s Snoopy! (Laughing from interviewer.) 45:00 So we asked them also to change the shape of the pool. Because, at one time it was just a big square. So now, if you look from the sky, it’s a Snoopy. And then we were also-Paulette Hirsch and I were very instrumental with getting the pool painted, the way it’s painted today. Oh, and then I also got soccer to Globeville. Because soccer-everybody kept saying, none of our kids in Globeville play soccer. People would tell me, when I was president-even when I wasn’t president-people would tell me things that: We don’t have this; we don’t have that. And I’m like, why not? Let’s do it. Let’s get it. So, I would go to the city and I’d ask the city: Why can’t we have a soccer field, why can’t we have-so, the soccer field was put in there in the ‘90s. Because we didn’t have a soccer field. And the kids in the neighborhood WERE playing soccer. So I was very instrumental, also, in getting the soccer field brought to the neighborhood. There’s a lot of things. There’s a lot of things that, the committees that I worked on throughout the years. All I can say is: I wish Paulette Hirsch, and Father Joe was here to give THEIR view of what happened. But they’ve both, you know, they’re both gone. But they’ve done a lot for this neighborhood. They were here for 28 years, and they did a lot for the neighborhood. Also, too, we were very instrumental in helping the Russian Orthodox Church-right there on 47th and Logan-get the new hall built there. The reason why I say we were very instrumental, is because WE, WE-the people in Globeville-had to do what we had to do. WE had to get the things that we wanted in the neighborhood. We had to go after them. The city didn’t come and just plant them there, or give them to us. Everything we have in that neighborhood, we had to fight for. Everything. We’re finally getting trash cans, now, come 2014. And we’ve never had trash cans in our neighborhood. We’re barely getting them now, in 2014. We’ve been asking the city for them for over TWENTY YEARS. For just trash cans. Not dumpsters, trash cans. Oh, and I also, speaking of that, I also was the person who brought recycling to Globeville. CN: When did that happen? ME: That happened in the-the late ‘80s, early ‘90s. You know, my husband and I, we would go to other neighborhoods, and we’d-Wow, why do they have recycling bins? Why can’t we have recycling bins? So, that was-like I said, the only question that is a dumb question is the question that’s never asked. I wanted to know why we didn’t have trash cans; or why we didn’t have recycling. Twenty years ago I worked on a project that-well, actually, I spear-headed it-and asked them for trash cans. I mean, recycling. So, we got the recycling. But, the thing is: It’s been a long fight. It’s just that, you know, people move. And then there’s some people like US, that have stayed forever, and- CN: Do you want me to pause? ME: Yeah. [Recording is paused for narrator.] ME: I think we’ve kind of, pretty much hit on everything. CN: Yeah. We’ve talked about a lot of different things. What do YOU see for the future. If you could project 20 years from now-what do you think is-this neighborhood will look like? ME: Oh. I believe it’s changing. I can see it’s changing. It’s just going to take a while. I would like to see Globeville with stores-you know, grocery stores. I’d like to see a car wash. You know, something that people can go, to WALK to. A store that you can go pick up some milk. I would envision Globeville-and I know Globeville is changing, I can see it changing. It’s going to change. But it’s going to take awhile. And what it takes is the city HELPING us change. And helping us get the things that we need for our neighborhood. And that’s the way I see that it’s going to change. 49:49 But, in 20 years I would like to see Globeville with stores. I’d like to see the Rec Center, a BIGGER rec center. Right dab in the middle, like in the park, with an IN-door pool, so it can be functional for the people in Globeville. I have to go to Scheitler, just to do my therapy, because there’s a pool over there. There’s no indoor pool here. I’d like to see-I’d even like to see more (pause) community unity. I’d like to see more community unity in the neighborhood. And, the refurbishing of the older-these beautiful old homes are beautiful. I’d love to see more refurbishing of the homes; people taking more pride in their places, whether you’re a landlord, or a renter, or a homeowner that’s living in Globeville. Take pride in your neighborhood. That’s what I would like to see. CN: Well, that’s a perfect way to end, unless there’s anything else that you would like to add. ME: No. CN: Okay. Thank you very much for taking time to do this. ME: You’re welcome. 51:28 [End of Recording. End of interview.] |
Description
| Call Number | OH514 |
| Title | Margret Escamilla Oral History |
| Creator | Escmilla, Margaret, 1954- |
| Contributor | Colorado Voice Preserve |
| Date | 2013 November 15 |
| Summary | Margaret Escamilla was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1954. One of nine children, she was raised in a military family and lived in several countries. After she married her husband in 1971, she moved to the Globeville neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. In 1974 she began running her own day care. From 1994 to 2007, after twenty years of self employment, she started working with the Denver District Attorney overseeing a juvenile offenders program called Restorative Justice. Since her arrival in Denver, Margaret has been involved in several community organizations including volunteering at Garden Place Elementary, and teaching domestic arts at Stapleton Recreation Center. She was extensively involved with alley installations, road and street improvements in her neighborhood. She founded A-Graffiti Project in 2007, and served as president of the Globeville Civic Association until 2012. She has also worked with north side Treatment Park, the ASARCO contamination lawsuit, neighborhood tree planting, Globeville Clean-up Day, Graffiti Task Force Team, Nuisance Abatement, Neighborhood Ambassador, North East Steering Committee, Keep Denver Beautiful, Denver Forestry team, and Habitat for Humanity. An injury in the early 2000s has kept her from further community involvement. She currently lives in the Globeville neighborhood with her husband, a third generation Globeville resident. |
| Description | 1 audio file (51:21), 1 photograph |
| Is Part Of | Globeville and Swansea and Elyria Oral History Project |
| Subject | Escmilla, Margaret, 1954-; Globeville (Denver, Colo. : Neighborhood); |
| Format-Medium | Audio |
| Source | In this interview Margaret talks about first impressions of neighborhood in early 1970s, the introduction of gangs in the 1980s, disappearance of gangs in the 1990s, and the removal of Stapleton housing. She describes the uniqueness, ethnic diversity and history of the residents, importance of the South Platte River, its diverse wildlife and nature, bike trails, and the difference in the community from between 1970 and 2013. She talks about her many different civic and volunteer experiences and the history of the Globeville Civic Association (founded in 1877). Escamilla discusses at great length about her experiences as a lead plaintiff in the 1990s ASARCO-Escamilla litigation, and the subsequent environmental testing, remediation process, community reaction, and long term effects it had on her life. She discusses the influence of Habitat for Humanity, Argo Park swimming pool, waste management, and the future RTD-station in Globeville. She sees the future of Globeville as a long term change towards more local businesses, opportunities for residents, restoration of pride in neighborhood, and community unity. |
| Rights Contact Information | Copyright restrictions applying to use or reproduction of this image available from the Western History and Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library, at photosales@denverlibrary.org. |
| Reproduction Available for Purchase | No |
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