a million miles to go: a blog about my travels

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A few weeks ago we had a march for International Women’s Day in my hometown. I love traveling and want to focus this blog on that but I also want to share from time to time the adventures I’m living at home.

This was a huge step for us in that we never had an action with hundreds of people focused on solidarity with women. I felt so energized and alive. It was one of those times where you know that you are supposed to be where you are. It’s those days that I live for and hope to have many more to come wherever I am. 

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Before heading back home from San Jose, the bff and I made a trip out to San Francisco! You can see the bridge off in the distance. We started off the trip by listening to Beyonce the whole drive there. We ate dim sum in Chinatown - worth the one hour wait! Then we headed over to Twin Peaks and gazed at the beauty that is this mess of a city. We ended the day by heading to the Mission and stopping by to get an horchata latte at my favorite gentrified coffee shop Tierra Mia. Delicious. 

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A few weeks ago I visited San Jose for the first time for the state democratic convention. My bff happens to live there and we went all in on the Indian food. We weren’t shy about ordering more than we could chew - although we found out that we could chew quite a lot. Like everything. 

Yes, we were judged. 

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Two weeks ago I had the fortune of celebrating my parents 50th Anniversary in Rosarito, BC, Mexico! My parents’ relationship is far from a fairy tale story, but that day the years of uncertainty, hardship, distance, and sacrifice made sense. Being married for that long is far from easy, a fact that my siblings and I have witnessed. But my parents’ end goal was never themselves - it was their family. Whether for better or worse, they made it and along the way they created something beautiful. Here’s to a new journey for them!

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I haven’t thought much about this blog for the past couple of years. I recently got bit by the travel bug though, which is a sign that I am gaining strength and regaining my sense of self. I became so attached to staying in San Diego, which is my hometown and where I’ve lived for the past two years, partly because I had become afraid of the world. 

I recently had an enlightening moment that almost became the start of my quarter-life crisis. I learned how to let go. I learned how to let go of the friends I no longer see every day, I learned how to leave behind the spaces that I loved so much and gave myself to so that I could make space for new people and new homes. Don’t get me wrong; I love the friends I made in college and am so grateful for the support and love I got from them. But I realized that I was living in a dream and sleeping through the present. I locked myself up in my room one weekend, following a few heartbreaking incidents, and I grew up way more than I wanted to. I saw the life I had fallen into and realized my life was a sea of things happening that I just flowed into and I didn’t bother directing myself one way or another. I saw who I was and who I wanted to be and I became honest with myself for the first time in years. And with that I let go of my fear. 

It’s so ironic to me that now when I’m ready to love my surroundings is when my “fuck that I’m broke, I’m ready to see the world” attitude returns. So get ready you beautiful world, because I am no longer making excuses to stay away from you! 

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a million miles to go: a blog about my travels turned 1 today!  I can't believe it's been a year! I actually need to get on this more. I thought the travels had ended but hey, a whole new summer is about to start. 

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Really was not that impressed with Miami. It reminded me a lot of my hometown (except I felt that my hometown is better) so that might have been the problem.

Either way it was all highway, was way too touristy and expensive, and had little to no urban character. It was kind of like the stereotype of how a supermodel is supposed to be. All shiny and appealing but with no real depth or history. I'm mostly talking about downtown and the townhouse complexes so it's very possible I missed all of the good parts of town :(.

Either way Miami has a really high Latina/o population. Where were the cultural markers of Latinidad around the city? I sincerely hoped that calle ocho would not encompass Latina/o claims on a city that has been heavily influenced by Latina/os. But like I said, I probably missed all the good parts of town.

On another note, the beaches were gorgeous. I was shocked by how clean and crystal clear the water was despite the fact that the beaches are in an urban area. As much as I was disappointed by the city itself, the beaches definitely make up for a lot of whatever went wrong.

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Jackson Heights in Queens. Seriously one of the most diverse Latina/o neighborhoods I've ever had the fortune to see.

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Donde están los Latin@s?

So I haven't posted in this in forever even though I told myself I would. But really that last post took me weeks to write since I was typing on a very small tablet.

I haven't really thought much about this blog because I've been trying to focus more on my other blog (which really just means reading a ton of shit other people are posting). But I searched #chicana art and I found the post of La Ofrenda that I posted up way too fast which made me realize that Chicanas and Latinas in general need a bigger presence on tumblr. While I am proud and happy with the blogs out there that make a conscious effort to express various facets of Latinidad, there just aren't enough. So I will try harder to update this blog as well as be more vocal about the type of stuff I want to find online. I am sick of looking for material online about movies, art, people, etc. relating to Latinidad and never finding it. So I am going to write what I can.

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I haven't written as much as I thought I would have by now. I can't even remember the last time I wrote for myself. But now that I am out of the Midwest and almost done with my trip, I want to make more time to reflect about what I have gained these past weeks. I never finalized my travel plans until a few days ago when I bought my ticket home. My original plan was to visit: St. Louis, Missouri Madison, Wisconsin Chicago, Illinois New York City Washington DC Miami, Florida Austin, Texas Fort Worth, Texas Albuquerque, New Mexico Tucson, Arizona Home Due to my poor budgeting I had to cut off the Southwest (unless Texas counts) and am flying straight home after Fort Worth. It's a shame considering that I was most looking forward to visiting that area. In Madison, there was a man spray painting landscapes onto blank pieces of paper. I asked him to draw me a picture of a Southwestish desert. I guess that's all I'll have to hang onto until I finally get out there. The cities from the first part of my trip were familiar because I had either been to them or had a lot of college friends and fellow students who claimed them as home. Even though my college was located in a small town in Ohio; Chicago, New York, and DC always seemed to be there whether it was in the people that I met or the books that I was reading. In a sense, stopping by those cities on my way home was a part of my final goodbye to college and this side of the country. I had fun on the northern part of my trip, meeting up with old friends and seeing them function outside of college for however briefly we were together. Now that I am in Miami, I have finally snapped out of my 'everything will be okay' phase and reality is slapping me in the face. Maybe it's the similarity of Miami to my hometown or because the friend I am staying with is going through her graduation slump now (even though she spent her post-grad year partying in France) but for the first time since I graduated I am worried about the future. I am worried about going home and having nothing to show for my past four years of school. I don't really know what to do once this month ends. I'm broke, in-debt, jobless, infantilized, and I am going back to a place where optimism and support might as well not exist. I also have a week of traveling and $60 in my bank account. Hello real world.