Posted March 19 2026
Hundreds gathered this past weekend to celebrate the 20th Annual Latina/o Advocacy Day (LAD) in Colorado, an annual collaboration presented by Colorado Organization Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR), Voces Unidas de las Montañas, COLOR Action Fund and Voces Unidas Action Fund. Latino/a Advocacy Day brings Latinas/os from across all of Colorado to discuss key issues that are affecting their communities.
Community members, leaders, and elected officials gathered at the three-day event dedicated to policy, civil work, advocacy, and amplifying the voices of the Latino/a community.
The first day of Latina/o Advocacy Day brought more than 300 people together from across Colorado, including 100 youth, for the start of a three-day effort leading up to Monday’s formal day of action at the Capitol.
Participants spent the day grounding themselves in the Colorado Latino Agenda and moving through issue briefings focused on housing justice, community safety, worker protections, environmental justice, and affordable healthcare.
“Laws are made every day—January through May—by elected officials that don’t include the Latino/a community,” said Dusti Gurule, President and CEO of the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR) and the COLOR Action Fund. “Growing up in the Chicano movement here in Denver, I carry a life-long commitment to social justice.”
Other members that organized the event also spoke on LAD and its importance. Alex Sánchez, Founder, President and CEO of Voces Unidas de las Montañas, shared how important it is for the community to be organized, pay attention, and not back down.
State Representative Elizabeth Velasco was also in attendance on the first day of LAD and answered some questions regarding her work and what needs to be done within the communities of Denver. “We have to save ourselves,” said Rep. Velasco. “We have power. Elevate your voice, do what you can, do it together, show up together, and be loud.”
In the housing sessions, people dug into protections for mobile home park residents, fairer eviction processes, and stronger accountability for unsafe living conditions. In the worker briefings, they focused on extreme temperature protections, overtime pay for agriculture workers, and the reality that too many workers are still pushed to risk their health to keep Colorado’s economy running. Community safety sessions centered on closing loopholes that continue to leave immigrant families exposed to surveillance, detention, and abuse. Environmental justice and healthcare conversations forced participants to confront who carries the burden when communities are asked to absorb pollution, rising medical debt, and barriers to care.
“Advocacy works best when leaders hear directly from the communities they serve,” said
LAD emcee Rebeca Trejo, a writer and comedian from Venezuela.
In the evening, Voces Unidas Action Fund and COLOR Action Fund hosted the Welcome Reception.
David Huerta, SEIU-United Service Workers West, delivered the keynote address on Saturday evening at the welcome reception.
Day 2
Sunday at Latino Advocacy Day 2026 was about preparation, but it was also about political accountability.
Participants gathered for town halls with Colorado gubernatorial candidates U.S. Senator Micheal Bennet and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, along with advocacy training and lobby group planning ahead of Monday at the Capitol. It gave Latinos from across Colorado the chance to hear directly from the top two candidates running in the race to succeed term-limited Gov. Jared Polis and to press them on the issues shaping Latino communities.
Latino Advocacy Day created space for our community to ask hard questions, listen closely, and make clear that Latino voters expect policy solutions. By the end of the day, people were more prepared for Monday’s advocacy at the Capitol, but they had also already shaped the political conversation by showing that our communities are organized, paying attention, and not to be taken for granted.
The town halls were sponsored by Voces Unidas Action Fund and COLOR Action Fund.
Day 3
More than 300 Coloradans concluded the 20th Annual Latino/a Advocacy Day on Monday with a rally at the State Capitol to urge lawmakers to pass legislation that will improve the lives of Latinas and Latinos throughout the state.
“The 20th anniversary of Latino Advocacy Day marks two decades of transformative growth in Latino political power and the advancement of equitable policies in Colorado,” said Gurule. “While we celebrate this progress, the work is far from over, and we remain dedicated to addressing the systemic challenges that still face our community.”
Latino/a Advocacy Day started in 2007 as a response to anti-immigrant policies, including federal and state legislative proposals to ban public services and classify millions of undocumented immigrants as felons. In the 20 years since bringing Latinos to the table to oppose those policies, LAD has deepened the connection between elected officials and the community, bringing thousands of community members together with lawmakers to share stories, increase awareness, and advocate for issues facing Colorado’s Latino communities.
“Latino Advocacy Day has cultivated a powerful movement, empowering Latinos from every corner of Colorado to become integral leaders in civic engagement and policy,” said Sánchez. “Twenty years in, our community is more organized and deeply involved than ever, demonstrating a growing and undeniable influence at the state policy-making tables.”
Over the course of the three-day LAD program, participants took advantage of the opportunity to hear from several elected officials and learn about policies. On Monday, just past the halfway point for the 2026 legislative session, they carried their messages to the Capitol, where they took part in dozens of advocacy meetings with state senators and representatives in the afternoon. Both Colorado Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie (HD-13) and Colorado Senate President James Coleman (SD-33) were invited to address attendees over the weekend, along with state gubernatorial candidates, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and State Attorney General Phil Weiser, who participated in a town hall meeting on Sunday.
More than 300 people attended LAD throughout the weekend this year – including 100 Latino youth representing high schools statewide – boosting the 20-year total for LAD participation to more than 5,800 people since 2007. Thousands more have joined the annual marches and rallies outside the State Capitol building.
Despite two decades of progress attributed to LAD, Latinas and Latinos in Colorado still find themselves at the intersection of anti-immigrant attacks from the federal government. Current state law is still not strong enough to protect our communities from abuse by our own federal government.
As new frustrations mount in response to such policies, LAD organizers and participants are looking to state officials to protect the civil rights of immigrants in Colorado, along with additional Latino policy priorities focused on:
- Essential Worker Protections: Advocating for safer working conditions, including protections from extreme temperatures and fairer overtime standards for agricultural workers, while opposing efforts to weaken existing labor protections.
- Environmental Justice: Opposing corporate tax giveaways for large data centers that contribute to environmental injustice and supporting strong regulations to ensure they are fully accountable for their energy and water impacts.
- Community Safety: Seeking to strengthen state laws to protect immigrants from abuse by the federal government and close loopholes that put families at risk, including support for tighter limits on the use of airports for deportation transport and banning government access to historical location information.
- Housing Justice: Pushing for stronger protections for tenants and mobile home park residents, including required remediation of serious water quality problems in mobile home parks and a fairer eviction process by reducing default judgments.
In 2021, Latino Advocacy Day organizers launched the Colorado Latino Agenda, a statewide research initiative overseen by Voces Unidas, to document the experiences and priorities of Latinas and Latinos across Colorado. The effort was created to strengthen advocacy with community-informed data and to help ensure that the policy priorities elevated through Latino Advocacy Day are grounded in what Latino families, workers, and communities are experiencing across the state.
“For years, our communities brought their stories to the Capitol and were still expected to prove the problem,” said Sánchez. “That is why we launched the Colorado Latino Agenda. Latino Advocacy Day is where we connect the data to the people behind it and press lawmakers to act.”
Following two days of issue education and advocacy training on Saturday and Sunday, LAD participants marched to the Capitol on Monday to rally on the West Steps before meeting with legislators to promote the causes of the Latino community. The Colorado General Assembly acknowledged the long history of contributions by Latinas and Latinos to the state’s policy-making process by passing the 2026 Latino Advocacy Day Resolution earlier in the day.
Hilary Olivares, an Independent Reporter, contributed to this article.
