2025 Signature Events

Tuesday, April 29, 2025 - Amplifying Latino Voices: Advocacy for Change

03:00pm - 04:00pm EST

Where: Zoom Webinar
Description: Join us for an empowering webinar designed to inspire and equip Latino advocates to take action and drive meaningful change in their communities.

Amplifying Latino Voices: Advocacy for Change brings together leaders at the forefront of immigration, education, and health policy to share their stories, strategies, and successes.

This dynamic event will explore how advocacy can strengthen partnerships, uplift Latino communities, and shape a better future for all. Participants will gain practical tools to elevate their voices, influence policy, and become agents of change at the local and national levels.

What to Expect:

• Insightful conversations with Latino leaders and changemakers
• Real-world examples of advocacy in action
• Tips and resources to effectively engage in policy change
• Opportunities to connect with a community of passionate advocates

Remarks by: 

• Maite Arce, President and CEO of Hispanic Access Foundation 
• Anais Martinez, Community School Coordinator
• Juventino Meza, Environmental & Energy Policy Lawyer
• Milagros Grullón, Executive Director  

 Register here. 

Thursday, May 1, 2025 - Latinos at the Forefront: Protecting Our Lands, Water & Communities

03:00pm - 04:00pm EST

Where: Zoom Webinar
Description: Join us as the Conservation Team at Hispanic Access shares how they are moving conservation priorities forward within the context of a new administration while continuing to uplift Latino leaders in environmental work & the valuable contributions our community continues to build in the effort of protecting our natural resources.

This webinar will include updates on annual priorities within Hispanic Access' conservation programs, resource sharing, calls to action, and ways to engage with programming and advocacy efforts with our network members and general public.                                      

Remarks by: 

• Jessica Godinez, Latino Conservation Week Program Manager
• Sofia Barboza, Ocean Program Manager 
• Hilda Berganza, Climate Program Manager 
• Vanessa Muñoz, Waterways Program Manager 

Register here. 

A majority of Latino voters feel called to protect the planet and the majority are in favor of enacting legislation to hinder the effects of climate change, a recent survey reports.

The groups Environmental Defense Action Fund and Latino Decisions conducted a survey in November showing that 81% of Latinos voted for long-term investments in wind and solar energy, and 84% agreed on the importance for the U.S. to pursue long-term investments in green infrastructure. Although the Latino community shows enthusiastic support for preserving the planet, Beatriz Soto said they’re often left out of conversations on how to counteract the factors harming the environment.

“So I would love to see those investments in our community and making sure our voices are there, and that they’re never moving forward without us. It’s a missed opportunity and historically these groups and these movements have been white, extremely white and they have to deal with their history of excluding such a large part of our community,” said Soto, Director of Defiende Nuestra Tierra. “And I’m hoping at a local level we can start to change that.”

The push for this unification is to tap into the support Latino communities have to offer, particularly when it comes to advocating for the planet. Mariana Del Valle Prieto Cervantes, a Clean Waters and Ocean Advocate for GreenLatinos, said in her presentation during the kickoff event Monday that Latinos care deeply about the health of the country’s oceans and lands, but also are more likely to live near polluted water.

Garfield County locals celebrating Latino Advocacy Week in March 2020.

“Many of our low income communities, our communities of color … across the country are faced with devastating water quality conditions. … In 2012, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that we needed to invest $271 billion in maintaining and repairing our waste water infrastructure over the next 20 years just to meet the current environmental and health standards,” Del Valle Prieto said.

LAW is designed to bring together Latino leaders from across the country to amplify their voices, but it is important for people who don’t identify as Latino to tune into this year’s virtual events, since the climate issues they’re discussing affect everyone.

“It’s free and open to anyone who wants to participate. And you don’t only have to be Latino, anybody hopefully would participate. … This can be a unifying message, it can be a unifying effort, and I think based on where things are today you know more than ever we need to come together as a community and the community resiliency is going to be essential in the face of climate change. It’s going to be essential for all of us to work together,” Soto said.

Salome Garcia, Policy and Campaigns Manager for the CLEO institute, also presented during the kickoff event and said it doesn’t matter what one’s top priority or concern is — it will always link back to the climate crisis.

“Whether your friend’s … No. 1 issue is job security, food insecurity, economic growth, that is a climate change issue as well. I think that changing the narrative of climate change and environmental issues to make it fit into everybody’s priorities is one of the most powerful things we can do in the movement,” Garcia said.

Soto broke this idea down with the example of how the Western Slope has lost a month of winter over the past decade. Living in Garfield County, many aspects of the community’s economic livelihood depend on snow, and when the ski or winter sports season is shortened, job opportunities and availability are also impacted.

