The sun had been up for hours by the time Wolfie, CSU Pueblo’s mascot, started sweating through their costume in the Bessemer neighborhood staging area. It was just past 8 am on Sunday, Aug. 31, and the 58th Annual Colorado State Fair Fiesta Day Parade was about to begin. This year’s theme, “El Corazón de Nuestra Comunidad,” felt appropriate to the community along Northern and Evans Avenues. The streets are in the shadow of the steel mill, which attracted immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, Mexico, and those who worked the land in the Deep South. All came together for a better life. The dancers faced the mill while adjusting their vibrant costumes one last time before representing their university.

Esly Del Palacio stood among her fellow CSU Pueblo Ballet Folklórico dancers. She adjusts the layers of her vibrant floral costume. The green and pink ruffle dress from the Tierra Caliente region in Guerrero, Mexico was already warming in the morning sun, its voluminous skirt and fitted blouse requiring careful attention. She’d been selected as one of the best female dancers in the group, an honor that still felt surreal as she prepared for both the parade and, more importantly, the trip to Spain just days away.

A few days earlier, across campus, Gali Acuna had been adjusting to a different kind of performance: her first week as a concurrent enrollment student. The high school senior from Pueblo Central was taking just one class this semester, Sociology 101, testing the waters of college life while still finishing her senior year. But her real preparation was for the same international opportunity that awaited Esly.

They practice only five hours a week. Sometimes less. But somehow, these dancers from Pueblo had caught the attention of the prestigious Ballet Folklórico Basaseachi, a Denver-based dance group and earned spots on an international trip to Spain. In just days, they’d be performing Mexican folk dance in a country an ocean away, carrying with them the traditions of a place they’d never left.

Both Esly and Gail had been dancing since childhood, following similar paths into the program. Esly started around age five and has been dancing for over 12 years. Like many of the dancers, she began because of family connections – her mother, along with other dance parents, coordinated to get their daughters involved. “Ever since then we’ve been dancing,” she says.

Gali’s story is intertwined with the program’s history. Her mother, Maestra Iskra D. Merino, co-founded CSU Pueblo’s Ballet Folklórico program back in 2011 alongside Dr. Dora Luz Cobián-Klein. The program started with a simple goal: give students a space to express their artistic talents while celebrating Mexican culture. What they probably didn’t expect was to create a pipeline from small-town Colorado to international stages.

As a child, Gali watched older dancers perform, begging her mother to let her join. “I would cry before every performance,” she remembers. “I’d tell my mom, ‘Mom, I want to dance. I always want to go on stage with all the older girls.’” Her mother eventually started a younger kids’ group specifically so Gali could participate. Now, as a senior taking her first college class, she’s part of that same tradition she once admired from the audience.

The selection for Spain wasn’t random. Ballet Folklórico Basaseachi specifically chose both Esly and Gali because they’d won awards for best female dancers. It’s the kind of recognition that sounds impressive until you realize how small this world really is. Everyone knows everyone. Mothers coordinate carpools and costumes. Friendships span decades, not just dance seasons.

“My mom (Iskra D. Merino) is the coordinator here at CSU Pueblo,” Gail explains, “She’s really close with the teacher from the Denver group.”

This is how opportunities happen in communities like Pueblo. Not through agents or auditions, but through relationships built over years of shared performances and late-night costume repairs.

CSU Pueblo dancers in the 2025 Fiesta Parade

For Esly, the path was similarly family-driven but born of friendship. The mothers in the dance community talked, coordinated, and collectively decided their daughters should join. It’s typical for organic community building to happen in places like Pueblo. Here families know each other across generations.

Esly also specializes in the leather costume with fringes from Tamaulipas, which she calls her personal favorite, though she’s mastered dances from multiple states throughout her years in the program.

“I feel like they’re all special in their own way,” Gail says about the different state dances. “They all describe and embody the state they’re from, and every state has different traditions that they follow.”

Now the two dancers were heading to Spain for an international opportunity. It’s how these young women embrace their heritage in a place where others might hide it. “I know a lot of people who are from Mexico, they like to hide from their culture and they don’t feel accepted here,” Gali reflects. “But I’ve always wanted to embrace it. I’ve always loved dancing and I’ve always loved performing.”

This confidence didn’t develop overnight. Both dancers admit that nerves hit before performances. “Girls always get scared to perform too.” But somewhere along the way, Gali stopped caring about those nerves. ” I’ve always loved what I do.”

Their trip to Spain a cultural exchange where they’ll bring gifts from Colorado. Keychains, maybe hot sauce, definitely memories. They’ll meet dancers from other countries, including Colombia, and participate in a festival that celebrates folkloric traditions from around the world.

For Gali, this trip echoes her mother’s own journey. “My mom was as young as I am now, maybe a couple of years older, when she got her chance to go to Europe for the first time. She went with a dance group in Mexico.” The tradition passes from mother to daughter, but not as an obligation. As an opportunity.

As the parade begins to move, Wolfie leads the way on the float. Besides Wolfie, the CSU Pueblo Ballet Folklórico dancers take their positions.

The ruffles on Esly’s costume catch the light as she begins to move. Somewhere in the crowd, parents take pictures and grandmothers wipe away tears. This is how culture survives. This is what makes Pueblo the kind of place to raise your children. One dance step at a time. One generation teaching the next. One small university program producing dancers good enough for Spain.