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Category: Representation Matters

Still Showing Up

Por Raúl Antonio Figueroa

I grew up far from snow.

I’m Mexican. My relationship with winter started late, awkwardly, and without any guarantees that it would make sense. Where I’m from, endurance sports look different. Cold is something you escape, not something you train inside. And biathlon, skiing hard and then trying to shoot accurately while your heart is trying to leave your chest, wasn’t exactly a common career path.

I found the sport almost by accident. What kept me wasn’t talent or early success, but curiosity and stubbornness. I liked how biathlon demanded two opposite things at the same time: intensity and calm. You can be strong and fast, but if your mind is loud, the targets won’t fall.

When Mexico officially joined the International Biathlon Union, it felt historic and fragile at the same time. We were stepping into a world that had decades of tradition, infrastructure, and expectations, none of which were built with us in mind. The first season was rough. We struggled. We learned quickly how unforgiving international sport can be. At one point, we were even sidelined for the rest of the season.

HOCHFILZEN, AUSTRIA – JANUARY 17: Raul Antonio Figueroa of Mexico in action during the Sprint at the FESA Alpencup Biathlon Hochfilzen on January 17, 2026 in Hochfilzen, Austria. (Photo by Benedikt Foidl/VOIGT)

That could have been the end of the story.

Instead, it became the beginning of a different relationship with sport. One built less on results and more on persistence. We came back. Quietly. Without guarantees. Just showing up again and again in places that didn’t quite look like home, but slowly started to feel familiar.

Living and training in the Alps as a Mexican has shaped the way I see performance. I’m always aware that I’m an outsider, and I’ve learned to see that as an advantage. When you don’t fit the mold, you stop trying to impress it. You focus on what actually matters: learning, adapting, staying curious, staying calm under pressure.

That mindset has followed me beyond racing. I’m an engineer and a digital lawyer by training, and a coach by practice. Different worlds, same lesson: clarity matters most when conditions are messy. Whether it’s snow, stress, or uncertainty, the work is the same, reduce noise, focus on the next action, keep moving.

Racing internationally has taken me to places I never imagined. Now, coming to race in the United States, and connecting with Latino Outdoors, feels especially meaningful. It’s a reminder that our stories don’t have to follow straight lines to belong somewhere. Representation doesn’t always look polished or predictable. Sometimes it looks like learning in public, failing, adjusting, and staying anyway.

Outdoor spaces, like high-performance environments, can feel intimidating if you don’t see yourself reflected in them. But they don’t belong to one culture, one passport, or one background. They belong to anyone willing to step into them with respect and patience.

I don’t race to prove that Mexicans belong in winter sports. I race because I enjoy the process of learning how to stay calm when things get hard. If that makes space for someone else to imagine themselves outdoors, in the cold, or in a place they didn’t think was “for them,” then that’s a victory that doesn’t show up on a results sheet.

Some journeys take the long way.
I’m still on mine.

Raúl is a Mexican biathlete, coach, engineer, and digital lawyer living and training in the Austrian Alps. He competes internationally with the Mexico Biathlon Team and works at the intersection of endurance sport, mental performance, and high-pressure decision-making. His work explores clarity, resilience, and learning through sport and outdoor experiences.

Defending People and Our Lands: Why Attacks on Communities and Public Lands Are Connected

Por Latino Outdoors

This time last year, Latino Outdoors joined Tribes, community leaders, and representatives from across the country at the White House – East Wing, to celebrate and protect public lands shaped by grassroots leadership.

It was proof that community voices matter. Proof that land is worth fighting for.

Fast forward to now, across the country, we are witnessing rollbacks, budget cuts, and fear-based rhetoric being dressed up as “policy.” Harm is being normalized in real time, not only through immigration enforcement but also across environmental and public lands decisions.

Jazzari Taylor, LO’s Policy Advocate, in the White House East Wing, January 2025
President Joe Biden and former Secretary Deb Haaland, January 2025

At Latino Outdoors, we see clear parallels between these attacks. The same systems that justify surveillance, detention, and the displacement of communities are the systems that support the sell-off of public lands, the weakening of environmental protections, and the prioritization of profit over people.

This is not a coincidence. It is a strategy. Let’s be clear: people deserve protection just as much as the land does. Our communities are not separate from the outdoors. They are an extension of the land, just as the land is an extension of us. Without each other, there is no “United” States of America.

Protecting the outdoors and public lands without addressing the impacts comunidades face is irresponsible and insensitive.

As an organization, Latino Outdoors envisions a world where our comunidades experience nature as a safe, inclusive, and welcoming space, where we can share and celebrate our stories, foster leadership, and build a vibrant community of people who love and care for the outdoors.

