Peter Salas has been 'showing up' for the Latino community for years

Peter Salas, a Boulder County resident known for showing up for the community and pushing the envelope when it comes to conversations about diversity, inclusion and equity, on Tuesday will be honored with the Franny Reich Lifetime Achievement Award from the Boulder Chamber. 

Nominated by community members for his work going above and beyond for the Latinx community and businesses, Salas will receive the award during the 2021 Celebration of Leadership virtual awards ceremony. 

”Peter is somebody who I think our entire community recognizes as someone who helped develop and lift up a sector of our community that, at the time, was not fully appreciated. For me, that is critical not just to the Latino business community but to our community as a whole,” John Tayer, Chamber president and CEO, said. 

The award is given in honor of the legacy of Franny Reich, who created hundreds of new jobs in Boulder through the “Progress Campaign” in the late ‘40s. It has been awarded for the past 26 years to residents “who are both successful in their business activities, but are also recognized as contributors to the vitality of our community,” Tayer said. 

The Celebration of Leadership event has been taking place for more than four decades. Although the event has moved online this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, Tayer is hopeful and pushing for community engagement. Other businesses such as Blackat Productions, Techstars, Equity Solutions, and Black Cat Bistro also will be honored in the ceremony for their leadership roles in the chamber and the community. 

“It’s a tribute to our community that we have such a wealth of business leaders who are innovative, creative, and generous in their character and in their skills,” Tayer said. “We’re trying to make the celebration open and accessible to not just the business community, but all of our residents and businesses. I want to urge folks to consider watching because it’s an event that speaks not just to business success and the strength of our economy, but our community’s uniqueness, talent and contributions.” 

Salas, ex-officio chairman of the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Boulder County, has lived in Boulder County since the mid-’80s and has been an active community member, supporter and advocate, especially for the Latinx community. 

“I show up, that's what I do. That's all I've done for the last 50 years or so,” Salas said. 

Showing up for Salas means being a part of community conversations, asking tough questions, and using one’s voice to lift up marginalized groups. It’s important to remember that those who show up unexpectedly hold the advantage, he said.

Salas started by showing up in his own hometown of Cheyenne, Wyoming, running for his first public office at age 20. Growing up on a dirt road “on the wrong side of the railroad tracks,” Salas said he started his advocacy after noticing that while his side of the community was living in subpar conditions, “there were parts of town where people had lawns, and the parks had equipment.”

Salas said he knew there was something to be done. 

“I’m gonna have something to say about this. This isn’t right and we deserve better,” he said. 

After serving on Cheyenne City Council for four years, finishing as the first elected Hispanic president, Salas left because he said he felt he was turning into the person he ran against. 

“Generally, I was the only Brown person in the room, countless times. I felt like it was changing me,” Salas said.

He began serving on a number of nonprofit boards before moving to Boulder while finishing his degree at Metropolitan State University in Denver.

One of the first community efforts he made was creating a food pantry at Westside Center, a community center in Cheyenne. Although the food pantry did not take off, Salas ended up turning the building into a center for youth living in poverty.

“We had some pool tables, foosball, and a TV room library. Kids would come in after school, about 30 or 40 kids, and would go in and out of this little building just to hang out because their parents are working, they had no place else to go,” he said. 

When trying to prove why the program should get funding from the United Way, there was pushback, he said.

“They were balking at giving us the money, so I said, ‘Well look, these kids are going to hang out here. They’re going to come to the Westside Center and they’re gonna hangout. Would you rather have them hangout in your neighborhood?,’ and we got the money.” 

After moving to Colorado, Salas quickly started becoming involved with agencies in Colorado. 

“I became engrossed in the community and really learned about the Hispanic Chicano community here,” he said. 

Being part of the Visiones Program through the Colorado Hispanic Institute and working with 15 nonprofit boards, Salas eventually moved to working in the Boulder County Commissioners’ Office, where he stayed for 25 years, running for county commissioner a handful of times. 

“Primarily I did it because I felt like we needed to have somebody on the ballot, and I couldn’t talk anyone else into running. I think in order for us to realize our true potential, we have to have leadership at the top. We have to have elected officials and we have to hold them accountable,” he said. “And basically my whole career has been holding people accountable for our community.” 

In November, Boulder County’s first Latina commissioner, Marta Loachamin, was elected. 

Salas became involved in the Boulder Chamber in the mid-’90s, joining its Minority Business Leadership Council. When the council disbanded after the president at the time, Denis Nock, left, Salas pulled resources together and became a founding member of the Boulder County Latino Chamber of Commerce in 2001. 

Salas said he first got involved with the Chamber because he was curious about where government money was going. 

 “All these contractors are building stuff for the cities and the school districts and I was curious about whether Latino and Chicano businesses were getting any of this money that we as taxpayers have paid in? And are the people who are contracting getting that money? What are their hiring practices? Who’s accountable for that? Who’s ultimately responsible to make those decisions? Do they even think about it?,” he said. “So when you show up, be prepared when you show up, show up prepared to ask questions. They either don’t know about it, haven’t thought about it or don’t want to hear it.” 

In spaces where non-white people are the minority, it’s important to remind the majority that “there’s more to life than their perspective, and we’re gonna remind them of that,” he said. 

Tayer said, “I think by recognizing Peter, not only do we pay tribute to his lifetime of work and contributions to our businesses and our community, but we also recognize the value of that work, not only in lifting our economy but making sure that we as a business community are as welcoming and inclusive as possible to make sure that we are exemplifying those values.”  

The Celebration of Leadership will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday and will be held via Zoom. Viewers have the option to purchase appetizer boxes to be delivered to their homes (if within 20 miles of Boulder) from catering company A Spice of Life. Register here. 

“I believe that since I’ve been here, and the people I’ve worked with over the years, because of their resourcefulness, their resilience and their willingness to commit, have made a difference in the lives of many in our community,” Salas said. “I think we have a long way to go. But I believe that we have enough good people in the community, young people who are taking up the mantle.”