Creating the Space to Bring Communities Together with Latino Outdoors

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To celebrate 11 years of Latino Conservation Week, we chatted with Christian La Mont, Latino Outdoors’ storytelling, communications, and advocacy program manager, and Evelyn Serrano, center director at Audubon Debs Park in Los Angeles, about the center’s collaborations with Latino Outdoors, why creating equitable access to the outdoors is so important, and more. 

Latino Conservation Week is an annual initiative led by the Hispanic Access Foundation and seeks to provide Latine communities with programs and activities that connect them with the outdoors. To mark this milestone, we’ve teamed up with Latino Outdoors to reflect on what it means to foster community at our centers. Read on for a curated version of the conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity. Then watch the entire interview at the end.

Christian, what brought you to Latino Outdoors? And Evelyn, what brought you to Audubon, specifically Audubon Debs Park?

Christian: I was one of those accidental environmentalists. I care about community health. I care about access to water. I care about social justice. I care about green spaces and open spaces. I care about access and accessibility and inclusivity. And then I got invited onto a hike by a group called Latino Outdoors. And I thought, ‘I’m Latino, I’m outdoors. Let’s see what this is about.’ I ended up becoming a volunteer and my first visit to the Audubon Center [at Debs Park] was my very first hike that I led for Latino Outdoors. And I was so nervous when we were all standing around in a circle to introduce ourselves. But thanks to the Audubon center staff and the group and everybody who was there, we were able to enjoy the beautiful walk. 

Evelyn: I have always loved spending time outdoors, like I love scuba diving. I would go out and scuba dive for research. I also grew up and live in the city of Los Angeles. And my favorite thing to be able to do in this city is to comfortably walk from one location to another. I had been hiking in this park for years before I found the Audubon Center at Debs Park. And on one of those occasions when we were hiking, we happened to find the center. It was open and there was some kind of program going on, and everybody was so welcoming. So after that, I started following the Audubon Center at Debs Park on social media, and I would see all these partnerships and all these other cool things that I could participate in, eventually leading to me working there [and now becoming its center director]. 

How did the partnership between Latino Outdoors and Audubon Center at Debs Park start?

Evelyn:  I am relatively new to the Audubon Center at Debs Park, and I am lucky enough to be able to build on partnerships that were established by the previous center director and the previous staff that were here. So I’ve had the opportunity to work with Christian and have staff members lead and be a part of the hikes, be a part of the conversation [with Latino Outdoors].

Christian: I don’t want to say it’s multigenerational at this point, but it’s really been built by individuals who set things up and who create that community and then handed that off. For example, I want to give a big shout out to everyone’s friend Marcos Trinidad [former center director of Audubon Center at Debs Park], who is such a force of nature when it came to saying, ‘What are you doing? Let’s do this. We’ve got a center, we’ve got people, we’ve got a community. Let’s find a space that we can talk and learn and feel safe and seen in.” Sometimes that meant taking the center out of the center and going somewhere else, like the state park on behalf of the Audubon Center. Or sometimes that meant going to a meeting on behalf of the Audubon Center. It really is about creating lasting relationships and [Latino Outdoors’ partnership with Audubon Center at Debs Park] is a long lasting relationship that continues now with Evelyn. And I know that we also have a lot of great relationships with other regions [in Audubon’s network], like with our New York, Texas, and Western Massachusetts [Latino Outdoors] regions with their local [Audubon] centers. This special friendship and bond that we have with the Los Angeles region and Debs Audubon Center is being replicated across the country. 

What are some other events Latino Outdoors and the Audubon Center at Debs Park have partnered on over the years?

Evelyn: Actually, we had this past weekend here an event called Birding and Bachata, which was put on by a [Latino Outdoors] volunteer. It was so amazing. So you either came because you like to dance or you like birds, and by the end of it you’re into both of them. Everybody shared their bird stories. So it’s really creating those experiences for people to feel comfortable being in the space and being able to share together. And I think that’s one of the great things [to come out of] the partnership that Audubon has with Latino Outdoors; we’re finding ways to get people outdoors to recreate and make them more accessible for everyone. 

Latino Outdoors stresses that it is “community-first and an organization second.” Can you say more about that?

Christian: We just celebrated our ten year anniversary last year, which for an organization the size of Latino Outdoors ten years is a lifetime. At the heart of [our work], we are part of a community. And the way we do that is we listen to our volunteers, the way that we listen to our community, to our partners. It determines our priorities and advocacy. We approach it with community building first.

How is that mindset translated to these partnered events?

Christian: As you’re building community, you’re also building trust. It also takes a personal connection, oftentimes driven by wonderful individuals like Evelyn, like Marcos, to say, ‘Hey, we’ve got this idea. How can we make this happen? How can we do this and invite more children? How can we do this and teach more people about birds?’ It really starts with that individual, that force of nature and then those forces of nature connecting on their own regional levels and saying, ‘Let’s bring our organizations together and let’s see what we can do together.’ I know it’s said a lot, but it is true that we are stronger together. 

Evelyn: Creating the space is key to bringing community together. One of my absolute favorite things [as a center director] is when we’re working with a great person and they say, ‘Here’s what we want.’ And then finding those resources and being scrappy about it. If individuals in this community [come to us and ask,] ‘We want a meeting space and talk about this,’ or ‘Our dance hall is being renovated, can we dance at the center?’, we work to figure out what resources we can share with one another. Everybody has different resources to offer, so it’s always so beautiful when we can sit down and figure out how to make it work. Instead of taking from our community, how can we give more?     

Can you talk about what it means to you to make the outdoors more inclusive? 

Evelyn: I have this conversation all the time because it means something different for everyone—whether money is the barrier or mobility is the barrier or creating the safe space itself is the barrier. That’s why the Audubon Center [at Debs Park] loves partnering with these groups that are safe spaces for community members. We’re also free to the public. You can just come in through our front door. Our programs—our hikes, bird walks, bird sits—are all free.

Christian: Absolutely. I’ll also say one of the barriers oftentimes is language. So the fact that a lot of Audubon centers, including Debs Park, have multilingual staff is important. To be able to host something like a Spanish language or a bilingual hike is one of those big steps towards making it feel more inclusive. Inclusivity also includes: Do you feel safe? Do you feel seen? Do you feel heard? Is it accessible? Do you see staff that look and talk like you? 

The more people that feel seen and feel welcome and feel safe in these outdoor spaces, the more future scientists we have, the more future policymakers we have, the more sparks and chispas you’re going to create. Ultimately, it creates a better and safer world for all of us.

How have you seen the impact of your work affect the people you serve?

Evelyn: Speaking for myself and the conversations that we have with our team here, [an important measure of our impact] is getting invited, people seeing us as safe and wanting us to be at their events. My favorite way of really measuring the impact is seeing people come back. Seeing people come back after being at a bird walk that I led like two months ago and seeing that excitement in them. 

Christian: How do you measure a smile? Ultimately, a large scale measure of success is when we change the culture. When a casual person on their walk stops to observe birds or when a participant returns and is a second time attendee or a regular now, or when that regular becomes a volunteer, or when that regular applies for a job. You start to change the fabric of the community by integrating that experience into their daily life. When you see people caring for nature, when you see kids caring for nature and telling their parents to care about nature. As my mom says, “It’s your park, take care of it.” When we change the culture, that’s when we can say that we’ve made a difference. 

Want to learn more about our collaborations with Latino Outdoors? Watch our full conversation below.

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