The number of children under the age of 18 who live below the poverty line in the United States increased by 9% between 2000 and 2006. In Colorado, the number of children living in poverty grew by 72%, the highest rate increase in the nation. These are the stories of some of those children. This Denver Post documentary project provides a window into the lives of eight families living below the poverty line.


Jozif Martinez, 4, drinks Kool-Aid at the dining room table in his family's home in Capulin. He had tortillas and ham for dinner in the bowl.

The Martinez Family, Photos by Judy DeHaas
Sherry and Eli Martinez, ages 40 and 39, are raising eight of their nine children in an adobe home and an adjacent building on their property. The adobe house was built by Eli’s father more than 75 years ago. Sherry earns $21,000 a year at a hospital nine miles away, but Eli, a war veteran, is unable to hold a job. Poverty has been a way of life for generations in this part of the San Luis Valley. But Eli is too proud to accept food stamps. Instead, he spends time with the children, hunts for meat and takes seasonal jobs in nearby potato farms. All the kids pitch in to fix meals, feed the animals and gather firewood for the stoves. Watch Video.


Three-year-old Wyatt Motter tries to help with the yardwork.

The Cook Family, Photos by Joe Amon
Eight people, including three children, live in Rodney and Kalin Cook’s two trailers, which are boarded together with plywood near the tiny town of Hooper in Saguache County, the poorest in the state. They use an old truck to generate electricity for the property, and they haul water – for drinking, bathing and cooking, and for the animals – from a neighbor’s well and an artesian well. They live off welfare, unemployment and disability checks. But they’re happy. The children play with the 10 dogs, two cats, four horses and other assorted animals on the Cooks’ 40-acre property. “We like it out here,” Rodney Cook says. Watch Video.

“I’m so proud of this bill. It makes me happy to know that HB 1119 will provide assistance to people in the San Luis valley and beyond. Too many rural folks are struggling with drug and alcohol problems with too few places to turn for help,” said Rep. Vigil.

Of the state's more than 14,000 registered medical marijuana users, 61 reside in the San Luis Valley, according to the most recent statistics from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. But the Alamosa County Board of County Commissioners imposed a 120-day moratorium on the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries Wednesday.

Bus riders starting Friday will have a way to get out of the San Luis Valley for the first time in three months. A Nebraska bus company announced plans to begin operating a line from here to Denver.

Un viaje de visita a Alamosa, Colorado, por parte de una familia maya viviendo en Albuquerque, Nuevo Mexico. Ellos ha escuchado de una comunidad maya originalmente del mismo parte de las montanas de Guatemala. 1991

A visit to Alamosa, Colorado by a Mayan family living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They had heard of a Mayan community originally from the same area in the mountains of Guatemala. 1991.

Reminder: Snow must be cleared from walks within 24 hours
With winter upon us, residents and business owners should remember to clear snow from walks within 24 hours of snow fall. The city code requires clear pathways for pedestrians following storms. The city Code Enforcement Official will be monitoring sidewalks for safety and will issue warnings and, if necessary, citations to those who fail to clear snow. Residents who are unable to clear snow because of ability, illness, or an absence from home should seek help from local volunteer groups, family, friends or neighbors.

Residents should run water to battle freezing pipes: City allows 15,000 gallons of water at no additional charge
Residents are again encouraged to run a thin stream of water through their faucets in an effort to combat frozen water lines. The City has decided to allow water customers to use 15,000 gallons of water per month for this effort, at no additional charge. After the 15,000 gallons, customers will be charged the usual rate per 1,000 gallons of use. The new policy will take effect after meters are read in December and will continue through March 15. Meter reading typically begins on the 15th of each month. This policy is being put into place due to the inability to predict when water line freezing begins each winter. In recent years, Public Works crews have had dozens of incidents of frozen water lines that required digging into the streets to thaw them. Multiple water meters have also frozen, with many requiring replacement. More information regarding this policy and water rates, in general, will be mailed to all City water users in January. For more information about this policy, contact the Public Works Director Randy Martinez at (719) 852-2692.

