This year, the queer, Latin and Native scene in Denver lost a pillar of their community. Miriam “Mimi” Madrid died on Nov. 6.
Madrid was the founder and executive director of Fortaleza Familiar, a community based nonprofit that was focused on the wellness of Chicanx, Latinx, Indigenous and LGBTQ+ youth, as well as their families.
Fortaleza Familiar puts on different programs like “Liberate Ourselves," which is a six-day youth leadership program. They also host campaigns to help people in need. According to their bio, Madrid worked more than a decade in reproductive justice, liberation movements and youth LGBTQ+ leadership.
“I believe in the power of youth, elimination of borders, popular education, all forms of art expression, intergenerational healing and learning, swaying on the continuums of gender expression, identity, and orientation, singing out-loud, leaving to come back, dancing in revolution, and sana-sana-colita-de-rana,” they wrote in their bio.
For Dia de Los Muertos, they published information about transgender deaths throughout the world, and highlighted deceased people who faced different forms of discrimination.
“These artists, activists, and changemakers lived boldly, often defying norms to create beauty and justice in the world,” the website reads. “Through their art, music, words, and movements, they opened doors and made room for generations to come.”
Kimmy Fry has been with Fortelza Familiar since 2023 and said that their favorite part of working with the non-profit was the relationships this group created, and what they were able to teach each other.
“There's so much learning and unlearning and healing within our community because of all of our intersectional identities, and so that along with our generational knowledge sharing is super important along with not only do we have to take care of each other physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally,” Fry said. “We're also trying to find those pockets of joy because Mimi's passing is going to be long lasting.”
Fry said that her and Madrid would actively try to embody being whimsical throughout life.
“There's this joke that Mimi and I would have about us being whimsical and that is all that we have left because we've already gone through sadness, we've already gone through anger and gone through spite,” Fry said. “So whimsical, and this silly energy is what's keeping us alive and fueling us in this battle of just everything that's happening politically. And it's beautiful to think about because it's not childlike. It's something that we were born with. We were born to wonder and to explore and to be curious.”
Madrid came to Denver when they were in the fourth grade from El Paso, Texas. They got their degree in Convergent Media and Journalism from Metropolitan State University of Denver. They were also rewarded with a top Denver Press Club scholarship in 2018.
“The essence of journalism is listening,” Madrid told DPC. “We have to know and use all forms of communications, including print, photojournalism and videography. My goal is to illustrate the human condition, to partner with global storytellers like my grandmother to change the world one story at a time.”
According to MSU Denver, they covered the gentrification of the Five Points neighborhood, undocumented students pursuing higher education and Indigenous culture preservation. They were also a columnist for The Denver Post.
They are survived by their wife, Eleanor Dewey, and many family members, both related and chosen.
Their work with Fortaleza Familiar will continue its outreach for queer, Latin and Native youth. Celeste Razavi-Shearer, a long time friend and colleague of Madrid, said their legacy of healing through nature will live on.
“Mimi is the kind of person whose presence instantly changed lives. He looked you in the eyes and saw you, even when the world might have cast you aside. Their actions on this land were guided by the ways of our ancestors — healing ways, just ways, ways aligned with Mother Earth. Her work began in surviving inherited challenges as a queer/trans/Two Spirit indigenous/Mexican youth,” Razavi-Shearer wrote.
“Those experiences of adversity shaped his life’s position as a protector, decolonizer, mentor, husband, sibling, parent, teacher, lover, farmer and artist. He had so many gifts, but his natural instincts around lifting up young people everywhere will never be forgotten. Fortaleza Familiar is the last community project he shaped in life, but his work and love lives on in so many who will forever miss his warmth, playfulness, beauty, brilliance, modesty, authenticity, generosity and lion’s roar for justice.”
