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Pueblo Azul provides peer-support and resources in Spanish for parents raising kids with disabilities

Silt resident Indhira Barrón, right, facilitates a conversation with Rocky Mountain Health Plans about Medicaid coverage for kids and young adults with disabilities at a Pueblo Azul Colorado meeting at the Arc of the Central Mountain office in Glenwood Springs on Nov. 14. Barrón, who has a daughter with autism, founded Pueblo Azul in 2023 as a way to offer peer-support and resources to other Spanish-speaking parents raising kids with disabilities.
Silt resident Indhira Barrón, right, facilitates a conversation with Rocky Mountain Health Plans about Medicaid coverage for kids and young adults with disabilities at a Pueblo Azul Colorado meeting at the Arc of the Central Mountain office in Glenwood Springs on Nov. 14. Barrón, who has a daughter with autism, founded Pueblo Azul in 2023 as a way to offer peer-support and resources to other Spanish-speaking parents raising kids with disabilities.

Pueden encontrar la versión en español aquí.

Raising a kid with disabilities can be challenging, whether it’s navigating services, finding affordable child care or bearing the emotional toll of parenting.

For many Spanish-speaking parents in the valley, the challenges are magnified when a majority of resources and services are offered primarily in English.

To try to bridge that gap, Silt parent Indhira Barrón started the peer-support and resource group Pueblo Azul Colorado for parents and caregivers.

On Nov. 14, about a dozen parents gathered for a monthly Pueblo Azul meetup at the Arc of the Central Mountains office in Glenwood Springs.

There were snacks and drinks laid out on a table, and a representative from Rocky Mountain Health Plans answered questions in Spanish about Medicaid and health coverage for kids and young adults with disabilities.

This particular meeting was focused on how to navigate a complicated health care system, and although Barrón facilitated the conversation, she also learned about ways to help her 16-year-old daughter, who has autism.

“I have never explored the benefits of having coverage for her, for life,” Barrón said. “Not only for medical stuff, but having a caregiver to help her learn about money, how to really behave in a job and how to be independent — that’s the goal.”

Barrón decided to start the group in 2023 after local nonprofit Ascendigo organized a series of workshops for parents and caregivers raising kids with autism.

There was a Spanish interpreter at each session, but Barrón wished there was a regular meetup that was entirely in Spanish.

“So I don't have to have a translator over here, trying to tell me what they're saying,” Barrón said. “I am listening in my own language about what are the opportunities I have for my kids to better their own lives.”

Pueblo Azul founder Indhira Barrón stands in her office at Mind Springs Health in Glenwood Springs. While Barrón runs Pueblo Azul independently, she’s also a trained peer and family support specialist with Mind Springs Health, and she’s able to refer parents to therapists or other mental health providers when needed.
Eleanor Bennett
/
Aspen Journalism and Aspen Public Radio
Pueblo Azul founder Indhira Barrón stands in her office at Mind Springs Health in Glenwood Springs. While Barrón runs Pueblo Azul independently, she’s also a trained peer and family support specialist with Mind Springs Health, and she’s able to refer parents to therapists or other mental health providers when needed.

Barrón wanted to give the group a Spanish name and decided on Pueblo Azul.

"Pueblo" means community, and "Azul" represents the vastness and beauty of autism.

“‘Pueblo’ is connected with small communities in places like Mexico and we're a small community of Latino families here in the valley,” Barrón said. “And ‘azul,’ which is blue, is because autism is like the sea: It’s so big, and if you go to see it, sometimes it will give you the sense of being in fear because you don't know what's there, and maybe you don't know how to get into the waters, but once you are in the water, you just enjoy. And the more you explore, you see how beautiful it is under the sea, so that's autism.”

Although Barrón and many of the group’s participants have children with autism, she has expanded it to include any type of disability and plans meetups around a free monthly caregiving night for people with disabilities offered by Real Respite and the city of Glenwood Springs.

Each month, Barrón tries to invite different organizations that offer a variety of resources, but the group is also a chance for parents to share their experiences and support one another.

“This is a very tough job; it's not an easy job,” Barrón said. “As a mom, we have to function 24/7, and be aware and be there and be able to be taking care of someone else.”

While Barrón runs Pueblo Azul independently, she’s also a trained peer and family support specialist with Mind Springs Health, and she’s able to refer parents to therapists or other mental health providers when needed.

“If the caregiver is doing fine in their mental health, we are going to have less crisis at school, we're going to be dealing better with any situation at home and people are going to be really having a better life,” Barrón said.

Eleanor Bennett
Aspen Journalism and Aspen Public Radio
Eleanor Bennett

Glenwood Springs resident Rosalba Tellez comes regularly to the meetings.

Tellez always knew her youngest son was different from other kids: At 4 years old, he could explain how the solar system worked, but he was also bullied and struggled in school.