Alamosa, like most of our country, grew up with railroads. And while the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad put many towns on the map, none went up quite as quickly as Alamosa. The narrow gauge rail into town was completed on June 22, 1878, and shortly after, a train full of assorted pre-built buildings from nearby Garland City were brought in and put into place that same day. Rumor has it, in fact, that the men who worked the line had breakfast in Garland City that morning, and were later served dinner in the same building that evening – in Alamosa.

Cumbres & Toltec Xmas train, 12-Dec-09. From the rear platform of the train, I shoot most of the trip from 2 miles W of Antonito, to Lava tank. The video is speeded up 5 times to reduce the trip to about 9.5 minutes.

A coroner says a Colorado woman whose body was found at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve died after apparently falling face down while intoxicated, passing out and inhaling sand.

Wolf Creek ski area celebrates 70 years of skiing this winter and it owes their start, in part, to an unexpected benefactor: government stimulus. It came in the form of the New Deal. 96-year-old Charles Elliott, a pioneer of Colorado skiing, is not one to pass up a day on the slopes. He has skied powder at Wolf Creek Ski Area every winter since 1934, with the exception of two seasons during World War II. He skied powder before Colorado had a single ski area.

Prosecutors have charged a Monte Vista teen as an adult, filing two counts of first-degree murder for the boy's alleged role in the Oct. 26 deaths of his mother and stepfather.

Lloyd Engen was taking pictures on the sideline when the hit came. Three high school football players plowed into him and the collision shattered his pelvis and cracked three vertebrae. When Engen was ready to leave the hospital, living on his own was out of the question. Still unable to walk, Engen needed at-home care. That is where his friends come in.

Dr. Carole Counihan and her husband, Dr. Jim Taggart, are donating proceeds from their books, "A Tortilla Is Like Life: Food and Culture in the San Luis Valley of Colorado" and "Alex and the Hobo", to benefit the Antonito Scholarship at Adams State College. The authors are scheduled for a book signing at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 9, 2010, in the Antonito Library. The women of Antonito and the food that helps define their culture is the topic of Counihan's book, "A Tortilla Is Like Life" and Taggart's book is co-authored by Antonito native Jose Inez Taylor.

One of the world's biggest solar companies withdrew its application to develop a power plant on federal land in the San Luis Valley, the Bureau of Land Management announced Monday.

Resident musician, filmmaker, builder and chihuahua lover, Eric Shiveley, will accompany local writer and Yale sophomore, Laurelin Kruse, composer/violinist Dr. Matthew Schildt and singer Sally Sheehan (tentative) for a benefit for the La Puente Community Gardens. All donations go to Milagros and the Community Gardens. The event will be held:

Monday December 28th, 6pm
Milagros Coffee House
Laurelin Kruse, Eric Shiveley and Matthew Schildt
voluntary donation requested

Mayor Mike Trujillo narrates and documents the transfer of PCB and radioactive waste contaminated soil that was transfered into Conejos County without proper permitting by Energy Solutions, a Utah based company.

The National Labor Relations Board will hold a hearing Jan. 20 to determine if the Harborlite Corp. has been engaged in unfair labor practices. The company locked out 29 union miners and employees Oct. 8 from its shipping facility in Antonito and its perlite mine in No Agua, N.M., roughly 20 miles south of the state line.

Authorities are investigating the shooting deaths of a married couple found Thursday at a West Side apartment complex in Alamosa

The Monte Vista City Council, Thursday night, approved a zoning change for the area just east of Safeway. Community Development Director Alisha Reis explained that residential properties in Block 33 needed the change in order for homeowners to be able to legally make improvements, expanding or upgrading, to their properties.

A Costilla County resident was arrested earlier Friday on two counts of Vehicular Homicide, two counts of Criminally Negligent Homicide and two counts of Leaving the Scene of a Crash Resulting in Death.