It is not a means to an end to envision such a world, but a continuous moral compass to measure our humility, just as it is to honor Indigenous peoples, elders, and our ancestors. It means protecting land and people together, for future generations. When harm toward communities is justified in the name of “order” or “security,” environmental harm soon follows. When voices are excluded from decision-making, both people and land suffer. Latino Outdoors remains committed to defending access, equality, opportunity to learn on the land, and the many benefits it offers.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, start where you are, within your capacity and capability. Support a local family. Share trusted resources. Volunteer. Donate. Join a Latino Outdoors outing or event. Hold leaders accountable. Defend your neighbors. Defend public lands. Defend the right to live without fear. If you’re ready to take action right now, here is one immediate way to help:

  • Oppose Steve Pearce’s Nomination as Bureau of Land Management Director; the administration has nominated Steve Pearce to lead the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency responsible for managing 245 million acres of public lands. Pearce has a long record of supporting the sell-off of public lands and weakening land and water protections, and his deep ties to the oil and gas industry raise serious concerns about whose interests would come first. There’s a narrow window to stop this nomination before it advances, so please contact your Senators today and urge them to oppose it.

This moment calls on us to stand firmly in our values, to protect people and land with equal care, to reject fear-based narratives, and to act with intention and responsibility. Together, through collective action and community-centered leadership, we can shape a future where belonging, dignity, and stewardship guide the path forward.

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We Are Living Different Realities

Por Jazzari T. Taylor,  Policy Advocate, Latino Outdoors

ICE raids are not “public safety.” They are terror and are disruptive by design. They do not begin to capture the broader impacts of the current administration on the nation’s economy and environment, as outlined by Climate Power (January 2026).

ICE was created to enforce immigration law, but has been weaponized to advance political agendas hidden behind “Make America Great Again” propaganda. Individuals and communities are being racially profiled, detained without due process, children are separated from parents, and families are ripped apart in minutes. ICE is entering homes without a judge’s warrant.

People have gone missing. People have been harmed by the very country they looked to for opportunity and hope. People have died at the hands of political agendas, untrained agents, and hate.

Photo: American Flag in Joshua Tree National Park – Flying the American flag upside down is a signal of
dire distress or extreme danger to life or property, as outlined in the U.S. Flag Code.

Justice for those killed. Justice for the thousands still in detention centers. Justice for those wrongfully deported, violently injured, and terrorized.

Something I heard recently has been sitting with me: “We are all living different realities.” I see it online and within my own family. Someone will say, “But we’re okay,” or “That’s not us,” or “We’re not like them — we came here the legal way.”

I try to understand where those statements come from. Assimilation. Survival tactics. Fear. Propaganda repeated so long that it starts to feel like the truth. But understanding isn’t the same as justifying. Explaining the mindset doesn’t erase the harm.

Because I keep coming back to the same question: who is “them”?

Most of the time, “them” just means other people different by language, culture, race, who they love, identity, or immigration status. And once someone becomes “other,” it becomes easier to deny them rights. Underneath it all is a curated narrative of who gets to belong and who doesn’t. Who is “American enough”? People are labeled “immigrants” like it’s an insult, on lands that were never meant to be measured by imaginary lines.

Borders have been used to decide who is welcome, who is punished, and who is forced to prove their humanity. Indigenous people, who have always been here, are still expected to fight for recognition and protection on their own homelands.

None of this is normal. All of this has been strategically created for the benefit of the few.

So I have to ask: what does it even mean to be American? Is it a birth certificate? A passport? A look? A last name? A language spoken? Or is it a dream we’re constantly striving for? This is both rhetorical and thought-provoking.

What many of us were taught “being American” meant came with freedom, equality, and the right to be one’s true self. Challenging false narratives isn’t unpatriotic; it’s necessary. Right now, the U.S. feels so far from that dream that I barely recognize it. It’s heartbreaking. But I still believe in the power of people to hold this country accountable.

Maybe this is the opportunity to redefine “American” not as gatekeepers, but as protectors. Not as owners, but as stewards. People are willing to learn, reflect, and face the past so we don’t repeat it. The right to exist in a safe world that offers the opportunity to dream should not be something you have to earn.

History isn’t only written by politicians. It’s written by what the rest of us accept as normal. And this moment is a moral test. Morality isn’t abstract; it exists right now in front of all. It exists right now, the choice between silence and solidarity.

I refuse to accept systems that treat human beings as disposable. There is nothing moral about terrorizing communities. If you’re ready to take action right now, here is one immediate way to help:

Tell Congress: No More Tax Dollars for ICE & CBP. We Demand Accountability. Congress is considering funding levels for ICE and CBP in upcoming federal spending decisions. Our communities should not be asked to bankroll agencies that continue racial profiling, detention, deportation, and harm without real oversight. Use this tool to contact your representatives and demand accountability, meaningful limits, and a vote against expanding this violence.