[CodeToad]

"southern Colorado, an area where her ancestors settled centuries ago"


Doubt it. Centuries ago there were no Mexicans in southern Colorado.

[af_vet_rr]

Doubt it. Centuries ago there were no Mexicans in southern Colorado.

There were Indians living throughout Colorado going back 500+ years easily, plus Spanish explorers traveling through that area going back to the 1500s and 1600s - chances are she has ancestry from one or both of those groups, and that would qualify as "centuries ago".

She's obviously either of Hispanic or Latino ancestry (or probably both, and no I'm not stereotyping - having both Hispanic and Latino ancestry in the US is quite common). Both groups were very active and moved around (especially the Hispanics) centuries ago.

I will admit that if you don't know much about the history Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Mexico, Mexican ancestry, or even the meaning of Hispanic or Latino, it can be really confusing.

[Wallace T.]

There have been Hispanic settlers in southern Colorado since the 18th Century, as it was an extension of the New Mexico colony centered in Santa Fe. My wife's grandfather, of Scots-Irish and English ancestry, grew up near Durango, where he became fluent in Spanish. He would later serve as a Presbyterian missionary among Hispanics in Texas in the 1920s.