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Author: Ruby Rodríguez

Then & Now: Lesser-Known Aspects

Por Ruby Rodríguez

Ruby Rodríguez is LO’s longest-tenured staff member, going from volunteer to part-time staffer in 2016 to Director of Programs & Operations. Here, she shares a snippet from a lesser-known part of LO’s journey.

Finding Latino Outdoors (LO) is like coming home for many LO leaders. Listen to the stories we tell about how we came to know LO, and you will find a common thread: that we were actively, consciously searching for community and cultural connections to weave into our relationship with the outdoors. That was me in 2014. You can learn more about that part of my story here. 

My daughter Camila, pictured above, touched my heart when she said to me last year that her favorite thing about me is that I don’t give up. Even when something is harder than I thought it would be, I keep going. 

Just five years ago, in the first quarter of 2018, there was a brief period where I was overseeing LO’s operations as the only member of LO’s national support staff—working only ten hours per week due to lack of resources and volunteering hours on top of that. Graciela Cabello and José González, LO’s first-ever staff members, had dedicated themselves to developing a solid organizational foundation before moving on in 2017 and 2018, respectively. José’s thoughtfully approached departure was neatly followed by a Board-led search for our next Executive Director. Meanwhile, I continued with administrative functions and volunteer management as best I could with limited hours and a small “proto” team made up of volunteers who supported LO’s social media, IT, and outdoor brand relations. Not feeling ready for the position, I didn’t apply for the executive leadership role. But I did hold things together during that transition. Luckily, the stars aligned and within a few months, Luis Villa was welcomed to LO as its new Executive Director. 

It’s true that I am not one to give up, yet I recognize when it may be time to move on. After onboarding Luis and familiarizing him with LO’s values and programs, I felt confident that LO would be safe with him. As for me, I needed to move forward on my own path toward self-sufficiency and figured grad school would provide me with the opportunities and upward mobility that I needed as a single mother. My imminent departure lit a fire under Luis and he offered me a full-time position as the Operations Manager a few days before I was set to start class. The opportunity to work full-time with LO was my dream come true (I’m serious—I’m living my dream here), so I said yes and we worked around the clock for eighteen months to fortify Latino Outdoors. 

In the early days of the pandemic, when everything was scary and the schools were closed and we had no vaccine, we took a leap of faith and invested in a third full-time staff person, and within three years, we carefully brought on nine more. I am proud to have come this far from the days of barebone resources, and grateful for a team made up of kind, highly skilled, and motivated people that help maintain Latino Outdoors as a place that feels like home. At this stage of organizational development and with my daughter’s words reverberating in my heart, I will not lose sight of the level of care and determination that we all have put forth to get LO to where it is today. We will continue to earn all of the support that we receive because I believe that LO is an invaluable community resource worthy of being attentively cared for and stewarded. 

Through all of this, LO’s volunteers have been here, leading outings, sharing their voices and stories, and redefining what it means to be outdoorsy. Their time, energy, ideas, skills, and leadership are the lifeline of LO, and without them LO would not be thriving as it is today. 

As I celebrate my seventh anniversary as a LO staff member with just one month left in our ten-year celebration, I can’t help but think about what this community and organization has provided me with. Being immersed in an environment that prioritizes a sense of belonging together with opportunities to learn, grow, and thrive alongside a network of leaders, has helped me evolve into a truer expression of myself. Engaging with LO leaders in our Vamos Outdoors outings program has proven to me that the fullest expression of self-love is an extension of our own healing, empowerment, and life force to those around us. I know that many LO leaders have had a similar experience, and this is the place where we become kin. To engage in this work with them feels like coming home and has been the experience of a lifetime. 

Dulces Recuerdos de Cruzar Aguas y Regresar a su Infancia/Sweet Memories of Crossing Waters and Returning to Her Childhood

Por Loreto Rojas

Loreto nació en las faldas de la Cordillera de Los Andes y creció en el campo, en un pequeño pueblo al noreste de Santiago de Chile. En su infancia, después de almorzar era tradicional salir a caminar “para bajar la comida”. Siempre subía y bajaba los cerros con la familia, pero cuando ya fue un poco mayor, pero aún una niña, comenzó a salir sólo con su grupo de amigos. Iban al río, se bañaban y subían los cerros que estaban al otro lado, encumbraban volantines o solo miraban el valle, abajo, lejos y las montañas detrás de ellos. Recuerda que iban con su familia caminando a comprar la miel para todo el año; había que llevar los envases donde echar la miel que se cosechaba en ese mismo momento. Tenían que caminar un buen rato para encontrar a la señora que vendía miel. En estos cerros y valles vivían sus tíos y allí comía ella de la tierra los frutos del verano: tomates, sandías y otras frutas que compartían con su familia.

Una vez en la primavera fueron a recolectar callampas que es como le dicen en Chile a los hongos comestibles. También iban a los cerros a recoger ciertas plantas de temporada como el berro. La vida siempre se vive en la naturaleza. Ella dice que nadie puede aburrirse estando en la naturaleza porque siempre hay algo que ver y mirar. Ella menciona al poeta Heráclito: “Ningún hombre puede cruzar el mismo río dos veces, porque ni el hombre ni el río serán lo mismo”. O un océano -agrega- uno siempre está cambiando”.

Cuando tenía unos nueve años, Loreto conoció el océano por primera vez. Visitó el desierto de Atacama y mencionó que es muy similar a los desiertos de California porque están a la misma distancia de la línea del Ecuador. Desarrolló un gran amor por la natación practicando y aprendiendo en mar abierto. Cuando llegó por primera vez a Mendocino, desde Santiago, sintió que regresaba al lugar de su infancia. Se sintió muy impresionada por los bosques. Sintió que los bosques la protegían, las secuoyas en especial. Como venía de una gran ciudad con mucha contaminación ambiental fue por un año todos los días hasta dos veces al día a la cascada Russian Gulch. Sintió como se liberaba de las toxinas de la ciudad y aprovechó para limpiarse con el aire limpio de la foresta.