He ended up being incarcerated when he was 17 and was diagnosed with autism in jail.

“In the beginning, I didn’t understand what happened, because he didn't have a diagnosis,” Tellez said. “He was a good kid, he was active, he was practicing skiing and swimming, you know, he liked to play chess, and I never thought he was autistic.”

Tellez’s son, who is still incarcerated, is now taking part in a restorative justice program that she learned about through Pueblo Azul.

She wonders if things could’ve been different if there had been more support for kids with disabilities such as her son in the local public school system or if she had joined a group like Pueblo Azul sooner.

“If I found them earlier, maybe we are not talking and I am not crying,” Tellez said. “I really feel blessed to have found them.”

Despite the obstacles she faced in getting her son the care he needs, Tellez said it's refreshing to be in a room filled with parents going through similar struggles.

“I found a family there, I found support,” Tellez said. “And yeah, it's something super special for people who go through this kind of challenge.”

Alma Landeros, a Glenwood Springs resident who just recently started going to the meetings, has an 11-year-old son with autism and is grateful to parents such as Tellez who have shared their experiences and helped her know what to expect.

“Es muy, muy difícil, especialmente cuando te lo dicen y tú no lo esperas,” Landeros said. “Cuando tu bebé nace, tu esperas, en tu mente tú estás pensando que tu niño va a tener una vida normal, que va a crecer, va a ser un profesional, va a ser independiente.”

“It’s very, very difficult, especially when they tell you and you don’t expect it,” Landeros said. “When your baby is born, you expect, in your mind, you’re thinking that your child is going to have a normal life, that they’re going to grow up, become a professional, and be independent.”

But when Landeros’ son was diagnosed with a disability, her reality and expectations for parenthood and for her son changed.

“Cuando te dicen un diagnóstico que tu hijo no va a poder hablar a los 12, va a empezar a hablar a los 12 años, va a ir al baño a los 15 … es algo muy difícil y muy, muy difícil de procesar,” Landeros said.

“When they give you a diagnosis that your child won’t be able to speak until they’re 12, that they’ll start speaking at 12 years old, that they’ll go to the bathroom at 15 … it’s something very difficult and very, very hard to process,” Landeros said.

On her cellphone, a local mother shows Pueblo Azul’s logo and Facebook page at a meeting in Glenwood Springs on Nov. 14. The monthly peer-support meetups for parents and caregivers raising kids with disabilities are planned around a free childcare night offered by the Friendship Circle of Aspen Valley and the city of Glenwood Springs.
Eleanor Bennett
/
Aspen Journalism and Aspen Public Radio
On her cellphone, a local mother shows Pueblo Azul’s logo and Facebook page at a meeting in Glenwood Springs on Nov. 14. The monthly peer-support meetups for parents and caregivers raising kids with disabilities are planned around a free childcare night offered by the Friendship Circle of Aspen Valley and the city of Glenwood Springs.

Landeros also appreciates that each Pueblo Azul meeting is planned around the free caregiver nights for parents who have kids with disabilities.

“Es lo mejor que puede haber,” Landeros said. “La primera vez, el mes pasado que lo hicimos, yo no podía creer que yo tenía que dejar a mi hijo ahí. Y dije, ¿cómo lo voy a dejar ahí? Nunca me separo de él, [pero ellos dijeron,] ‘Ah, no, tú necesitas irte y vete y aquí lo vamos a cuidar,’ y yo pensé, ‘Oh, my gosh.’”

“It’s the best thing there could be,” Landeros said. “The first time, last month when we did it, I couldn’t believe that I had to leave my son there. And I said, ‘How am I going to leave him there? I am never distanced from him,’ [but they told me], ‘Oh, no, you need to leave, just go and we will take care of him here,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh!’”

For her part, Barrón hopes to keep helping parents such as Landeros and Tellez.

“Everything we have done comes out of my pocket, and it comes from people volunteering their time to help the Latino community,” Barrón said.

Barrón is in the process of turning Pueblo Azul into a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, so that she can hire a full-time staff and make Pueblo Azul sustainable for families into the future.

The next Pueblo Azul meeting will be held at the Glenwood Springs Community Center on Feb. 20 at 6 p.m.

For more information about the group, go to Pueblo Azul Colorado’s Facebook page.

Editor’s note: The Spanish interviews and quotes in this story were interpreted and then transcribed in both Spanish and English with assistance from Convey Language Solutions. 

Eleanor is an award-winning journalist reporting on regional social justice issues in collaboration with Aspen Public Radio and Aspen Journalism. A life-long Roaring Fork Valley local, she previously was a reporter, podcast producer and Morning Edition host at Aspen Public Radio. Her stories have ranged from local protests against federal immigration crackdowns to creative efforts to solve the valley’s affordable housing challenge.