DME

🎂Just another year of jumping into la cultura que cura, and looking toward another year of showing mi gente that the waters’ fine. 🐸🤎✨🦎🌳

🎂 Just another year of finding la cultura que cura in nature. The many green scenes of my 30th year was 🌳🐸🌴🍃🌱🐛🦎🦜🛶✨🤎

Brooklyn! We’re Gathering in the garden this Friday with for some communal nourishment, gardening, art + environmental justice history.✨🍇 ⁣
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Poetry and storytelling have always been incredible tools for resistance + joy, and I can’t wait to share how some of that history has shown up in Latine culture, environmental justice movements and more. ⁣
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Looking forward to sharing rhymey words I’ve written to serve as intergenerational healing tools for our communities and give away my first ever illustrated zine. 🤎 ⁣
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Bringing people who care deeply about how art + storytelling can heal + spark so much joy means the world to me ~ Thank you to the team for having me. ⁣
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See you all in the garden 🌱 ⁣
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I always thought I had to travel far away from home to seek out adventure and connection to the environment. The idea of adventure has always played a huge role in my personal growth and my vision for life, but because of the limited stories about people that looked like me in the outdoors, I used to believe that adventure had to mean traveling far away and aspiring to be like people that didn’t look like me.⁣⁣
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In order to access what I thought was ‘outdoorsy’, I worked diligently in my early career days to invest in travel. I thought being outdoorsy had to mean canyoning in Switzerland, kayaking in Thailand, cliff jumping in Spain, four-wheeling in Greece, and hiking the rainforest in Puerto Rico. And while all of that was all amazing, I’ve been taking some time to embrace all the beautiful ways my own Mexican upbringing did in fact plant so many adventurous environmental seeds in me, and I’ve been getting excited about gear that that only empowers me to scale cliff-sides in Europe, but also helps me reimagine adventure right outside my front door.⁣⁣
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Adventuring near home has looked like:⁣⁣
~ slowing down, worrying less about efficiency and more about presence ✨⁣⁣
~ riding around to find the perfect cafes to read and write at⁣⁣
~ planning random surf days just because⁣⁣
~ literally feeling the wind in my hair, riding around in my ⁣⁣
~ learning to identify new little plantitas all around the city⁣⁣
~ going on impromptu trail rides because my new fits perfectly in my trunk⁣⁣
~ planning fun little weekend trips up and down the coast⁣⁣
~ going on neighborhood walks + bike rides to catch that air that only the mornings can provide⁣⁣
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I’m so grateful for all my travel experiences and I’ve also been steady two-wheelin’ towards alignment with this newfound capacity to see adventure in my own local area, creating a more peaceful, consistent, reliable, fun and sustainable life full of adventures. ✨⁣⁣
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Shoutout to the Brompton team for helping me adventure around my new home in LA.⁣⁣
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🚲 What was the last bike adventure you went on?⁣⁣
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Much love to 🤎

I once wrote, “To all my friends who are still finding their way between cultures, between languages, between religions, between families, between worlds - you are becoming the ancestor that chose to preserve what mattered and nurture what needed to be new.” ⁣
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More here: I’m halted by the thought that in every single moment, we facilitate space between what’s been given to us and what we want to pass on. Every. Single. Moment. ⁣
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And while that responsibility can weigh, I also think about how beautifully we’ve structured communal acts around remembrance of wisdoms that have been passed through countless hands before they ever reached ours so we don’t have to facilitate space alone. ⁣
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So much of what dance recitals, family recipes, holiday songs, and rights of passage rituals create are opportunities for older generations to bear witness to the wisdom we’ve endured, healed through + nurtured and watch them be placed more gently in young hands. ⁣
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As someday ancestors, we can know the imperfection that was the wisdom we were passed and the state of wisdom we will pass will too be imperfect. But it’s the journey of molding that wisdom over time that shapes our unified resilience. ⁣
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Embracing our stories + traditions is more than an effective memorization strategy. It’s an ode to connection between generations - a bond that transcends time. Despite colonial emphasis on individuality, our stories remind us of our shared identity and unified power. ⁣
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At an event IE hosted last year, Professor Morris peered out from the stage into a room of what I’ll lovingly call “intersectional environmentalists’ + said, “The young people are gunna be alright”. Our community smiled + giggled at what underlies what I’m saying here. When we witness youth nurture the lessons once passed to us, we exist in the peace that comes from seeing stability, continuity + belonging realized through the wisdom we share. ⁣
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Traditional education systems may have the capacity to impart knowledge - even skills, but it will forever be the cultural lessons within our communities that shapes wisdom. ⁣
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📸:

