- [Yesi] My parents never even thought
about climbing a mountain.
That didn't ever cross their head.
They came to the United States
searching for the American dream.
- We could always see the mountains, these big volcanoes.
Never really thought I would be summiting St. Helens
with my brothers.
There it is.
I'm not sure what to expect.
I'm a little bit nervous
and there's a bunch of snow right now
so, it's gonna be something very different,
something new.
Oh, yeah. It feels like it's right there within reach.
Growing up, this has basically been my back yard.
All these orchards and beyond the orchards is a forest
and that's where me and my siblings would spend
most of our time.
The forest was magical.
We would go in there
and thought that the spirit animals were taking to us
or we were talking to them.
So, when my parents moved to Oregon,
what they were thinking about
was getting education for their kids,
having food on the table every night.
Until you have those basic needs,
you can't really think about doing all the fun things.
That's a privilege that we got as kids.
I loved collecting magazines.
I remember all the clips that I would collect
of these people with their backpacks and their gear.
And they were all white people.
I always saw people that didn't look like me.
I literally felt like it was not for me
like I wouldn't have the right shoes.
I wouldn't have the right clothes and I didn't wanna go
because it was embarrassing
and I didn't even know how to go.
And many Latinos still feel that same way,
that they can't access those places.
If you were Latino and you were walking around the valley,
there was a lot of stigma attached to that.
You either didn't have a car,
somebody left you somewhere
or you were running away.
I had heard that Oregon had all these hikes
but I didn't really know how to access them.
Just Google it, waterfalls, and then find the trail.
As soon as I had all the information that I needed
to access all these hikes,
I started going on a lot of hikes.
Oh, this belongs to me.
It belongs to everybody.
I kinda took ownership of that and ran with it
and started telling everyone.
And sharing that information was just overwhelming.
Everybody was texting me.
Yesi, how do I get to that one hike
you just went on last week?
Yesi, you have to take us on hikes.
How did you get there?
What was the exit that you took?
What do I need?
And every since, it's been non stop.
It's been so beautiful to see
that more and more Latinos are outdoors.
I think I'm in a very unique position
to where I'm bi cultural.
Their plan was that we would stick to our Mexican roots,
that we wouldn't forget what it was like
to have tortillas every day and just frijoles.
And to love the music and we learned to grow up like that
and to appreciate those kinds of things.
And I feel so fortunate to be able
to jump from one world to another.
- Maybe one day we'll all go on this really awesome
family vacation but I guess
everything I do
is because of you guys.
All your sacrifices and I always think about both of you
every time I do something because I do it for you.
We're getting closer.
I can't wait.
I just can't wait.
- [Yesi] I am here and I'm here to stay.
And I'm here to enjoy it for the rest of my life.
Me llamo Yesenia
and you'll definitely be seeing more of me out here.