10 Individuals & Organizations to Follow for Latiné Heritage Month
📸: Canva.com/Sarai Pak
Caring about the environment is deeply rooted in Latiné culture, but Hispanic folks are not always viewed as stewards, conservationists, or outdoor enthusiasts. The narrative is often skewed by media representation of environmental experts as being mostly white and male. However, there is a strong history of Latinés taking care of the land and using natural resources with respect for nature, influenced by Indigenous and African traditions.
Though Latinés have been part of this nation’s environmental vision for decades, they lack the opportunity to shine, according to Jessica Godinez, Conservation Program Manager for Hispanic Access Foundation, which creates access for Hispanic people in stewardship, conservation, advocacy, and recreation opportunities. ”A lot of times the spotlight doesn't go to the people that look and speak like us,” she said. “With initiatives like Latino Conservation Week, we’re able to highlight those voices and those leaders that have been working in this space for a really long time.”
This Latiné Heritage Month, we want to recognize the Latiné community’s important presence in outdoor spaces by highlighting the work of 10 organizations and individuals who are bridging the gap between knowledge and access and providing a space for Latiné folks to connect with the outdoors.
Hispanic Access Foundation
Hispanic Access Foundation connects Latines with opportunities to explore workforce opportunities in recreation, become environmental stewards, participate in conservation, and advocate for healthy physical spaces. HAF was founded in 2010 by Maite Arce, after she realized she needed guidance navigating her immigration experience.
As the organization expanded, they created programming around stewardship, conservation, advocacy, and recreation, including direct community engagement through events like Latino Conservation Week, which takes place every summer. During this week-long event, HAF provides funding opportunities for partners across the country. During July 2022, they had about 215 events, many of those funded by HAF.
“We’re really seeking to break down barriers of access that our community faces when it comes to accessing public lands or participating in outdoor recreation, or even being a part of the conservation movement,” said Jessica Godinez, Conservation Program Manager for HAF.
They also have advocacy campaigns and opportunities for community members to meet with representatives, receive guidance on protecting and designating national monuments, and work with local tribes to establish national wildlife refuges. In Southern California, HAF is currently working with the Chumash tribe to designate the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. Additionally, they’re working on designating the Western Riverside Wildlife Refuge in California, which is located near a Latino community. On the east coast, they’re involved with a campaign to create the Chesapeake National Recreation Area.
HAF also advocates for the improvement of climate change policy that directly impacts Latine communities. “Oftentimes, Latinos are on the frontlines of climate change and experiencing some of those devastating effects,” Godinez mentioned. “Ultimately, we're seeking to elevate the diverse voices and leaders in our community to support our own Latino communities and advocate for environmental issues directly impacting their lives.”
Luisana Mendez, Huellas Latinas
Luisana Mendez began the blog Huellas Latinas as a way to create an engaged outdoor community that is inspired to explore their surrounding environment. “The purpose is to motivate people to try something new, but mostly to understand the benefits of a simple hike, whether it's a physical or spiritual benefit,” she said.
Mendez has always considered herself an explorer, but now is developing her projects in a more conscious and organized manner. She has created a hiking club and has partnered with local parks and outdoor organizations to host events around camping, climbing, kayaking, fishing, and more. Last year, Mendez completed the 52 Hike Challenge, coinciding with her parents' visit from Venezuela after spending four years apart. “I was able to do that hike with my parents and friends, so it was special. Nothing was planned, and it was spontaneous."
After moving from Venezuela, Mendez was determined to learn about Minnesota through its public and natural spaces, and in the process connect with the emerging Latiné culture. “I’ve always worked with the community in Venezuela, and even more here; It's a good way to maintain connection with your roots, language, culture, and help one another, grow together,” she said.
“You get an elevated feeling of belonging, when surrounded by people who understand your culture, understand your language —even understand your jokes.”
Mendez continues to write in Spanish for her blog and social media content, as a way to connect with the community. She also encourages individuals who want to learn Spanish to join their events and create cultural connections.
Latino Outdoors
📸: Veronica Miranda
Latino Outdoors began in 2013 when José González realized there was an unmet need for a conservation organization that served Latinés. This motivated him to create an online blog and networking platform for members of the Latiné community who were interested in recreation, environmental education, and conservation.
As the community grew, Latino Outdoors began providing outdoor activities for youth and families through its Vamos Outdoor program, expanding from California to a national organization, now nationally present in 27 locations.
The organization continues to focus on programs that highlight outdoor experiences, narratives, and leadership through Let’s Go Outdoors (Vamos Outdoors), I Count/I Matter/I Tell a Story Outdoors (Yo Cuento Outdoors), and We Grow Outdoors (Crecemos Outdoors). They advocate for storytelling that connects participants to their roots.
In 2021, they produced Yo Cuento: Nurturing Grassroots Advocacy for Conservation, a follow-up documentary to their 2020 short film. It featured public lands advocates and elected officials highlighting the importance of voices from local communities speaking up in support of public lands.
