Conexión: Rooted in New England's Outdoors
A backyard garden in Connecticut. Cold water dipping in Vermont. A nature program for schoolchildren in Massachusetts. Across the region, Latinos find connection, beauty and meaning in New England’s iconic landscapes.
In this video series from the New England News Collaborative, we bring you first-person stories on how spending time outdoors inspires deeper connections with others, heritage, and nature itself.
The videos below were produced, shot and edited by Raquel C. Zaldívar for the New England News Collaborative, with additional help from the NENC team and members of the collaborative.
This series was produced in both English and Spanish. You can find a Spanish version of this page here.
Tanya Talamante and Elvira Tripp went out for their first cold water dip in 2021 with the Red Hot Chilly Dippers.The two women fell in love with it, and it’s now part of their lives in the winter. They’ve met new people and formed friendships along the way. The cold water dips are also a way for both women to pause, recharge mentally, and connect not just with themselves, but with Vermont’s landscape.
Emely Ricci started gardening during the pandemic near her home in Shelton, Connecticut with the mindset that she would grow food her family would regularly eat.After a year of sticking with her hobby, Ricci decided to try planting huacatay, an aromatic herb grown in the Peruvian Andes that’s used in cooking, as a way to connect with her Peruvian heritage.
New Hampshire resident Ruth Castillo spends much of her time outdoors in New England: hiking, climbing, surfing and finding ways to make it easier for other Latinos and people of color to get involved and enjoy nature.
Heather Flor Cron, a land steward in southern Maine, finds healing and culture through her work on a farm that produces food that the Latinx community wants and needs.