“If you’re losing a month of winter you’re losing a month of your economic viability. Now if you can connect that to climate, then you’ll be like ‘oh, I need to take action on climate,’ because the fact that we’re getting warmer winters, less snow and less tourism is affecting my way of life. And my ability to support my family and my ability to pay my bills,” Soto said.

The longer people wait to join the climate solution the harder it will become, Soto said. By 2050, 30% of the U.S. population will be Latino, and it is unlikely to think the 30×30 plan will work if Latinos continue to be left behind, Soto said.

“I think by protecting 30×30 we’re going to save 75% of the species on our planet. If we don’t protect that, we’re risking losing more. So we’re still losing 25%, and we’re willing to take that risk because otherwise we would need to conserve even more. … It’s for human survival at the end of the day because without that biodiversity and healthy ecosystems, our whole civilization with nature is running the risk of collapsing.”

By Maricela ‘Marci’ Rosales -

When I started my advocacy journey, it began with me advocating for time outside to play and taking in cats and dogs from the streets of Los Angeles as a little girl! FACTS! I remember bringing up important issues I cared about or needed to be addressed with my parents and siblings and finding solutions that made a difference and even changed the way they saw the world through my eyes. I was/am their next generation.

I’ve been an advocate in different ways throughout my life, from volunteering time in my teens to local animal rights advocacy groups to addressing issues on Southern California’s coastal lines and beaches. In my 20s, I became aware and involved in college education opportunities and funding advocacy to Disability Rights Advocacy. Today I continue my advocacy journey with the lens in Outdoor Justice, Equity, and Inclusion and Environmental Conservation Advocacy.

There is no one direction when looking at advocacy. The issues I’ve come to care for and advocate for are not better than the other. They intersect and are interdependent on one another. But what makes things move in a better direction is when WE get involved in the political process through advocating for people, place, and planet.

This week is the Inaugural Latino Advocacy Week. I am proud and humbled by the work it took to organize the efforts of the Hispanic Access Foundationto inspire communities, coalitions, and non-profits to engage, educate, and encourage the Latino/a/x/e community to get involved and to learn about it.

Is there an issue that gets you fired up? Whether it’s protecting the environment, fighting for more resources at your neighborhood’s school, or calling attention to the inequities that affect your community, the Hispanic Access Foundation (HAF) can give you the essential skills and strategies you need to be an agent for change. Watch the #LatinoAdvocacyWeek virtual training on Advocacy 101 

As we wrap up Latino Advocacy Week remember you can start your advocacy journey when it feels right to you. It’s okay if you don’t know exactly where you are with advocacy or what it means. Holding space and speaking your truth is a form of self-advocacy and that’s a great starting point. You don’t need to be an expert you just need inspiration and ganas (desire) to act!

Maricela Rosales (she/her/ella) is from Los Angeles, California. Is a Latino Outdoors Ambassador and the CA Program Associate Director for Conservation Lands Foundation. Find out more about her on Instagram @lemarci 

By BEATRIZ SOTO and GABRIEL OTERO

This past week was Latino Advocacy week, a time to support Latino organizations, families, and individuals in becoming advocates for themselves and in their own communities.

We should be talking with our neighbors about how to better protect our communities from environmental injustice and enjoy the public lands surrounding us on the West Slope of Colorado.

Locally, our public lands are beautiful deserts, verdant valleys, flowing rivers, hot springs, lakes, and some of the tallest mountains in our country. Our public lands are also parks, trails, and open spaces near our homes. What makes these lands so special is that from having dias de campo (days outside) in Colorado National Monument, to a family celebration near Thompson Divide, to hiking on Grand Mesa, to snowboarding in the White River National Forest, these lands and the ways we interact with them are as varied as we are.

As Latinos, many of us find a sense of belonging and connection in the outdoors. Our public lands and spaces are a vital part of our thriving communities and our ancestral heritage. All of us can be stewards with a voice in how these lands are used and protected, and our voice is essential in how we enjoy them with our own cultura.

Our voices can lend themselves in an important way as these lands are in peril from development, climate change, and the lack of permanent protections. These stressors put our communities in harm’s way with increased public health impacts, more drought, drastic temperature changes and wildfires. Our over-reliance on oil and gas development is also harming us. Fossil fuel drilling on our public lands results in nearly 25% of all climate emitting pollution in the U.S., and these impacts are disproportionately hurting Black, brown, indigenous, and working-class people. Climate impacts affect our pocket books too by damaging agricultural jobs, and threatening our tourism and outdoor recreation economies.

