In 1968, Lupe Briseño had four young kids in school when she decided to go to work to bring in some extra income for the family. She found a job at Kitayama Floral Corporation in Brighton. The pay was 98 cents an hour.
This story is part ofColorado at 150. Each Fifty for 150 story focuses on an event that helped define Colorado over 150 years of statehood. Newsline is publishing one Fifty for 150 story every weekday in reverse chronological order until the sesquicentennial, Aug. 1, when the final of 50 stories, about the declaration of statehood, will appear.
She soon discovered that conditions at the site, where she cut carnations with many older women from Mexico, were appalling…