Una limpieza purificadora ocurre cuando uno está rodeado de aire limpio y espacios naturales verdes que hacen que el alma se sienta rejuvenecida.

Loreto was born in the foothills of the Andes and grew up in the countryside, in a small town northeast of Santiago, Chile. In her childhood, after lunch, it was traditional to go for a walk “to help with digestion”. She always went up and down the hills with her family, but when she was a little older, but still a child, she began to go out alone with her group of friends. They would go to the river, bathe and climb the hills on the other side, they would fly kites or just look at the valley below, far away, and the mountains behind them.

She remembers walking with her family to buy honey for the whole year; they had to carry the containers to put the honey that was harvested at that very moment. They had to walk for a long time to find the lady who sold honey. In these hills and valleys lived her uncles and aunts and there she ate the summer fruits from the earth: tomatoes, watermelons, and other fruits that they shared with her family. Once in the spring, they went to collect callampas, which is the Chilean name for edible mushrooms. They also went to the hills to pick certain seasonal plants such as watercress. Life is always lived in nature. She says that no one can get bored being in nature because there is always something to see and look at. She mentions the poet Heraclitus: “No man can cross the same river twice, because neither the man nor the river will be the same.” “Or an ocean,” she adds, “one is always changing.”

When she was about nine years old, Loreto met the ocean for the first time. She visited the Atacama Desert and mentioned that it is very similar to the deserts of California because they are the same distance from the equator. She developed a great love for swimming by practicing and learning in the open ocean. When she first arrived in Mendocino from Santiago, she felt like she was returning to the place of her childhood. She was very impressed by the forests. She felt that the forests protected her, the redwoods in particular. Coming from a big city with a lot of air pollution, she went to Russian Gulch Waterfall every day for a year, up to twice a day. She felt free from the toxins of the city and took the opportunity to cleanse herself with the clean air of the forest.

A purifying cleansing occurs when one is surrounded by clean air and natural green spaces that make the soul feel rejuvenated.

Loreto es educadora, periodista y traductora. Le gusta caminar por la playa, cantar y disfrutar de la naturaleza siempre cambiante de la vida. Loreto tiene un programa en español llamado MendoLatino en la radioemisora comunitaria KZYX&Z.

Loreto is an educator, journalist, and translator. She likes to walk on the beach, sing, and enjoy the ever-changing nature of life. Loreto has a radio program in Spanish called, “MendoLatino,” on the community radio station KZYX&Z.

Walks with Wolves

Por Sean Seary

My love for the outdoors is tied, inherently, to my childhood: growing up in the greater New York metropolitan area, I spent a lot of time playing sports outside with my friends, going for walks with my dog, and helping my mom, grandmother, and great-grandmother in the garden. I was very much into wildlife, and was always reading and watching shows about big cats, wolves, chimps, and so many other wild critters.

I looked up to people like Steve Irwin and Jane Goodall, who had helped foster not just curiosity for the wild world, but also love and compassion for its inhabitants. These conservationists taught many young minds, like my own at the time, that we should be doing our best to protect mother earth and all of the plants and animals that call this world home. They inspired me to want to work with animals, and so I made that my dream.

I’ve thankfully been able to make a career out of working in the environmental field, which is a blessing in and of itself. Throughout the various positions I’ve held and workplaces I’ve found myself in, I noticed a glaring lack of diversity in the environmental/outdoor/conservation world. As a mixed-race Latino of Puerto Rican descent, it wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized how truly underrepresented our people are in the greater conversation about conservationism and environmentalism. Which explains why popular environmental figures never looked, acted, or spoke like us.

As a mixed-race Latino of Puerto Rican descent, it wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized how truly underrepresented our people are in the greater conversation about conservationism and environmentalism.

After spending many years bouncing around environmental careers; from education to policy, outdoor recreation, and back into education, I was finally able to make my dream a reality. I started working at the Wolf Conservation Center in early 2022, and just like that my childhood dream to work with animals had come true! It took a lot of time, energy, and effort to make it this far, but perseverance and sense of purpose goes a long way.

At the Wolf Conservation Center, I get to work with wolves on a daily basis and teach programs that discuss the history of wolves throughout North America, the ecological role they play in their habitats, in addition to the human role in protecting their future. We’re currently home to 32 wolves, 30 of whom are critically endangered species who belong to a federally managed wild-release program (we’re a nonprofit who help facilitate and administer the program). The other 2 wolves are our Ambassador wolves, who are essentially wolf teachers and allow folks to experience what it’s like to see and be around wolves.

A lot of the work that we do, not just in terms of education and advocacy, but also through conservation efforts, helps change the negative stigmas and stereotypes about wolves. Like people, wolves live in family units (or packs) and they care deeply for their pack members. They are intelligent, beautiful, and emotional beings, and have every right to exist on this earth as we do. I’m incredibly thankful that my work not only allows me to change the perception of Latinos in the environmental field, but also change how people perceive wolves. While I’m getting to live out this childhood dream, I haven’t lost sight of the ambition that took me to this point, and will use it help make learning about wolves more accessible to disenfranchised and underrepresented communities.

Sean Seary is a 30-year-old environmental educator from the NY metro area who loves spending as much time as he possibly can outdoors. Whether it’s reading, running, hiking, or gardening, you can often find him outside living his best life. Currently, he is a Program Educator II at the Wolf Conservation Center, where he teaches about wolves and the human role in protecting their future.