Thank you to each community member who participated in the 2026 Latino Conservation Week (LCW) Photo Contest. LCW is an initiative of Hispanic Access Foundation. This week-long celebration of community, cultura, and conservation was created to support Latinx communities with increased access to the outdoors to protect our natural environment.
This year, each photo spoke to the annual theme of rooted in nature, thriving in community and contributed to our ever-growing story of what conservation and outdoor engagement mean to us.
FIRST PLACE
Photograph by Guillermo Luna
In Big Bend National Park, nature is more than a landscape. Nature is a living inheritance, connecting people, wildlife, and generations across the Chihuahuan desert. The ocotillo plant, that’s visible in the photo, and other desert plants are essential threads in this web of life. The ocotillo’s flowers provide nectar for pollinators and hummingbirds, while their leaves, shelter and structure help sustain the diverse wildlife that calls this harsh environment home.
For thousands of years, indigenous peoples including Chisos, Jornada, Mogollon, Mescalero Apace, and Comanche lived in this region. They learned to depend upon and adapt to its plants, animals, mountains, and waters. Later, Mexican families farmed and raised cattle in this region along the Rio Grande River, carrying these traditions and knowledge forward.
Today, Big Bend National Park protects these biological diverse land and its cultural landscapes and stories that makes this place part of our shared heritage. To be rooted in nature is to understand that when land thrives, our peoples thrive. This is why it is so important to not only protect these plants, wildlife, traditions, and sense of belonging, but to teach our children to as well.
SECOND PLACE
Photograph by Ana Hidalgo
While visiting Quito, Ecuador, I hiked inactive volcano Rucu Pichincha and came across two local men riding horses down the mountain, a sight that caught me by surprise at such a high altitude. I soon learned that the horses are part of a traditional livelihood, carrying supplies to a small mountain café and helping hikers travel the rugged Andean terrain. Their work reflects a deep knowledge of and connection to the land, perfectly adapted to the challenges of the high-altitude landscape. As I snapped this photo, in the distance you can see Quito, my home country’s capital, stretching across the valley below, and perfectly framing the horsemen.
THIRD PLACE
Photograph by Susana Canales Barrón
A father tends to a community garden with his sons in Petaluma, California. Shared among several families, the garden provides medicinal herbs, flowers, and vegetables. They are shared with neighbors and woven into the traditions that bring a community together. Among them are the cempasúchils that bloom each fall for Día de los Muertos; their bright petals and earthy fragrance become offerings through which the living honor and remember those who have passed. The garden also holds knowledge passed from one generation to the next. As the seasons turn, children learn by tending the land and discover the patience of cultivation and the rhythms of regeneration. They learn that caring for the earth is also a way of caring for one another.
FOURTH PLACE
Photograph by Julie Luna Murillo
At 92, facing a heavy diagnosis, Abuela wasn’t about to sit on the sidelines. She stepped up to the piñata with pure focus and took her best swing. This turned out to be the last birthday we shared with her, but out here, illness didn’t define the day. Public green spaces are vital because they offer our communities healing, dignity, and a neutral ground where joy outlasts pain. In the shade of that park, her strength took root in all of us.