Spotlight: Meet Colorado's new state historian

Colorado State Historian Claire Oberon Garcia enjoys reading six to seven books at a time — in two different languages, no less.

Driving the news: This week, Garcia, an English professor at Colorado College, became the first non-history educator to take the role of state historian, a role that includes promoting programming at History Colorado Center.

• She's also working on a book about Black women writers from the African diaspora who came together in Paris between 1900 and 1960 to explore civil rights and anti-colonialism.

We chatted with Garcia recently to learn more about her:

🎭 Milton or Shakespeare? Milton, she says, because his work is "more complex and disturbing." His most famous work is "Paradise Lost."

📚 Reading list: "The Most Secret Memory of Men" by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (in French).

🏛️ Favorite museum: Musée de la Vie Romantique in Paris.

📰 Go-to news sources: the New York Times and The Gazette, which she reads with her husband.

• "We generally have a leisurely breakfast where we go through both the papers and just discuss what's going on."

🎵 Streaming: Classical music, including Bach's Double Violin Concerto, ballet music (she used to be a dancer) and requiems.

📺 Now streaming: "Dark Winds," a crime mystery show set in New Mexico.

🖊️ One thing on her desk: A note her third-grade daughter, Dolores Patria Garcia, wrote to her cast when she was directing a school play: "Life is not a piece of candy, if you want to realize something, you have to make it happen day by day."