Happiest by the water AND getting over my fear of the ocean 🌊 ⁣⁣
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A huge part of accessibility to the outdoors and environmentally-based wellness practices is found in being able to explore the outdoors feeling supported by community. ⁣⁣
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Even though we were so nervous, and I had the coolest experience ever surfing recently with .project - and it reminded me that friends watching each other do things like eat salt water cocktails and get toppled over + over again, then finally experience that first gentle moment of gliding across the water is so gratifying. ⁣⁣
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It’s spaces like this, created by and for community, that remind how important it is to experience fear, vulnerability, growth and joy together. As children, so many people in our lives shape experiences around our growth so that, yes, we can experience growth, but also so they can participate in and bear witness to our growth. ⁣⁣
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~ The way parents watch us take our first steps ⁣⁣
~ The way friends want us to experience their favorite foods ⁣⁣
~ The way teachers create space to watch our presentations ⁣⁣
~ The way coaches feel connected to our triumphs ⁣⁣
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Ultimately, we’re just here to experience vibes together, to find joy in sharing things with each other and to play outside. ⁣⁣
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If you’re in LA, go check out my friends at .project ~ They offer workshops and retreats across all things outdoors, sustainability, and wellness to provide inclusive and safe environments for all humans to learn. 🌱🌎🐟

A while ago, I asked y’all what words felt like hugs because sometimes we need those in a virtual world and here is what y’all said :: ⁣
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~ te quiero ⁣
~ I saw this and thought of you ⁣
~ what’s been on your mind? ⁣
~ I miss you. ⁣
~ mija / mijo / mije ⁣
~ i miss hearing your voice ⁣
~ I remembered when ___, and it made me smile. ⁣
~ this song reminded me of you. ⁣
~ you make life better ⁣
~ I’m glad I met you ⁣
~ *pops in to call*⁣
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ft. Me hugging my 🤎⁣
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🪧 This is your sign to go send a few virtual hugs. What words feel like hugs to you? 🫶🏽🫂

The act of cleansing oneself is an act of cleansing the world. 🤲🏽🚿 ⁣
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~ When we choose to cleanse with planet-friendly goods that nourish our bodies, we also choose to not send toxins and environmentally hazardous things down the drains and pathways that feed the waters and soils that help us thrive.⁣
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~ When we choose to cleanse with plastic free products, we choose to use materials the earth recognizes and can absorb back as energy, rather than poison. ⁣
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~ When we choose to support thoughtful stewards, we choose leadership that sees the interconnectedness of care. ⁣
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Lately, I’ve been using in my bathroom routine because their formulas are plastic-free, vegan and concentrated, so a little goes a long way. And because the team sees the interconnectedness of care, they also donate 50% of profits clean water and sanitation non-profits around the world. Water has a beautiful way of connecting us all, and your bathroom routine should nourish that.

To all the souls in your shadow 🫶🏽⁣
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~ Your face is a legacy⁣
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~ When a word finally explains why you always talk about wanting your dream life to include helping people and seeing people be their happiest selves ⁣
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~ You got this 🕯 ⁣
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~ Defining love through radical healing, instead of suffering ⁣
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~ 😈 ⁣
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~ Opportunities for Joy are endless 🌼 ⁣
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~ The unfinished stuff you’re holding onto could be really be inspiring someone right now⁣
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~ candid + caring > ⁣
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~ new plans all day ⁣
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You da best. 🤎

💭 Thoughts lately :: ⁣
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~ A recent article by had me 😮‍💨 - “Be Tenacious on Behalf of Life on Earth” was addressed to fresh grads yet relevant to everyone. “Co-founding, co-editing, co-hosting, co-creating. Good collaboration is the exponential. Especially so because the complex challenges we face are inherently interdisciplinary.” A brief yet powerful and grounding reminder of finding our position within and the energy we all need to bring to the climate crisis. ⁣
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~ Building life in LA these past few weeks has felt so ✨ peaceful ✨. It’s been just me in a casita cooking, cleaning, reading, gardening and when it’s just me in the room, I feel like I have SO much. And that’s on that solitude based energy cleanse. Abundance at the forefront and leaning into that as I make new homies in LA. ⁣
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~ Medicine is everywhere 🌾 ⁣
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~ My heart is 💖 for Bretman Rock’s latest interview for , “Bretman Rock Is At Home In The World“. This evolution, this photoshoot, this sense of self. And the inspiring herbalist grandmother 😭🔑 ⁣
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~ To make a little space for what is disheartening to me right now: The fears being ignited and the decisions coming from Texas board of education in reaction to all the progress over the past few years gets me 😢. Looking back, I know how the lack of diverse stories, history and leadership in schools failed me as a student, as a young women, as a person of color, as a someday first generation college graduate - and you know who knows way better than me? The people proposing evidence-based change surrounding curriculum, school design, teacher empowerment and the implications this has on bettering American society toward a just and inclusive future for all. ICYMI: The decisions that come from Texas impact the ENTIRE COUNTRY’S EDU SYSTEM. So supporting thought leaders pushing for progress in this space is so critical. ⁣
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~ Just me vibrating to songs my ancestors left in the winds.⁣
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~ 😈 ⁣
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~ Opportunities for Joy are endless 🌼 ⁣
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ILY. 🤎