Guadalupe Pérez González, my maternal great-great-grandmother, was born in Querétaro, Mexico. Orphaned at a young age by the loss of her parents during the Mexican Revolution, she endured many hardships in life.
Guadalupe Pérez González in Fresno, California
Sometime around 1930, Guadalupe and her two children (Phillip and Mary) journeyed north to a border town called Mexicali, where they would remain for about twenty years. She labored hard over a stone stove top to produce tamales for sale and eventually purchased a humble home for herself and children.
Grandma Eleanor and siblings during a rest stop while travelling for work.
Mary married Leon Torres Ruiz, and gave birth to my grandma Eleanor in 1940. About 10 years later, my great-grandpa Leon moved the entire family to El Centro, California. They became migrant workers and labored at farms across California’s San Joaquin Valley, eventually making Fresno their permanent home.
My family came to the US in pursuit of a better life. From their journey, I have learned that the meaning of “a better life” is often incomplete unless it includes the process of (un)learning, healing, and growing.
Ruby prepares a meal with her Latino Outdoors team
So much of my cultural heritage was lost to assimilation. While this disconnection is a painful experience for me, nature supports me with feeling connected to myself, my history, and everything around me. Being involved with Latino Outdoors (LO) helps me reconnect to my culture and embrace my experience as a third-generation Mexican American. Through LO, I am learning about the many facets and richness of the Latinx identity.
Ruby with her three children in Humboldt County
I was twenty-seven years old when I left Fresno and made my own journey nearly five hundred miles north to Humboldt County. For six years, my three children and I lived there while I finished my undergraduate studies and tapped into the woman and mother that I wanted to be. Close to the end of my time in Humboldt, I shared with my grandma my experience of living away from home in the most beautiful landscape I’d ever seen. On that day, I learned that I was living her dream.
Ruby with her grandma Eleanor, mom, and daughters in Downtown Fresno
While in Humboldt, I slowly connected with barn swallows, Canadian geese, and snowy egrets as I observed them from my apartment window. Returning to Fresno was an adjustment; however, I do see snowy egrets passing over my home. They serve as a reminder that nature knows no bounds.
What’s Your Migration Path?
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Take yourself back to your childhood and recall a moment you spent in nature with your family.
I remember when I was young, during spring break, my mom would take my sisters and me on walks at the “Enchanted” Fern Dell Nature Trail a.k.a “Ferndell Nature Museum” at Griffith Park in Hollywood, California.
The trail was beautiful with towering trees, a natural spring that fed the waterfalls, lush green tropical ferns, and lots of flora popping out at you. We would look for magical creatures: turtles, koi fish and dragonflies. My sisters, Sarah, Sybil and I, would run around, laughing, playing hide and seek. I remember imagining fairies lived there. We even found our family dog, Sasha, while walking up the trail to the Observatory.
It’s actually one of the main things I remember doing with my mom.
This was one of few activities I looked forward to as a kid. With three little kids, my parents did not have a ton of money to spend on expensive activities, so walking it was. It’s actually one of the main things I remember doing with my mom.
I didn’t realize it then, but spending time outside with my family was one of the most powerful ways for us to connect to each other and make memories.
Now I know the incredible benefits of getting outside regularly, and with family. The great outdoors can bring you an overwhelming sense of peace and well-being. It increases creativity and overall joy. The best part of all? It’s FREE!
When you bring your family with you, you will all benefit.
Benefits of Getting Outside With Loved Ones
You will:
Find time and space to communicate with each other
Enjoy the little things and spend quality time together
When you get outside regularly, you increase your physical strength and stamina, reduce stress, improve your mood, and so much more.
So why not make it a goal for you and your family in the New Year?
The Goal: 52 Hikes In A Year
In 2014, I was looking for a worthwhile goal for myself. After falling in love with hiking, I decided to commit to a hike a week for the entire year.
Every week I looked forward to my next hike. I enjoyed packing a lunch and eating outside. I enjoyed enlisting my son and friends to join me. I enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment when I reached a summit.
It was life-changing, and I decided to share my 52 Hike Challenge idea with others. The idea took off and spread like wildfire. I now run this movement to help as many people gain the physical mental, spiritual and emotional benefits derived through nature and hiking. We’ve now had more than 41,000 people take the challenge.
With the New Year and a pandemic upon us, one of the best things we can do is commit to finding healthy ways to destress, find joy, and keep our families united. Hiking is a great way to do so, safely of course.
Challenge Yourself in 2021 – Commit to 52 Hikes
I want to challenge you to commit to getting out into nature once a week for a year. That’s 52 hikes in 52 weeks. Are you up to the challenge?
Commit to something that will help you enhance your physical and mental health, build stronger family bonds, and so much more.
Curious about getting started? Here’s what helped me stay committed to my goal:
5 Ways to Stay Committed to Your Outdoor Goal
Set your intention (what do you want to achieve?)
Share your goal with a loved one and your immediate family
Keep track of your progress (log your hikes and take pictures)
Join a community (engage with people who share the same goal)
Reward yourself (and your family) for your hard work!
Are you ready to experience the life changing benefits of 52 hikes?
You simply never know where this year-long adventure will take you, but one thing is for sure: you’ll make tons of amazing memories with your family.
Sign Up for the 52 Hike Challenge Now
So, what do you have to lose? Commit to making the outdoors a priority in your life. Sign up for the 52 Hike Challenge now!
Karla Amador is the co-founder of the 52 Hike Challenge, a global movement that has inspired hundreds of thousands of people around the world to get outdoors and take advantage of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual benefits gained through hiking once a week for a year. Together, with the community she has created a culture of support, which can be seen in over 430,000 images shared under the #52HikeChallenge hashtags on Instagram alone.