One global initiative that communities are using to tackle many of these problems is to try to protect 30 percent of public lands and waters by 2030, a movement known as 30x30. These efforts are supported by over 80% of Coloradans, and are locally-driven with opportunities for people to engage and guide decision-making about how to protect the nature closest to where we live. If done right, the goal can be a real opportunity for all people to equitably reap the benefits of access to healthy nature by advocating for our own locally-preferred conservation priorities that safeguard land, water, and wildlife while mitigating the climate crisis.

A healthy climate is the foundation for a thriving economy. Conservation and restoration-oriented jobs supporting 30x30 will drive economically robust, resilient communities transitioning away from boom-and-bust extraction-based economies. Outdoor-driven tourism and recreation, for example, is an economic powerhouse generating $2 billion in state and local tax revenue and 149,000 jobs in Colorado each year. Similarly, restoration is a way to reconnect people with nature close to home, where healing the land can be a path to stronger community relationships, more active civic engagement, and investment in local jobs and long-term community growth. Coming together to create healthier communities is fertile ground for healing social division and building common ground with our neighbors as well.

While conservation is a value many of us share, we don’t all view the land in the same way. Respecting each other and validating our relationship to la madre tierra will be the only way we can successfully protect 30% of lands and waters. Rural and diverse communities of color, who have been historically and systemically excluded from parks and public lands decision-making and management, are advocating for their own conservation priorities and making our outdoor spaces more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. These efforts must continue so that everyone has access and connection to our public lands while feeling like they have a place in our outdoor spaces and are true stewards of these natural resources.

We have to come together, acknowledging our different identities and experiences, so that we can create a plan for the future where everyone can thrive. By instituting community-led policies, we can do more than just sustain our natural environment, but also create great jobs and safer, healthier, and more resilient communities that prosper on Colorado’s West Slope. Together we can ensure all Latinos are a part of the conversation about how we reach those 30x30 goals.

Beatriz Soto is the Directora Defiende Nuestra Tierra through Wilderness Workshop. She is a first-generation Coloradan and she and her family live in Glenwood Springs.

Gabriel Otero is a fourth-generation Coloradan and he and his family live in Fruita. He is the Colorado Plateau representative for The Wilderness Society.

As we approach the first-ever Latino Advocacy Week in mid-March, the HAF conservation team wanted to share why we think Latino advocacy is so needed and why it has great potential to change lives for the better and increase equity in our communities. 

Latinos are a growing segment of the U.S. population, and an increasingly active one. Every 30 seconds a Latino citizen turns 18, and as of 2020, 32 million Hispanics are

registered to vote. Latino voter turnout in 2020’s battleground states was three times greater than in 2016, and Hispanic turnout broke records in Georgia’s runoff election in January 2021. 

On the other hand, Latinos only make up 1% of elected officials, while comprising 18% of the U.S. population. Imagine what Latinos could do for the well-being of our communities if we had 18x the number of elected officials representing us! Running for office is an under-appreciated, but hugely impactful, way for one person to make a difference in people’s lives and on the issues you care about.

Latinos represent the largest untapped segment of the population when it comes to civic engagement and political potential. However, there are significant barriers that hinder Latinos’ participation in America’s democratic processes, including barriers of education and access. The intention of Latino Advocacy Week is to bridge that gap by providing the resources, training, and access to decision-makers that our communities need to learn how to advocate for themselves and their community.

To give an example of the potential, in the 2010s, HAF was new to the conservation space. It only took a short period of time (1-2 years, relatively quick in the policy world!) for us to begin adding a series of concrete policy accomplishments to our name, thanks to our organizing and advocacy efforts. Thanks to our work with the religious leaders of Por La Creación, HAF was able to protect new areas of land and increase park and nature access to the Latino community in several states. 

Through holding events in the outdoors, writing letters to Congress, speaking at public meetings, engaging the media, and connecting our PLC leaders directly with elected officials and the White House, several National Monuments were created: the San Gabriel Mountains, Brown’s Canyon, Sand to Snow, Castle Rock, and Mojave Trails, and Boulder White Clouds. Through these campaigns, our leaders were able to meet President Obama in the White House and be present when he signed Monuments into existence. 

During the Trump Administration, our leaders continued to engage, fighting rollbacks to pollution regulations and removal of land protections. We also campaigned to support the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which funds parks, trails, sports fields, and swimming pools in every county of the US. LWCF was finally fully and permanently funded with the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act in summer 2020. Some campaigns take a long time to build to success, but are worth the fight.

