The Life and Times of Richard Castro

Hispanic leader Richard Castro wasn't above a good street fight.  Denver police beat him bloody during a 1960s confrontation, and political rivals later shot him and bombed his home.  But he emerged from the early struggles of Denver's Hispanic movement - El Movimiento - to become one of Colorado's most important political figures.   During ten years as a state representative and, later, as a key ally of Denver mayor Federico Pena, Castro personified the Hispanic community's newfound political power.  In this book, Richard Gould traces Castro's path from the streets of West Denver to the chambers of the State Capitol.  He also traces a community's coming of age - an event that transformed politics and society in Colorado and throughout the West.
Gould, a veteran Denver schoolteacher and cabdriver, knows and recaptures Castro's turf brillantly with numerous interviews and diligent research that make this a definitive, important work.  Gould excels as a storyteller; his book is a thriller - shootings, car bombings, police beatings, legislative infighting, growing up on the mean streets of Denver's poorest neighborhoods.
The book won the 2007 Colorado Book Award for History and has been described as "civil rights history at its finest."
Western Historical Quarterly review:
http://0-www.jstor.org.skyline.ucdenver.edu/stable/40505551