{"id":23883,"date":"2022-09-13T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-13T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=23883"},"modified":"2024-09-21T13:19:46","modified_gmt":"2024-09-21T20:19:46","slug":"amanda-machado-rediscovering-latino-culture-outside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/social\/amanda-machado-rediscovering-latino-culture-outside","title":{"rendered":"Amanda Machado: Rediscovering Latino Culture Outside"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In my family, road trips didn\u2019t typically include stops in places like Sedona, Arizona. In 2009, when my brother, Carlos, and I planned our cross-country trip from Tampa, Florida, to Los Angeles, where he would be moving, we knew we\u2019d visit typical tourist spots like the New Orleans French Quarter, the Alamo or Vegas. But a stop where all we\u2019d do was hike for two days and then leave? This would be a first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, like many families in the U.S., we enjoyed visiting famous natural places: We saw Niagara Falls, we walked a few hours on a mostly flat part of the Appalachian Trail, and we even rented a cabin once near the Smoky Mountains. But we never took a stereotypically \u201coutdoorsy\u201d vacation\u2014allotting days on a road trip for a strenuous hike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As kids, Carlos and I had adopted this message early: hiking was “a white people thing.”<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time Carlos and I planned this trip, I was a senior in college and the only member of my family who had spent a lot of time hiking or adventuring outdoors. I went on my first backpacking trip sophomore year through a university outdoor leadership training program<\/a>. When I studied abroad in South Africa my junior year, I experienced more of what outdoor culture looked like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Credit: Carina Skrobecki @caskro<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The only concern? Most of the outdoorsy people I\u2019d meet were white. In South Africa and at my own university, I knew I wouldn\u2019t meet people of color by joining the outdoors club. And if I wanted to explore nature, I often had to accept the discomfort of being the only person of color around. Most of the time, I felt obligated to choose: Either I would have an outdoorsy community or a culturally familiar one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we began our cross-country trip, I still struggled with that divide. But, having heard great things about the landscape in Sedona, Carlos and I ultimately decided to give the town a try, and hike together for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had no \u201cgear.\u201d We both wore sneakers, and hoodies tied around our waists. We brought along only a water bottle and the park map. We were the only Latinos on the trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we weaved through the desert terrain, my brother slowly started listing out loud what he was noticing: \u201cWe\u2019re getting exercise. We have nice scenery. We can chat along the way \u2026 this is kinda cool.\u201d It seemed like all kinds of things were finally clicking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we paused to take a break, Carlos stopped and stared at the landscape, the tall, thin spires of red rock sprawled across the valley. For a moment, we soaked in the silence. Then, he looked over at me and said, \u201cYou know what, Amanda? I like<\/em> this shit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo Credit: Carina Skrobecki @caskro<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He said it like a liberating confession. Like admitting to something you never thought you were allowed to love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A year earlier, during a rock climbing trip in South Africa, I shared a similar experience. I was lying on the grass near my campsite, staring at a star-filled night sky unlike anything I had ever seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were not exaggerating,\u201d <\/em>I thought to myself, \u201cThis really is beautiful.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m glad Carlos and I eventually had these epiphanies about the outdoors. But I wish we had not needed them in the first place. I wish I had not grown up assuming hiking was a \u201cwhite people thing\u201d and instead innately considered it a part of my life and my culture. And, I wish I had known a community of people\u2014who came from the countries my family came from\u2014and showed me it was OK to love outdoor culture as much as I do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago, when I moved to Oakland, California, I finally found that community with Latino Outdoors<\/a>. According to its mission<\/a>, the organization works to \u201cbring cultura<\/em> into the outdoor narrative,\u201d \u201cconnect familias<\/em> and youth with nature\u201d and \u201cempower communities to explore and share their stories in defining the Latino Outdoors identity.\u201d That October, I attended a Latino Outdoors leadership campout in Redwood Regional Park. Most things were typical: We hiked, we made a fire, people wore REI jackets and buffs. But for the first time on a camping trip, I spoke Spanish and English. We cooked carne asada<\/em> for dinner. Around the campfire, we discussed the politics of identifying as a \u201cchola.\u201d<\/em> For the first time, my Latino community and my outdoorsy community were not separate things. For the first time, the outdoors felt just like home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through this community, I have realized my preconceived notions about the outdoors were unfairly limiting. In reality, Indigenous people throughout the world spend far more time engaging with and learning from the outdoors than others. As Stacy Sarvar, a Filipina hiker I met through Hikers of Color<\/a> Facebook group, reminded me, \u201cThere\u2019s a reason why you bring a Sherpa as a guide when you\u2019re hiking in Nepal. They\u2019re much better at it than we are.\u201d As a Latina living in the U.S, I also often forget that much of the natural areas in our country was previously a part of Mexico, and Indigenous land. As Gabe Vasquez<\/a>, a former New Mexico coordinator for Latino Outdoors and founder of the outdoor recreation group Nuestra Tierra<\/a> says, \u201cWhen Latinos look up at the sky and the mountains, it\u2019s not just deserts and mountains. It\u2019s years of your history and your culture that you\u2019re looking at.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my own family, things are changing. These days, whenever I visit Carlos in Los Angeles, the first thing we do is hike at Griffith Park or Runyon Canyon. When my family visited me one recent Thanksgiving in Oakland, we hiked to the top of Angel Island, and I showed them Redwood Regional Park. I am beginning to share more of these moments with them in nature, instead of searching outside my community to find them. I hope more people from my community can experience those moments too. Turns out, when given the chance, we like<\/em> this. It feels great to finally admit it.<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my family, road trips didn\u2019t typically include stops in places like Sedona, Arizona. In 2009, when my brother, Carlos, and I planned our cross-country trip from Tampa, Florida, to Los Angeles, where he would be moving, we knew we\u2019d visit typical tourist spots like the New Orleans French Quarter, the Alamo or Vegas. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":24847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[387,242],"tags":[1419,2217,1637],"internal-tag":[],"class_list":["post-23883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hike","category-social","tag-latino-outdoors","tag-rei-cooperative-action-fund","tag-rei-member"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/social\/amanda-machado-rediscovering-latino-culture-outside","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Amanda Machado: Rediscovering Latino Culture Outside","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/social\/amanda-machado-rediscovering-latino-culture-outside","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/social\/amanda-machado-rediscovering-latino-culture-outside"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/03\/Skrobecki_171201_0720.jpg?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/03\/Skrobecki_171201_0720.jpg?fit=4256%2C2554"},"articleSection":"Hike","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michelle Flandreau"}],"creator":["Michelle Flandreau"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["latino outdoors","rei cooperative action fund","rei member"],"dateCreated":"2022-09-13T23:00:00Z","datePublished":"2022-09-13T23:00:00Z","dateModified":"2024-09-21T20:19:46Z"},"rendered":"