According to their 2021 year in review report, their audience across LO’s national social media and communications platforms has grown beyond 77,000. They also continue to host their original blog, which has a collection of stories around healing, transformation, advocacy, and equity in the outdoors.
Upcoming events include bouldering, paddling boarding, waterfall hikes, nature journaling, and more.
Tsalani Lassiter
Tsalani Lassiter is a Black Peruvian photographer, with eight years of experience photographing bears and other wildlife. Tsalani grew up in California’s Bay Area and his childhood included summer camping in Mendocino and yearly trips to Yosemite. According to his website, “Tsalani works to connect people with nature, foster conversations about conservation, and diversify the outdoors.” Additionally, “his journey to nature has motivated him to encourage other minorities and underrepresented communities to get outside and pursue interests they may have believed were unattainable.”
Tsalani’s passion for wildlife photography began in 2012, when he had the exciting experience of photographing a bear for the first time in Lake Tahoe. He continued visiting Lake Tahoe for two more years to photograph bears during the annual salmon spawning. Now, Tsalani plans several trips a year to shoot wildlife, including elk, bats, and other animals. So far, he has traveled to Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, and the Smoky Mountains.
In recent years, he partnered with the Lyda Hill Foundation and National Geographic fellow, Dr. Rae Wynn Grant for a photography project, where he had the opportunity to capture the ecologist as she studied bear dens in Lake Tahoe and bear cubs at Savage River State Forest, Maryland for a PBS Live special.
Michelle Barboza, Latinx Naturalist
Michelle Barboza is a queer Latinx Earth Science Professor who enjoys teaching people about rocks, fossils, and plants. They also have a degree in gender studies, which influenced them to connect the history of women in science to modern gender inequality in STEM.
Barboza grew up visiting natural history museums, art exhibitions, and state parks on weekends with their family, inspiring them to pursue Geological Sciences in the University of Florida, later studying Paleontology at the Florida Museum. Originally, they thought “the scientist life” was an “out of reach, unknowable thing,” according to a 2017 article by the Florida Museum, especially being “a tattooed, queer, first-generation Latina,” but they found more acceptance than anticipated, though traditional biases are still present in the science field.
In 2022, they founded We're Out Here with another friend, who is a queer, Latinx, nature lover. Both live in Orange County, CA and hold a space for queer and BIPOC folks who enjoy the outdoors, through their monthly meetups, comprised of nature walks, guided hikes, picnics, birding, plant identification, and more. Barboza is currently a member of the Community Nature Connection’s Outdoor and Coastal Access Leadership Institute (OCALI), and the Hood Herbalism 2022 Spring cohort. You can also find them on TikTok sharing knowledge on fossils and prehistoric animals through PBS Eons.
Sandy Oda Hernandez
Sandy Oda Hernandez is a Latina Park Ranger currently working at Cabrillo National Monument. Originally part of the volunteer program in Yosemite National Park, she later moved to a permanent role as a Lead Visitor. Hernandez gained the confidence she needed to work for the National Park Service after a two-year position as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia, where she partnered with local agriculture educators to help community members improve farming and animal husbandry.
A Peace Corps colleague later encouraged her to apply for a position in Yosemite National Park. Though Hernandez doubted she would land the role. For Sandy and her family, being outdoors had not always felt welcoming. “We’ve also had negative experiences in nature as a family where we’ve experienced being shamed by others in these outdoor spaces, because of our lack of knowledge of some things,” she shared with the NPS Oral History Project.
Sandy was eventually hired for her “dream job,” and in recent years has initiated several projects to bring together BIPOC employees and allies to promote diversity and inclusivity in the workforce. One of those efforts is Workshop for Ethnic and Racial Minorities in Outdoor Recreation and Education, along with partners at Yosemite Conservancy, Latino Outdoors and the African American Nature and Parks Experience.
The project’s goal was to bring Californians who wanted to increase diversity and inclusion in outdoor spaces. Hernandez was the lead ranger of the workshop, which took place during three days in November 2018. In the end, the group shared ideas and action items with park leadership to address how Yosemite National Park could be more inclusive to underrepresented communities.
Latinx Surf Club
Created by Vanessa Yeager in 2017, Latinx Surf Club is a community for Latinés to learn and grow through surfing, a sport historically lacking diversity. Now coach and Physical Education teacher, Yeager, wanted to create something not available when she began learning. “That's really what it was, a safe space, because of my own personal trauma, my personal experience with racism and surfing.”
Yeager didn’t experience racism until she tried surfing for the first time as a teen. “We’re at the beach, where people were calling me and my best friend names,” she said. “We were always around diversity. So we didn't feel any real racism until we tried surfing.”
Yeager is Puerto Rican and Mexican and grew up in Moreno Valley, California before moving to Newport Beach at 18. She was often teased by relatives for practicing a sport known to be common amongst rich families. “It's just so funny how even your own family can make you feel like you don't belong to something.”
These experiences “fueled” her to become a surfer and eventually led to the creation of Latinx Surf Club, which offers a place of “fellowship” for those who might feel alienated from other surfing groups. After 25 years of surfing professionally, Yeager knows barriers of access still exist, some of which include expensive suits, boards, accessibility to the beach, and time off work.
