Yo Cuento: Then & Now

por Christian La Mont

Despierta, mi bien, despierta

Mira que ya amaneció

Ya los pajaritos cantan

La luna ya se metió

Excerpt from Las Mañanitas

Growing up, a birthday morning tradition was waiting in my bedroom listening to my family whisper loudly as they rallied Abuelitas, tías, Mamá, Papá, Abuelito, Hermano, and my great grand aunt Tía Mimi and gathered them together, ready to burst through my bedroom door full of love and occasionally off-key passion and sing las Mañanitas to me. The Pedro Infante version.

As a sort of officially unofficial birthday song in Mexico, las Mañanitas has many versions and singers and oftentimes comes with a piñata waiting outside, a cake, candles, and maybe a face in the cake, but always comes with love and affection.
As we end un año outdoors and step boldly into a new year, I’d like to sing a special Mañanitas to Latino Outdoors, or LO as the organization is also known. Believe it or not, LO is celebrating our 10-year anniversary this year! Surrounded by peer organizations and giants of conservation who have recently celebrated 100 years since their founding, it may seem like a small anniversary, but Latino Outdoors is now old enough to be a 4th grader. Incidentally, 4th graders get free access to all federal lands and waters thanks to the Every Kid Outdoors pass.

The theme of our year-long anniversary celebration will be Crecemos Outdoors: 10 Años. Throughout 2023 we will be showing our love and appreciation for all of the people who have been a part of the LO community during these incredibly exciting and challenging years. 

Needless to say, we are excited to showcase what ten years outdoors looks like, and we are working with LO’s regional teams, allies, artists, and storytellers to celebrate this incredible, unique, and vital comunidad throughout 2023.

From left to right: Founding Board Chairperson, Richard Rojas, Sr., Founder José González, and LO’s first National Director, Graciela Cabello.

One thing I’m looking forward to is cultivating and growing the Yo Cuento Blog. After all, Latino Outdoors began as a blog in 2013 by José González. As part of the celebration, we will be featuring written reflections from those who have been a part of LO from the early days when the seeds of change were just being planted, including LO’s first National Director, Graciela Cabello, Founder José González, and Founding Board Chairperson, Richard Rojas, Sr. We will also be hearing from newer voices and fresh perspectives who are planting the semillas to take LO into the next 10 years.

These voices will share unique perspectives centered around our anniversary theme of growth. What growth have they seen in Latino Outdoors as a movement and community over the past 10 years? What kind of growth have they experienced or helped nurture in the larger world of equity, access to the outdoors, and conservation? What growth have they experienced within themselves?

In 2023, we will feature and publish a new Crecemos Outdoors: Now and Then blog piece every month. These cuentos, these memories, and observations will serve as a way to remember and appreciate, but also as a way to record our own history. These stories and histories will serve as a reminder of what we can accomplish.  They will be first-person accounts that future generations can look to and learn from 10 years, 20 years, and 100 years from now – the 50 and 100-year-olds did it, y nosotros ¿por qué no?

In addition to our monthly Now and Then blogs, we are collaborating with Latinx/e/a/o artists from across the diaspora, and we will be sharing their commissioned artwork throughout the year. These works of art will celebrate the diversity within latinidad and vary as much as the individuals who created them. They will include poetry, watercolor, graphic art, original music, illustrations using natural pigment turning tierra, semillas, and plantas into paint, and more.

As we celebrate 10 years of growth, we will also continue to celebrate every day of 2023 – the outings, the workshops, Semillitas Outdoors, Orgullosamente Outdoors, Latino Conservation Week, and more. We’ll be hosting Livestream panel discussions designed to connect LO leaders and the greater community with opportunities to learn about issues surrounding Indigenous identity, roots, history, sovereignty, land stewardship, land acknowledgments, and beyond. 

Photo by Michael Ocasio

In the past 10 years, we’ve seen BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) outdoor organizations, clubs, coalitions, and spaces grow from a seedling to a sturdy tree. During this time, we’ve seen progress toward more diversity and representation in workplaces. In the last decade, we’ve witnessed and been a part of a cultural shift, a movement that has met the moment. 

The first 10 years of Latino Outdoors were about scratching out a place, about surviving. These next 10 years? They are about thriving. 

Whether it’s your preferred tradition to sing Happy Birthday or Las Mañanitas, we invite you to join us in this important and monumental celebration. We see all the individuals, organizations, clubs, and affinity groups that have planted their seeds and we see you growing. We are like trees in the same forest. We help each other and we communicate, we protect each other, and we thrive as a community.

For our first art piece of Crecemos Outdoors: 10 años, we’re proud to share a piñata-inspired design full of celebration and meaning.

As we have written before: The Latino Outdoors logo consists of two primary symbols. 

“The larger of the two, placed off-center to the left in a petroglyph pictogram style, represents the sun. Two concentric rings form its body. Surrounding the rings, are the rays of the sun, composed of triangles. The four larger triangles represent the cardinal directions. 

To the right of the sun, slightly elevated, is a symbol that evokes a gust of wind or a small cloud. However, it actually represents voice and is inspired by the Aztec speech glyph found pictorially in codices.”

For this special occasion, we have created a version of the LO pictogram with 10 festive elements symbolizing 10 years. These pieces of confetti and dulces adorn the familiar sun glyph, which is embracing cultura and engaging in a sort of code switching by simultaneously representing a piñata. Below the anniversary logo is text reading: “2013 Celebrating 10 Años 2023”.

So let’s break open that piñata and celebrate 10 years of growth, 10 years of movement building, 10 years of dreaming and creating, 10 years of Latino Outdoors.

It’s going to be a big year for LO and we’re so excited to share it with you. This is your celebration as much as it is ours. Feliz cumpleaños, Latino Outdoors. Dale.

#CrecemosOutdoors10

Do you have a memory or cuento to share from your time with LO over the past ten years?

We’d love to hear it.  Email christian@latinooutdoors.org or submit your cuento HERE.

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.