While many neighborhoods across Los Angeles become gentrified, Evelynn Escobar has set out to reclaim the outdoors and green spaces for Black, Brown, and Indigenous folks across Southern California.
As a multidimensional culture shifter, storyteller, and creator, Evelynn has gathered over 1,200 Black and Indigenous women of color into nature through her intersectional women’s outdoor collective and non-profit, Hike Clerb.
As Founder and Executive Director of Hike Clerb, she has created a framework for community care that has inspired a new generation to start their own communities beyond the outdoors while mobilizing and growing a multi-generational, multi-racial movement out into green spaces and healing together in real-time. In a city that lives off the hustle and bustle of everyday and has people waste approximately 95 hours a year just stuck in traffic, Evelynn has guided Black, Brown, and Indigenous women to disconnect from hustle culture, tap back into the healing properties that nature has to offer, and come back to themselves.
Evelynn has emerged as one of the most influential and sought-after multi-hyphenate creative community leaders in the social space. A powerhouse in every sense of the word, her work centers on the betterment of Black and Brown people through wellness, representation, equity, and investment in their respective communities, truly making her a Latina of Impact.
Zodiac Signs:
Virgo
How do you define being a Latina of Impact?:
A Latina of impact is a Latina who is living in her purpose. A Latina who is the embodiment of who she is supposed to be in this world. That self transcends and is felt by others. Someone who is connected to their ancestors, connected to themselves, and connected to the grand ecosystem that we are all a part of.
How does your WHY play a role in your mission, vision, and work you do in this world?
My why has always been simple; as a Black and Indigenous Latina, I was shocked by the lack of representation and participation of Black and Brown people in the outdoors when I began venturing out and immersing myself in an outdoor lifestyle. My mission and vision all serve to fill this void: to create a safe space and invite others to show up in their fullness to any space they are a part of, and I’ve been able to do that and more.
What is your vision for Latinas in your respective space, and how do you see supporting emerging Latinas who also want to make an impact like yourself?
My vision for Latinas in my respective space is to see more of us out there, taking up space, and showing up in our fullness. It’s important to me to show emerging Latinas that anything is possible and that you can write the playbook as you go by embodying that. It’s also important for me to bestow knowledge and share encouragement with others to help empower their own journeys. None of us got here alone.
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About the Author
Priscilla Castro
Priscilla Castro is #WeAllGrow’s Director of Digital Content & Partnerships. You can connect with her on LinkedIn and follow her at @kodeofkondukt. Read more of Priscilla’s pieces here.