Working for Latino Outdoors, Ruby Rodriguez wants to ensure that others can more easily follow in her footsteps.
“Today, I’m the person I knew I could be—if given the opportunity,” says Ruby Rodriguez.
That includes connecting her community in Fresno, California, to Yosemite National Park. The project is funded by the National Park Trust, and it’s part of her work as the director of programs and operations for Latino Outdoors, an organization that connects and engages Latino communities in the outdoors.
“I’ve come full circle,” Rodriguez says.
Ruby visits Yosemite National Park in community with future-LO Fresno leader, Lucia.
She first visited Yosemite in 2009 while going through intense personal and marital issues. To cope, she would drive in an area that she considered to be “the country,” because it felt calm and soothing. She liked to look at the scenery because it brought back memories from her childhood of playing outside in a ditch—what she would later recognize as riparian habitat. Those comfort-seeking drives eventually brought her to the majestic park. On her third such trip in 2010, she brought water and workout clothes. She parked at Nevada Falls and embarked on her first-ever hike.
She parked at Nevada Falls and embarked on her first-ever hike.
It was the most physically challenging thing Rodriguez had ever done. It was also tough emotionally. “I didn’t know what I was doing,” she says. “I saw other people in gear and happy, and I was way out of my comfort zone.” Part of that discomfort came from not seeing anyone who looked like her, nobody from her nearby community.
At the same time, Rodriguez experienced the benefits of being outdoors in a beautiful and awe-inspiring place. She felt the presence of a higher power and the sense of being part of a larger story. She remembers thinking, “Damn, I have potential.”
Finding Purpose
In that moment, it all came flooding back: the happy times Rodriguez had spent outside as a child and the growing disconnect from nature she experienced as she aged. But her return to the outdoors wasn’t instantaneous.
But her return to the outdoors wasn’t instantaneous.
Rodriguez became a mother when she was only 16. Finding her identity as a parent would have been challenging at any time of life, but she had the additional struggle of trying to resolve her own trauma of being told she wasn’t good enough and yet knowing she could do better for herself and her child.
When she wanted to transfer from community college to a university and was scrolling majors at the California State University at Fresno website, she saw Recreation Administration. “That’s something I could stick with,” she thought.
Her moment of resolve came a couple years after that as she was going through a divorce and expecting her third child with no degree and no job. She thought, “This isn’t the life I want.”
Ruby and LO Founder José González at the 2019 LO Leadership Campout.
Determined to earn her degree, she discovered that Humboldt State was the only school still accepting applications. She’d never heard of it before. She looked more closely at the school and its recreation program and thought, “This place is amazing.” But when she submitted her application, she received an error message. She nearly gave up, but a couple weeks later tried again. It went through, and soon her acceptance letter arrived.
As she prepared for this new path and after a trip to Hetch Hetchy with her newborn, she decided something must be done about the lack of Latinx people at Yosemite. Craving connection, she found Latino Outdoors on Instagram.
Skill Building
At Humboldt, as an older student and single mom, Rodriguez wasn’t the typical recreation major. As she did her best as a mom and student, she grew more confident in her sense of self. She learned more about the benefits of being outdoors and thought, “I’ve experienced this.” Rodriguez also used outdoor recreation to promote wellness and strength in her children. Her youngest learned to walk while hiking.
As she did her best as a mom and student, she grew more confident in her sense of self.
In 2016, the year she would graduate, Rodriguez became an ambassador with Latino Outdoors and participated in her first-ever leadership campout. With support and encouragement from her academic advisor, Dr. Marchand, Rodriguez pursued her interest in diversity, equity, and inclusion within the outdoor recreation field. She knew what it felt like to be uncomfortable on trips with her young, white classmates and then making the same trip with Latino Outdoors and feeling like she was home.
Ruby and her children on graduation day.
“I learned so much,” she says.
The summer after she graduated, she became a student intern for the Outdoor Foundation’s Outdoor Nation challenge, designed to help with diversity and inclusion in outdoor spaces. The competition included 87 universities competing for the title of Most Outdoorsy College in the nation. As the student coordinator, she helped plan the messaging, outreach, and events with students logging their activities on an app. “I learned so much,” she says. “And we won the competition.”
Coming Home
When she first graduated, Rodriguez thought she would become a park ranger. “But I quickly realized that those positions weren’t created with single women with children in mind.” Instead, Latino Outdoors hired her. She continued to grow in her roles and responsibilities, balancing the challenges of work and parenting.
Ruby’s eldest daughter, Eva, at the LO Femme, Trans, Women’s Leadership Campout.
In 2020, the pandemic offered more opportunities to reflect and grow, and included taking on the role of teacher for her children. That experience made Rodriguez think about home. “I was born and raised in Fresno. I have a small but mighty circle of caring family and friends there. All the healing and growing that I’ve done has contributed to improving my relationships. Having a better relationship with my mom was another motivating factor,” she says.
Now, Rodriguez is back at the place that started it all, leading others to the same kinds of awe-inspiring experiences, connections and opportunities.
Now, Rodriguez is back at the place that started it all, leading others to the same kinds of awe-inspiring experiences, connections and opportunities. She’s especially proud of how she’s grown as a mother and a leader. “It’s hard to be a woman of color in a leadership position. It’s an ongoing challenge that requires you to heal those parts that have been sent messages that you aren’t enough,” she says. But now she’s showing her children and others what’s possible.
“I’m doing all the things I imagined I would,” she says. “And nobody can take that away from me.”
This article was produced in partnership with the Outdoors Alliance for Kids, a national strategic partnership of 100+ organizations from diverse sectors with a common interest in connecting children, youth and families with the outdoors.