We want to emphasize that Latino Advocacy Week is not just about conservation. We hope our community will raise their voices to advocate for lo que sea - whatever is most important to you. That might be healthcare, poverty, workers’ rights, immigration, policing reform, or anything else. Our potential is enormous–let’s go make a difference. Si se puede!

Shanna

Being involved in advocacy is simultaneously maddening, rewarding, frustrating, and joyful. It feels like trying to move a boulder the size of a house with your bare hands. But when you have thousands of hands beside you - and when the boulder finally starts rolling - it feels so good to know you were a part of it. That you had a hand in helping people.

Climate change and environmental problems can feel so huge. People always ask, “What can I do?” And advocacy is the answer - that’s one way to have an outsize impact as just one person.

Brenda

Being involved in advocacy is a powerful and important catalyst for the change we want to see. Being an advocate can have far-reaching positive impacts in our communities by providing policymakers with our needs. We are the ones who know exactly what needs to change - advocating at every level will ensure the future of the next generation.

Collectively our voices, our presence, our actions hold the power to see change in our communities. Advocacy is empowerment. 

Jessica

Change, real lasting and progressive change, in a democracy comes from the collective power of the people advocating for the issues and solutions they care about on every level. Being involved in advocacy is crucial to change and it is rarely successful by the hand of any one individual - but when combined with many others’ voices, carries significant weight in the decision-making process. 

Every 30 seconds in the US, a Latino turns 18 and becomes eligible to vote. That’s a whole lot of voting power, if you ask me.  

Written by: Karina Meza

The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and Hispanic Access Foundation (HAF) have partnered to connect diverse college students with engineering internships. This program was designed to provide paid work opportunities to culturally, ethnically, and economically diverse Latino/a students at Reclamation sites in the US. Interns will receive mentoring, hands-on work experience, and gain a better understanding of Reclamation’s role in conserving water and power resources.

Project Goal & Objectives

HAF is recruiting and administering this internship program under the MANO Project. This program will cultivate an understanding and appreciation of natural and cultural resources, and help students gain valuable knowledge and professional skills to develop and maintain these resources. Reclamation interns will gain on-the-job experience and engage in projects that address some of the most critical conservation issues on Reclamation land. Interns will receive specialized training, mentoring and ongoing support effectively carry out their assignments. Interns will gain an understanding of the opportunities for careers at Reclamation and will build skills and experience required for success in these careers.

Hispanic Access is searching for highly motivated students who will work alongside Reclamation employees for the 11-week internship program. This is a paid internship; each intern will receive a weekly stipend, based on a 40-hour workweek, and a commuting stipend. Free housing will be provided.

2019 Hosting Sites

• Bureau of Reclamation Headquarters – Lakewood, CO Office - 3 positions available

   Each intern will work on one of the following different types of projects.  The projects include:

  1. Engineering design of Reclamation structures,
  2. Research to improve infrastructure durability or to improve efficiency of hydropower operations and thus maximize output power while reducing the water being used,
  3. Research on water quality, water resources planning, economics, environmental or ecosystems issues;
  4. Testing and diagnostic of electrical and mechanical equipment in hydropower or pumping facilities to ensure equipment is replaced before failure with environmentally friendly alternatives.

Application Deadline & Timeframe

Applications are due on March 8, 2019. Candidates will be asked to submit a resume with their application. Final decisions will be made by early April 2019. Start and end dates vary among positions, all 11-week internships will commence in early June. 

Benefits

• Travel expenses paid – roundtrip travel to and from internship location
• Free housing – group housing with other HAF interns
• Weekly stipend of $480 based on a 40-hour work-week
• Weekly commuting stipend

Basic Eligibility

• Enrolled in a university or college undergraduate or recent college graduate. Preference given to college juniors and seniors. Graduate students will be considered.
• Majoring in or completed degree in civil or mechanical engineering
• Ages 18 to 35
• Possess US citizenship or US permanent residency, must undergo a government background check if selected
• Valid Driver’s License required
• Ability to work with a team and independently
• Mature, responsible and adaptable
• Willingness to learn
• A personal vehicle is recommended for the Lakewood site, public transportation is available in the area but can be lengthy

Selection criteria

Specific assignments will be based on best fit with the unique requirements of each site. Final candidates will undergo a background check before beginning their assignment. Applications will be reviewed and rated according to the following criteria:

• Relevant educational and work experience
• Accomplishments and leadership roles
• Oral and written communication skills, through application responses and phone interviews
• Professionalism and technical knowledge

2025 Signature Events

Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks!