YOUR AD HERE »

One Latino Glenwood teenager took a traumatic experience and turned it into a positive call to action. Read about it Friday in the PI print paper.

Brandon Torres would often enjoy pick-up basketball games with friends at Sayre Park, but found himself afraid to go out and socialize after an incident last summer in which he was a target of a racially motivated attack. He's shown here in the park with his mother Rita.
John Stroud/Post Independent

Editor’s note: This is a preview of a story published at a later date. Go here to read the full story.

A recent Bridges High School graduate could have let a negative incident that occurred just before his senior year last summer steer him in the wrong direction.

Instead, Brandon Torres overcame the trauma of being the victim in a race-bias-motivated assault on his birthday, turning that experience into a positive call for awareness and change in his home community.



Torres and his family, and those who’ve rallied behind him, also want to call attention to the injustices they see in the system when it comes to hate crimes, and this case in particular. 

The District Attorney agrees that any hate-motivated crime is “one too many,” but admits that the justice system “…sometimes gets things wrong in another’s eyes,” even in the pursuit of treating all people with dignity.



Brandon’s story has become a commentary on the state of race relations in the Roaring Fork Valley through groups like Voces Unidas de las Montañas. He’s taken it on himself to encourage others who’ve experienced discrimination, or who feel marginalized in any way, to share their stories.

He shares story Friday in the Post Independent and at postindependent.com.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Glenwood Springs and Garfield County make the Post Independent’s work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.