Latino Conservation Week has one mission: to get more Latinos outdoors. Every year, different organizations across the nation host free bilingual, family-friendly events including guided nature hikes, and community clean up days.

Luis Cruz, community engagement manager, said existing barriers from language to lack of information are some of the many gaps Latino Conservation Week is working to bridge.

"This includes access to nature, like our parks, our natural spaces, our public lands. Having meaningful moments in nature that can lead to a lifetime of stewardship is something that we hope to inspire within our community," he said.

He said the event is gaining momentum each year, and expanding their goal of fostering meaningful connections between people and nature.

"You're more willing to take care of something that you know and have experience with. It'll be hard to convince someone to keep Tahoe blue if they never spend time on the water,” he said. “That’s something we have to realize, we cannot ask our community to think about protecting nature if they have to worry about ‘do I even have access to nature’?”

Cruz said nature conservation starts with building community and exploring local opportunities. He said Latino Conservation Week works to provide spaces that foster joy amidst climate doom and gloom.

"I really do feel that a rising tide raises all ships, and this is a time to celebrate making nature more accessible," Cruz said.

To find more ways to participate beyond Latino Conservation week, from citizen science opportunities like water quality collection to helping build local policy and legislation, visit latinoconservationweek.com/events.

Written by Lupe Alvarez for KUNR NPR.

Arizona poppy wildflowers are scattered along the desert floor, surrounded by buckhorn cholla and sahuaros in all stages of life. 

It’s a quiet, late Wednesday morning as Cassandra Becerra sets up her phone on a tripod along the Bowen Trail, about a half mile west of the JW Marriott Tucson Starr Pass Resort and Spa. Becerra one of the original Reinas Who Hike, and Arizona State Director for Mountain Mamas, starts talking at the camera. Her long, brown wavy hair covers her shoulders and sunglasses block the sun from her face. 

She’s promoting the Sept. 19 Rutas y Raices hike that the two groups are hosting as part of Latino Conservation week in Arizona, which starts this Saturday and runs through Sept. 20. 

It’s one of a series of community events in Tucson and Phoenix, including hiking, kayaking, a burrito run and a dance party, “because you can’t have Latino Conservation Week without a dance party,” Becerra said. 

The Hispanic Access Foundation launched Latino Conservation Week in 2014, with the goal of supporting the Latino community in getting outdoors and getting involved in protecting natural resources. In Tucson, Arizona Mountain Mamas, Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, Chispa AZ, FUGA and Friends of Ironwood are some of the organizations hosting events for the annual celebration. 

It’s one of many national efforts to promote BIPOC communities’ connection to nature, with similar events like Black Climate Week in February highlighting the ways Black communities are solving climate change and environmental issues. Organizations like Honor the Earth, Indigenous Climate Action and Indian Land Tenure Foundation promote climate solutions rooted in tribal sovereignty. 

While some Latinos may not use terms like environmentalist to describe themselves, they’ve always been stewards of the land, Becerra said.

“Generations of our familias have cared for our lands, that have also taught us to care for Mother Earth,” she said. “So it’s really just a celebration, you know, of our shared history.”

Growing up, Becerra’s family didn’t have a lot of money, so instead of extravagant vacations to Disneyland, they would go camping, visit Mount Lemmon or Patagonia Lake. 

“Those were our vacations,” Becerra said. “And as children, that was food for our soul. We were super excited to be out there, jumping in the lake, fishing with our families, those are all the things that really shaped us.”

Making space for Latino voices

Ana Gorla, energy and public lands coordinator for the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter, sees the week as a kickoff for consistent outdoor activity, as Arizona temperatures start to cool down. 

One of the Latino Conservation Week events, on Sept. 17, is a closing reception of the Living With Injury exhibition at Tucson’s Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibition, which opened in November and will close Sept. 27, puts a spotlight on the Tucson South Side community’s fight for clean water after they were affected by TCE contamination from the 1940s to the 1980s.

The weeklong celebration is also an opportunity to uplift Latino voices in the conversation about climate change and environmental issues, Becerra and Gorla both said.  

“If we don’t elevate our collective voice, we don’t then ensure that our public lands and climate solutions are shaped by our voices, by who we are,” Becerra said. 

That representation matters, because Latino communities are disproportionately affected by environmental injustices and climate change, she said. 

In Phoenix, majority-Latino neighborhoods like West Valley and South Phoenix, where Gorla grew up, have less green space than areas like Scottsdale and Paradise Valley. Heat maps show Latino communities in the Phoenix metro area are hotter. That’s also where residents are exposed to more air pollution.

Through events like the Caminata and Clean Up at the Rio Salado (Salt River), Gorla hopes people from these majority-Latino neighborhoods will be more motivated to use their public green spaces nearby, where it’s a little cooler and the air is safer to breathe. 

“We want people to just be aware of the places where they can enjoy green spaces,” she said. 

A generational connection 

As the sun starts to set at Gates Pass west of Tucson on Wednesday, Omar Casillas is looking for the best place to watch after a desert hike. He’s in town from Oklahoma City for work — medical device sales — and wanted to spend some time out in nature during his visit. 

Casillas hikes up toward a stone building on the hillside. He sits on a boulder next to the structure and looks out into the distance, admiring the desert landscape. 

Spending time in nature brings him peace of mind and helps him relax when he’s stressed, he said. It’s also deeply rooted in his Mexican culture and upbringing. Since he was about 10 years old, Casillas would vacation in Jalisco with family, and they would go hiking in the “barranca,” or a canyon. 

“At the bottom of all the mountains, there was a mango tree we’d always go to,” he said. “So we’d pick up rocks, we’d throw them at the trees and hopefully catch a mango. And there was a waterfall right there next to the mountain. So after we got our mangoes, we’d eat them and then go swim in the water.”

On the trail below where Casillas sits, Jillian Goetz, Mia Orozco and Kayla Tran, students at the University of Arizona, watch the sun dip behind the mountains. The light blue sky starts to blend into an ombré of yellow, orange and red, silhouetting the cactuses below. 

Orozco and Goetz both grew up in the Los Angeles area with families that would take them hiking and camping and spend time outdoors. Now as a college student, Goetz goes for walks on campus when she needs a break from classes, or tries to get off campus to enjoy nature. 

“I love being out here,” Goetz said. “I feel like it connects me and grounds me a lot versus being on my screen.”

The outdoors as a place of respite

Latino communities have been affected by an increase in immigration enforcement under the Trump administration. The administration has also cut funding for public lands, waived environmental laws to make way for more border wall construction and proposed several measures that would impact the preservation of public lands. 

It’s a stressful time for Latinos and for people who care about these issues, Becerra said. Studies have shown that spending time in nature lowers stress, improves mood and focus and has many positive mental health outcomes. 

Gorla hopes those who participate in Latino Conservation Week experience those mental health benefits and are reminded that the outdoors are for everyone. 

“Especially in times like right now, where our communities don’t feel very welcomed in this country, I want to remind people that our roots are in nature,” Gorla said. “That anywhere we are in America, you know, the continent, that we should take up space in the outdoors.”

From healing to conservation 

In 2014, Cassandra Becerra tossed and turned in bed struggling to fall asleep. Around 2 a.m., she got up and packed an overnight bag.

Her kids were with their dad, so she got in her new, black Jeep Patriot and drove to the Grand Canyon. It was her first time visiting the national park, despite having lived most of her life in Arizona. 

She had a lot on her mind as she navigated big life changes. Becerra had just started a job working for the late Congressman Raúl Grijalva. And almost overnight she had gone from being a stay-at-home mom to being the financial provider for herself and her children. 

“I sat there on a rock for hours and hours, and I walked a little bit, and I cried a lot,” she said. “And that was me healing. That was Mother Earth was embracing me.” 

The same way Mother Earth has taken care of her, Becerra said she is dedicated to “protecting her every way that I can.” 

She’s lost track of how many times she’s visited the Grand Canyon since then, and that Jeep took her and her three children on countless road trips to Sedona, Patagonia and many other outdoor adventures across the state and country.

She sees how those trips have led to her kids’ love for nature, now being passed down to her 3-year-old granddaughter. When the toddler visits her grandma, “Lita,” short for abuelita, she asks if they can go on “adventures.” That means she wants to go for a walk outside, Becerra said. 

“That’s why I do the work that I do too,” she said. “I have to protect those spaces for them and for their children and their children’s children.”

Written by Stephanie Casanova for Arizona Luminaria. 

In Southeast El Paso, there is a rare example of a natural wetland ecosystem that once existed abundantly along the Rio Grande. Large birds, ducks and sometimes even a beaver can be seen from the park trails. Located parallel to the Rio Grande next to the US-Mexico border, the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park is a long-term ecological restoration project with a mission to return the 372-acre park to its original state.

The park, managed by the University of Texas at El Paso’s (UTEP) Center for Environmental Resource Management (CERM), provides a space for animal and plant species whose habitat had been disturbed when the Rio Grande was channelized in the 1930s.

Through a collaborative effort, beginning in the 1970s, the City of El Paso, UTEP’s CERM, utility and ecological organizations, the landscape has steadily been reestablished as a flourishing ecosystem, with some areas of the park improving faster than others.

Today, the park regularly offers tours, events and community workdays to educate visitors and provide them with an opportunity to connect with nature.

From Sept. 12 to Sept. 20, the park celebrated Latino Conservation Week, a week long initiative encouraging Latino communities to get involved in natural resources and parks near them, by hosting introduction to the bosque and birding tours, a loteria event and a hands-on cleanup project where visitors could mitigate invasive species with park officials.

Park manager Sergio Samaniego and his team plan events that encourage the public to enjoy the beauty and quiet of natural wetland that is unique in a desert environment.

“Hopefully they also fall in love with the outdoors, because it’s really relaxing,” Samaniego said. You see stuff that you typically don’t see around in the city because we’re so out in nature.”

The Rio Bosque’s nutrient rich environment attracts hundreds of species of birds a year and the parks trails buzz with insects, lizards and flowing canals. The diverse landscape is a change of scenery that cannot be found anywhere else in El Paso, making it a popular space for hikers and photographers to visit.

“Especially at the Rio Bosque, a lot of people that visit the park don’t know that they have this resource for them in their backyards,” Samaniego said. “Once they discover it they become very attached to the project and they become repeat visitors.”

Jabenel Muniz comes to the Rio Bosque park to run. They believe the open trails, fresh air and picturesque views create an experience that is different than other trails in the city.

“Come over here to run. It’s really big, and I don’t think you can get lost,” Muniz said. “You can go in circles or even, like, more straight so that’s cool. You can just keep running.”

Muniz and other guests of the Rio Bosque visit the park to view because of its unique animals and landscape. Latino Conservation Week in the wetlands is an avenue for individuals to become aware of the preserved environments that are hidden in their neighborhood.

The Rio Bosque Wetlands Park is open to the public every day of the week from dusk till dawn. The park visitor center provides trail and program information, and organizations like the Friends of the Rio Bosque work in tandem with UTEP’s CERM to advocate for the continual preservation of the Rio Bosque and to engage and educate the public about the wetlands.

More information on how to get involved can be found on the Friends of the Rio Bosques Instagram or on the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park website.

Written by Kayla Rodriguez for The Prospector Daily.

Latinx/e Conservation Week might have been in full swing last week, but for Phoenix-based environmental justice movement group Chispa Arizona, hosting community conversations about conservation, composting and environmental justice are a year-round effort that keeps Latinx-specific efforts front and center.

Across Arizona, Latinx/e Conservation Week — which takes place every year during Latinx Heritage Month — was celebrated with a series of events hosted by Chispa, the Sierra Club, Mi Familia En Acción, Poder Latinx, Latino Outdoors, Protectors of the Salt River, AZ Land and many more. Over the years, the celebration has become a joint effort among grassroots environmental organizations to encourage Latinos to get involved not only in conservation efforts at home, but also in environmental issues that impact their communities. 

That’s why, on Thursday, as Chispa Arizona welcomed the community to tend and beautify their growing garden, they also took the time to educate folks as an act of resistance against policies currently being enacted by the Trump administration.

“Latinx Conservation Week is really important because we — at least here at Chispa Arizona, and with our partner organizations that are putting on all these events — we're really seeing it and approaching it with an active resistance right now under the Trump administration,” Zuri Torres, Chispa Arizona’s communication director, said. “There's been a lot of restrictions on public lands and we see a lot of destruction happening to our public lands. And with our national parks, we feel like the Latinx community has been targeted.” 

New rules that went into effect Jan. 1 have turned the National Park Service into pseudo-immigration agents, after the U.S. Department of the Interior issued a $100 fee for nonresident or non-citizen visitors to national parks. The department also adjusted the price of an Annual Pass for the National Park System to $80 for U.S. residents and $250 for nonresidents or noncitizens. 

