Jos茅 Gonz谩lez appreciates the ability to get away. The 37-year-old founder of , an organization that鈥檚 building a national community of like-minded Latinos and Latinas who enjoy and advocate for being outside, loves to leave his office and the congestion of San Francisco Bay Area, where he鈥檚 based, and head out to the mountains and desert to relax, think, and plan.
That was the case recently as Gonz谩lez traveled to Tucson, Arizona where he and other members of Latino Outdoors grabbed a 30-foot RV and headed to Saguaro National Park for a weekend of camping.聽
Parked under the stars but with all the amenities of home right inside the RV, Gonz谩lez, along with Xitlaly Reyes, the Tucson program coordinator for Latino Outdoors, Lupe Sotelo, an intern at Saguaro National Park and outings leader for Gonz谩lez鈥檚 organization, and Claudio Rodriguez, a Tucson local and organizer for , huddled and shared ideas for how they might all expand the reach and effectiveness of their organizations. 鈥淪itting in the RV; it鈥檚 like a campfire,鈥 Gonz谩lez says. 鈥淭he night grows colder, and that draws people closer. That closeness, in turn, starts to generate dialogue among everyone.鈥
Gonz谩lez, who migrated to the U.S. from Mexico when he was nine years old, has always been drawn to nature. In 2014, he launched Latino Outdoors. 鈥淥ur basic premise is 鈥楨stamos aqu铆鈥, 鈥榃e are here.鈥 And by that we mean that the Latinx community has been here in the Western United States for hundreds of years, and the landscape belongs to us as a culture as much as it belongs to anyone,鈥 he says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the message that we鈥檙e trying to get out to the people. That this national park, where we are right now, is 鈥榦ur鈥 park as well, and with that comes a sense of opportunity and also responsibility.鈥
Latino Outdoors also understands that the concepts of 鈥渘ature鈥 and 鈥渙utdoors鈥 might be different for many Latinos. Instead of nature being something they would travel to, many Latinos grew up in nature, either in rural North American communities, or rural communities throughout Central and South America. So, while the organization鈥檚 immediate programming is to draw more people to public lands, it also advocates for creating more urban green spaces closer to underserved Latinx communities where access can be a barrier. To that end, the group now has chapters up and down the West Coast, in the Southwest, and even in New York City and Washington, D.C.
For Gonz谩lez, having the RV was a perfect middle ground for everything his organization advocates. It allowed him and his colleagues to push out beyond their communities, but it also made things easy. No one had to worry about driving five separate cars, or about tents or erratic weather, and instead they could just travel together, get up in the morning, go for a hike, come back, make lunch, get ready to take in one of Arizona鈥檚 spectacular sunsets, and spend the evening inside, warm and comfortable.
With the RV, Gonz谩lez says, 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got beds for everyone, a bathroom, a kitchen, all your stuff, yet whenever you want to teleport yourself into nature, all you have to do is step out the door.鈥
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