Prairie Sportsman

(uplifting music) I hear stories about people who feel lonely, who don't have friends and they comment how difficult is to make friends in a new place and they found it in Huellas Latinas a safe place to become a new friend or make new friends.

- [Narrator] Luisana Mendez founded the nonprofit Huellas Latinas in 2021 to connect LatinX communities to the outdoors.

When she immigrated to Minnesota from Venezuela six years ago, she found the familiarity o nature helped her feel at home.

- In Venezuela, I grew u in a very beautiful state, surrounded mountains the Andes mountains and my father, actually he is a forest engineer.

Since a young child, I remember my father talking about the importance of the tree, the flowers, the nature, the environment.

Venezuela, I get my bachelor degree in civil engineer and my master degree in urban planning.

The political and social situation push many of Venezuela go out from home.

I have to learn new things like how dress properly and how to take the bus or the properly way to interact with the police.

That many things looks like basic for people who live and grow out here but very new for immigrants.

(calming music) I found nature, my passion and I just attached to the nature to living this process in a healthy way and now I feel I belong here and this is my new home.

I start making research about hiking, the hiking skills, different hiking skills and I found a different challenge and I sign up for the challenge.

- [Narrator] Luisana signed up for a 52 hike challenge.

One hike a week for a year.

- 52 challenge in a year looks like impossible to me to achieve.

impossible to me to achieve.

So I just, I start going the park learning in the process.

When I come to the park, like on winter, I never hike in the winter, I learned the trail change the use.

- [Skiers] On your left, excuse us, coming through.

- But I come and try to walk the skis come and pass, and say, "Get out the way, get out the way."

And I get lost and I dunno what to do.

And all that kinda things give me the sense, the lack of information, immigrants or Latinos, or people who never do this kind activity before have.

And I just start sharing that with my friends and I just start sharing with the community and social media too.

People start asking, "Can I go with you?

Can you teach me how to do that?

I feel scared, I don't want to go the parks alone."

I work for the City of St. Paul in the Public Works Department in the Traffic Engineering Division, I am Engineering Technician II.

For two years I worked very hard with different kind park agencies.

like Dakota County or St. Paul Parks Recreation.

We start offering programs for Latino community and in the process we learn more about what kind of areas in this specific target Latino community have in order to visit the park.

In Venezuela, I have a project called Jueves de Ciudad or City Tours Day.

When I promote the sense of belonging in the city, for me it's the the sense feeling like, "Hey, now you have a new home."

It's not just, you know, go to school or go toward or be a robot.

You can also know where you live and with the sense you know where you live, you will naturally development the sense of the belonging.

Don't just live in a place, be part of it.

(Luisana speaking in Spanish) So I decide to become a nonprofit, call for board members and make the transition.

My experience with Huellas Latinas, I meet people who live in Minnesota for more than 20 years, more than 50 years and they never visit the parks, they never know how to explore the lakes because they don't have the information.

The information is only i English or because they dunno, is the park safe, if they have to pay.

Another thing they share, they feel they don't belong.

It's just a perception and overall it's building a bridge between parks, and people, and the community.

And also change perspective, share with the community, everybody is welcome in any place.

(bright music) Through Huellas Latinas, we have in general like four programs.

One of the program is more for beginners when we introduce people with nature like walks and this kind of walks is a short walk, easy walk.

- [Narrator] Last summer we joined Luisana at Lebanon Hills Regional Park, one of her favorite places for introducing Spanis speaking people to nature hikes.

- This is the first time I can like know what we have a lot of parks in Minnesota.

I'm here for almost 25 years.

I start learning about the nature and learning about how you can take care of the nature and that's how they can help you to be more healthy.

And I bring my kids too, they love to be around the nature and be outside instead of the inside.

Me gusta estar en la naturaleza, conocer ms gente y estar involucrada en algo que me gusta con la comunidad.

Que a veces no nos tomamos ese tiempo para entrar en contacto directo con la naturaleza, con los rboles, con el agua, con las flores, incluso con los animales ms pequeos.

Y esa experiencia te lleva a reconectar con todos.

- The other program is a little more challenge and we bring people for camping and backpacking, and get the experience in multiple days so it's a a little more immersion in nature.

For a camping trip, we usually have more than 30 people, between 30 and 40 people.

We offer all the equipment, people don't have to have the equipment or any knowledge, it's for beginner.

After that, families get their own equipment and ask me for more camping trips because now they have the equipment.

The third program is more about mindfulness.

In this program we offer forest bathing, the combination between hike and yoga.

And the last program is more about the adventurous, based on the season of the year.

So for example, if we are in winter time, we do cross country ski, snowshoes, but if we are in during summer, we kayak or canoe, or fishing.

All our activities is most in Spanish, is for all age, for families in general and the depend of the activity, they can bring pets too.

The participants from different countries, Argentina and Chile, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru.

We have mixed families and everybody's welcome.

We just say people, "Hey, don't worry, you want to learn Spanish?

You want to practice your Spanish or you want to learn about culture?"

So everybody's welcome.

I feel myself lucky with the people I meet here, with the institutions I work here.

And everything was doing very good for me and my personal development, professional development, and in this new time become an immigrant.

I want to pay back with myself, with the community, all the good things I receive that is important for me.

(inspiring music)