“It's really creating this financial barrier for a lot of our community to be able to access these places that bring so much peace and tranquility and connection,” Torres said. “We're really wanting to encourage everyone to — along with the events that we're hosting, but just in general — to [be] in places where they feel comfortable to really enjoy nature and be together, and show that we're not afraid that these acts happening on behalf of the Trump administration aren't scaring us because these lands belong to all of us and we're we're not going to budge.” 

What started in 2014 as an initiative of the official National Park Service partner, the Hispanic Access Foundation, Latinx Conservation Week is now an annual nationwide celebration that promotes access to the outdoors and demonstrates the community’s commitment to conserving the environment. 

“We really ramped up having a series of events and work in collaboration with a number of organizations, including Chispa, and we try to have some activity almost every day,” Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter, said of the week’s activities.

These included a cleanup and invasive weed removal in the Rio Salado, a hike in the Ironwood Forest National Monument, a kayaking cleaning expedition on the Salt River and a prayer walk for the lands and more.

Conservation advocacy groups also raised concerns about the privatization and sale of precious, previously protected land, like the San Carlos Apache Tribe’s sacred Oak Flat that was sold to Resolution Copper earlier this year and the controversial uranium mining within the boundaries of the new national monument, the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni, near the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. 

“Having all these events, one of the things that we want to make sure is that the message is sent that the Latinx community is part of the land, has always been involved in conservation and that everyone understands that we all belong here,” Bahr said. “I think that is one of the key things, but also[to] help people understand that there are things that they can do. Right now, I think a lot of people are feeling very anxious because of some of the policies that are being pushed through, and so we want to help people have an opportunity to take action.” 

Gardening as an act of resilience

Community members gathered at the Chispa Arizona headquarters on Thursday afternoon, where Clean and Green campaign specialist Jessica Bueno gave a brief presentation on the evening’s mission, what they’d be learning and doing, followed by a land acknowledgement that recognized the 22 federally recognized indigenous nations across Arizona. 

Chispa staff provided the tools and learning experience needed to begin beautifying their nine garden beds in their backyard. Chispa volunteers showed attendees how to throw out the dried dirt and mulch from this summer, dig a shallow hole to fill with new composted soil and fertilizer and place the transplant sapling of the new vegetable or herb in the allotted beds. 

“We're here today at the garden to really promote a heat mitigation strategy, along with increasing our food systems. We just really wanted to bring people together to get their hands dirty and learn more about soil, compost, mulch — all the things needed in order to have a good community garden at home,” Bueno said. “They're really beneficial because you get to really learn how to grow your own food, so you know exactly where your food is coming from. Nowadays, you know, we have so much pesticides, and then with the price of food going up, being able just to [get] a little bit better control of what we're growing and also just bring it back to our native roots and really try to hone in on that nutrition.” 

According to local non-profit Growing To Give, “approximately 13.1% of Arizonans live in food deserts, and the real number may be higher when accounting for underserved and unhoused populations.” 

Having a workshop on planting heat-resistant, edible plants like tomatoes, sweet potatoes and rosemary, as well as various chiles and peppers, furthers Chispa Arizona’s mission to educate their community on how to grow their own sustainable food supply amidst mass food recalls nationwide and statewide food deserts where “access to fresh food requires time, transportation and resources that are not always available,” especially for Arizonans who live in a climate where temperatures regularly surpass the 100 degree mark. 

While Latinx/e Conservation Week came to a close on Sunday, Arizona’s environmental advocacy groups and non-profit organizations hold events, workshops and learning opportunities year-round, turning conservation into action. 

“You don't have to have all of these resources to really make a difference in being [an] environmentalist,” Torres said. “I think that a lot of the time environmentalism can be categorized as a very white elitist action, and as Latinos or Latinas, it's embedded in our culture, verdad. We're using containers over and over, passing down clothes, sharing food and community so it doesn't go to waste. And I think this is a really good example of people coming together to connect, but also to help one another learn and make sure to take care of our planet.”

Written by Analisa Valdez for Caló News. 

It’s Monday morning, and the temperature in North Shore is already nearing triple digits. At the San Juan Diego Mission, farmworker Solangel Cruz and her team have begun distributing food to hundreds of families at a local food drive.

The event is one of five Cruz holds each month for farmworkers in this unincorporated Riverside County community, where food insecurity far exceeds the national average.

