San Luis Valley

What the debate says about access and equity.

And he fought for the rights of farmers and ranchers in the San Luis Valley.

To have someone passionate about protecting those ancestral rights to the land and doing it in a culturally competent way and to stick around the whole time, almost two decades, it's just, it is, I don't know anyone else who's done anything like that.

First News.

I'm Chandra Thomas-Whitfield.

Lawyer Jerome DeHadeda, who died this month, is being remembered as an ambassador who spent much of his legal career fighting for those who often had little power in the rooms where big decisions were being made.

He represented farmers and ranchers in southern Colorado and provided 19 years of pro bono legal counsel to families in the San Luis Valley in the landmark land access case Lobato v. Taylor.

But the local legal community says his legacy extends well beyond the courtroom.

It was hard to scratch out, you know, just making ends meet and making sure your family had the things that they needed to have to survive.

They were living in the San Luis Valley.

It's rough down there, right? Scarcity of water, the environment.

And yet they were prospering and doing great things.

We would spend a lot of time with them on weekends or after school.

We'd always walk home to their house after school.

And just sharing stories about what it was like to grow up in the San Luis Valley during the Great Depression, how they met and how that led to them being married, my grandmother and grandfather.

And that was after World War II.

Yeah.

Shout out to our, the, to all the farmers and ranchers in San Luis Valley.

Like you're, you're doing the real work, but that was, uh, but like summer workouts was, uh, clearing a field was wrestling pigs to get them weighed into a scale uh and it's like those kind of things that are where like your, your livelihood really depends on it, uh, on being able to like get your, get your animals heavy enough to where you can sell them.

And that's going to feed that profit is going to feed your family and, or, and, or to be able to like get you enough money to like repair your tractor or your truck to be able to like continue to do your job.

You'll hear from leaders and organizations and communities throughout the state as we explore the idea that leadership is an activity that anyone can do.

Meet Alan Salazar, a fifth-generation Coloradan born in Leadville, whose family roots stretch across the San Luis Valley and the Western Slope.

Today, as CEO and manager of Denver Water, Colorado's oldest and largest water utility, Alan helps provide water to more than 1.5 million people.

But his connection to this essential resource, public lands, and communities they sustained began long before he stepped into this role.

But I mostly grew up in the metro area.

So I like to, you know, Leadville is a cooler place to say you're from.

But the truth of my heritage is that... family on the Western Slope, San Luis Valley, but essentially grew up on the Front Range.

So that's how I came of age.

And there I am with Mickey because he wanted me to succeed.

And I was working on trying to resolve a huge water dispute here in Colorado that involved the San Luis Valley that ended up creating the Great San Luis National Park.

I'm a Democrat from a Republican state.

Bill Clinton's a Democrat, president of the White House.