Through Latinx Surf Club and Women Who Surf, which has more than 25,000 members, Yeager is bringing more accessibility to surfers. “So if somebody does want to surf and messages me, I will just set it up,” she said. “When can you come? What do you need?” Both groups have official meetups, but also spontaneous gatherings posted on their Facebook page or Instagram.
“It's really just about helping out and having each other's back,” she added.
LatinXHikers
Founders Adriana Garcia and Luz Lituma created LatinXHikers in 2017, a grassroots initiative that creates access and representation, allowing Latinés to connect with nature. This project, which began as a small Instagram community, now provides the southeast region with numerous events, including swimming, bonfires, hiking, cleanups, and many more.
In 2018, REI partnered with LatinXHikers for an 18-day road trip from San Diego to Baja California, Mexico, documenting their travels as they hiked, camped, kayaked, and found themselves in odd adventures. Footage from the trip was featured on REI’s direct mailers, in-store signage, online, and social media channels, according to the Outside Business Journal.
“We thought it would be a community of close friends and stuff,” Lituma told Blue Ridge Outdoors. “Never in our heads did we think that we’d gain so many followers and have REI reach out to us.”
Luz Lituma is an outdoor enthusiast from Atlanta, Georgia with a passion for road tripping, backpacking, and hiking. Her previous roles included being the Latinx Partnership Coordinator at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and Florida Trail Association, which has influenced her to create more stewardship opportunities for the Latiné population. She’s currently on the road visiting public lands in the Western US.
The other half of this duo is Adriana Garcia, a camper, road-tripper, and ex-accountant from Ooltewah, Tennessee. During her teenage years, Garcia struggled to understand her identity, and the outdoors became a place to escape and brought her a sense of belonging. “When I was a little girl. I was one of those kids that never wanted to be inside,” she told Outdoor Project.
Apart from LatinXHikers, Garcia has championed initiatives with an Atlanta community-based nonprofit, Nature for All, creating equitable access. Currently, she’s serving on the board of the Chattahoochee National Park Conservancy.
For Garcia, the role of an outdoor enthusiast is not solely about taking, but also protecting the land for future generations. “That means we are the ones starting those important conversations, learning more about what we can do, and educating others. It’s up to us to use our platforms and privileges to get the word out.”
Dominique “Nique” Miller
Nique Miller is one of the few Black professional surfers, ranked among the top ten female competitive stand-up paddle surfers, and a top competitor in longboard surfing. In 2019, Miller signed with Billabong, giving her the opportunity to focus on her training, allowing her to travel to different tour stops. In recent years, she signed with Sun Bum and Nuun, and landed the cover of SurfGirl magazine, according to The Inertia. As an Afro-Latina surfer, this has given her a platform to show other minorities that being a professional surfer is possible.
“When you look at the lineup there’s so much diversity, all ages, all body types, all skin color. The sport is for everyone,” she said in Billabong.
For Miller, the journey was not without struggles, as for many years, she lacked a major sponsor and self-funded her travels, making it difficult to visit all the tour stops. She worked full time as a surf instructor and photographer, sneaking in surfs and paddles whenever possible.
Growing up in Michigan, Miller’s family lacked funds, and being African and Mexican-American made her feel out of place, according to The Inertia. Moving to Hawaii allowed her to recognize her beauty and her athletic potential. Miller learned how to surf by watching others, and after only a few months entered and won her first competition.
“I’m super grateful but it took a long time to get here — I don’t want people to ever be in the position where they’re told they can’t do something. Hopefully, I’m inspiring boys and girls and making the road a little bit easier,” she said in The Inertia.
Sebastian Moreno, Urban Bird Ecologist
Sebastian Moreno is an urban bird ecologist examining the interactions between humans and wildlife in urban environments, focusing on urban ecology, ornithology, and sociology. He’s currently an Environmental Conservation Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Massachusetts, researching how to build trust around citizen science and improve scientific engagement with the public, while considering barriers marginalized participants may face.
“During the time I spent outdoors, I found myself asking these ‘how?’ and ‘why?’ questions pertaining to nature and wildlife,” he wrote on his website. This influenced him to seek the guidance of Biology professors, which encouraged him to take a Population and Evolutionary Biology course, and after spending more time studying birds, he found his true calling.
To narrow his focus, he attended the University of Missouri and pursued a Master of Science, researching microhabitats created from urban vacant lots in St. Louis, studying their impact on bird diversity and abundance. “While working in this city, I was exposed to more than just birds. I got a first-hand experience of social and environmental injustices,” he wrote on his website. “This opened my eyes to a whole new world of ecology I was not familiar with.”
Moreno’s previous initiatives include the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center Neighborhood Nestwatch, which is a citizen science program studying annual survival and reproductive success. In 2019, Moreno and his colleague participated in The Urban Wildlife Conservation Program webinar series, Finding Common Ground: Managing Vacant Lots for Birds and People in St. Louis, Missouri. Currently, he’s the Latino Outdoors Western Massachusetts Region Program Coordinator.