We are worlds apart in many ways.

Take a drive, and you'll see the two Greeleys.

On one side, you'll see brand-new homes with remote-controlled garage doors, nestled around golf courses and shiny new restaurants and businesses. People drive sports utility vehicles and minivans. They work at State Farm and Hewlett-Packard and shop in Denver and Fort Collins.

But take 5th Street, and you'll see a markedly different world. Houses are smaller. Jerry's Market is the grocery store. Stores carry Spanish names that seem foreboding to English-speakers. People work at the meatpacking plant and other blue-collar jobs.

Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church and Island Grove Regional Park are the gathering places for Hispanics.

During the day, people who work the night shifts sit on their front porches or lean over their fences, talking to their neighbors. These Hispanics are in the same city as Greeley's Anglos, but much more than a few miles separate them. Why do these two Greeleys exist, and how did they develop? How are they alike, and how are they different? Will they ever come together, or will they remain two distinct parts of the same city?

This special section represents a summary of a massive Greeley Tribune effort to explore these questions.

In 20 monthly installments, the newspaper tackled the sensitive and murky issues surrounding race relations, perhaps the biggest challenge facing our country in the 21st century.

Starting in May 2001, we tried to put into context the rich history of Hispanics in Weld County. In researching the project, reporter Anne Cumming was amazed to find little written about the history of so many people.

Many books trace the path of the Union Colonists who settled Greeley in 1870, but written documentation is scarce about the Mexicans who followed at the turn of the 20th century. Today, few school children know the land now called Colorado - Spanish for red - was part of Mexico before the Mexican-American War in the 1840s.

Through the series, we examined all the parts that make up a city - housing, business, schools, families, sports, entertainment, religion, crime and more. We took you to an Anglo-owned business that has thrived by serving Hispanic customers. We introduced you to couples who have bridged the cultural divides within their own families.

Through this journey, we tried to give our community a fuller view of itself and to celebrate both the similarities and the differences we discovered. Even though we are worlds apart in many ways, a healthy city finds ways to come together.

The first step is greater understanding. We must be willing to look honestly at how race colors who we are and how we see the world. Without pointing fingers, we must be willing to talk frankly about an uncomfortable subject.

The newspaper serves as a place where this discussion can start. We hope the conversation continues over breakfast tables and in classrooms and board rooms.

Our future depends on how well we answer these questions that define us.