“We are living through difficult times,” Cruz told ACoM, explaining in Spanish that many farmworkers have seen their shifts decrease as employers look to cut costs. Many others, she said, “do not want to leave their homes” for fear of being detained by federal immigration agents.

Food insecurity

Those factors are contributing to a growing need in a region where 26% of adults already experience food insecurity, 9 percentage points above the national average and nearly double the countywide average of 13.8%.

Rising costs for essentials like rent, groceries and gas — hovering around $6 per gallon in much of California — as well as drastic cuts to federal assistance programs are adding to the pressure on families already struggling to make ends meet.

Cruz, in her early 40s and with an infectious smile, says she launched her food distribution network after a knock on her door in 2023. Waiting on the other side were Father Rosendo Herrera of Our Lady of Guadalupe church in the nearby town of Mecca and Reyes Lopez, director of the non-profit Inland Congregations United for Change (ICUC).

The pair approached Cruz because of her involvement in her children’s schools and her community activism. After initially hesitating, thinking of the commitment required in organizing a food distribution network, Cruz accepted.

ICUC provided food and supplies for the program’s first drives, which were limited to one a month. But as demand grew, Cruz connected with Find Regional Food Bank, which now supplies four additional food drives, bringing the total to five each month: two during the first week and one during each of the remaining three weeks.

“We are always united”

“We are a community that does not have access to as much assistance, and when the opportunity arose to receive these additional foods … I accepted,” said Cruz.

Much of the work depends on local volunteers, many of them farmworkers who spend as much as 6 hours of their free time at a single drive helping other families put food on the table.

For many, said Cruz, the distribution site has become a gathering place where volunteers can see familiar faces, stay connected, and feel useful in supporting their neighbors. That network has also carried volunteers through some of their most difficult moments.

Rita, a longtime volunteer, has continued showing up even while undergoing treatment for cancer, Cruz said. Another woman first came into the group after losing her daughter to suicide. Volunteers organized a community fundraiser to help her pay for funeral expenses. Afterward, she began volunteering, returning to the same group that had rallied around her in grief.

“More than a team, we are like a family, because we are always united, and one person’s needs affect the others as well,” said Cruz. “We always look for solutions so that we can help one another and move forward, both as individuals in the community and as a team.”

A growing network

Cruz first came to Thermal, about 15 miles from North Shore, when she was 19, shortly after she and her husband arrived from Mexico in 2003. The couple began work in the sprawling date palm groves surrounding the area, starting years of agricultural labor that brought Cruz closer to the farmworker families she now serves.

“People feel safe and protected here at the church, at Mission San Juan Diego, and the number of people who come to pick up food has continued to increase. It is no longer one hundred families, as it was at the beginning, but more than four hundred families each week,” indicated Cruz.

Each month her team hands out more than 22 pallets of food, she said.

More than a team, we are like a family, because we are always united, and one person’s needs affect the others as well.

— Solangel Cruz

What Cruz has built has also begun to extend beyond North Shore. She has helped train women coordinating food drives in adjacent communities, including Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City, and Indio.

Cruz has accompanied teams through their first drives, answering questions and helping them navigate the work — from meeting program requirements to record-keeping and organizing volunteers.

‘Faith and affection’

As Cruz discusses her work, Imelda, a volunteer in her late 70s, steps into the room to say that she has prepared quesabirria — a traditional Mexican stew typically served in a folded tortilla — for Cruz’s children. It’s a small gesture, but one that reflects the bond Cruz shares with her team.

According to Imelda, her faith and affection are what keep her going. She says she thinks of the many families struggling to stretch their limited incomes as she prepares boxes, ensuring they are “full enough” to help parents feed their kids.

“That is one of the relationships I have built, and one that I feel truly honored by,” said Cruz, her voice trembling slightly. “I have not been back to my country in twenty-three years. I left behind my grandmother and my mother, I see them now through a screen, but it is very difficult for me not to be able to be with them in their old age.”

Then she paused before explaining what the women at the mission have come to mean to her.

“What I am unable to do for my mother, I do for them,” Cruz said. “I always include them, I am always looking out for them, and they do the same for me.”

Whereas Cruz initially set out to distribute boxes of food to neighbors in need, the work has in turn given her something she did not expect: a community that cares for her as deeply as she cares for it.

“Those are the fruits of what I have sown,” she said. “That is the harvest I receive.”

Written for El Observador.