September 1, 2022
The Raizado Festival Confronts Aspen’s Inequality
By Lisa Herforth-Hebbert
In one of the wealthiest towns in the country, Latinx and Indigenous issues intersect on the first day of the Latinx House’s inaugural Raizado Festival.
Aspen in the summer is the lush green version of the winter twin that made it famous. Here, on an 82-degree Tuesday in August, the town’s namesake trees are full, blue spruce are healthy, and dahlias are blooming, but December is already a topic of conversation. An article in the Aspen Daily News reported on Delta’s new nonstop flight from Atlanta for the upcoming “winter season,” one of hundreds of flights available only when there’s snow.
To paint another picture of the near-mythical Colorado town: At least three designer garment bags boarded the small plane to Aspen with its passengers—a Gucci suit for a wedding, Celine, Brooks Brothers. In the last decade or so, Aspen has become synonymous for many with wealth and power, but it may be more accurately described as an example of massive inequality. The national Gini coefficient—a measure of inequality where 0 is total equality and 1 is maximal inequality—is .48. Aspen’s is .56. While median annual income in Aspen is $70,000, median home prices hover around $4 million. Super-gentrification has meant that restaurants and storefronts are unrecognizable from 20 years ago.
