coming here i didn't expect >> reporter: stephanie fernandez is a new york native who works for telemundo denver and found some commonality between dominican american and cubans. >> i'm actually shocked at the fact there's so many here which makes me happy. i am. >> i think denver is very open to having these learning conversations and a lot of people say why do you live in beautiful place to raise a family. it's a great place to be a latina and it's a great place to be part of change and the forward moving conversation that is latino here. >> that was jonathan gonzalez reporting. tomorrow we'll take you to south america. i had a nice conversation with some lady.s a few days ago at maria empanada, not >> you have to snack and taste things as well. >>> warm and dry as we head into the last week of september. >> kathy is back with the extended forecast. >>> even if you didn't see mash back in the day, you know this e the theme song from cheers. sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. for years there been a place just like that in boulder. however, as 9news journalist byron reed s

telemundo denver with folks who represent four of latin america's major regions. today we take a closer look at families who came here from mexico and why for them spanish was often a forbidden language. >> reporter: growing up many of us heard it al actually speaking spanish was c, other 8zz kind of [3became a forbidden language. >> my mom spto us because they we don't want you to against be my dad had a really deep accent because they discriminated against him lot. so we learned english. >> one of my best friends went into 1st grade speaking spanish. he got out of the 8th grade, only english and that's because they literally beat the spanish out of you. >> reporter: for some families it was a real fear. >> growing up i remember hearing stories about my grandparents being punished when speaking spanish in school. not wanting that stigma to come upon my father, they didn't teach him. they didn't use the language in the home. he's had to learn on his own. we've had to learn on our own. >> reporter: but since then so much has changed. >> my children will probably be