Latest / Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela] / Capítulo 116: Backyard Travels with Brown Girl Travels

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Capítulo 116: Backyard Travels with Brown Girl Travels · Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela]

0:02
Speaker 1: Radio radio Radio Commies, a myth and bullshit a radiophonic novella.
0:17
Speaker 1: Look Radio hosted by Malama Loka, What is Welcome to
0:24
Speaker 1: Season five of local radio Listen at your own Risk.
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Speaker 1: Look At Radio is a radio phonic novella, which is
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Speaker 1: just a very extra way of saying a podcast. I'm
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Speaker 1: diosa and I'm mala. Thank you for tuning into one sixteen.
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Speaker 1: and become a member at the eight dollar tier. We
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Speaker 1: are reading all Latin X text novels written by BIPUC authors.
4:11
Speaker 1: We are I'm so excited to continue to grow out
4:15
Speaker 1: our list of books that we're reading. We're like booked
4:18
Speaker 1: for the for the rest of the year, which is exciting.
4:21
Speaker 1: So many books, so little time. Honestly, it's getting really
4:25
Speaker 1: hard to pick a book because there's so many amazing
4:28
Speaker 1: ones coming out. Um but yeah, So to join us
4:32
Speaker 1: at look us Liberals via Patreon, you also get a
4:35
Speaker 1: cute little newsletter each month and I'll tell you what
4:38
Speaker 1: I'm reading and some reviews and all of that. It's
4:42
Speaker 1: all cute, it's all vibes. So join on the Patreon.
4:45
Speaker 1: It's all vibes. And did you guys know that Bree
4:48
Speaker 1: Larson officially declared this book girl fall, So like it's
4:52
Speaker 1: the age of the book club. You now like sexy
4:57
Speaker 1: and que it's not just your like house wife like
5:01
Speaker 1: pastime anymore. Okay, the book clubs are sexy, the book
5:04
Speaker 1: clubs are fun. There viby. And I'm also thinking about
5:08
Speaker 1: like matching a book with a cocktail each month, so
5:11
Speaker 1: you know, if that's your thing, like it is for me,
5:14
Speaker 1: you know what to do. You know where I'll be
5:17
Speaker 1: making the craft cocktails shut So are we matching the
5:22
Speaker 1: cocktail to like the book cover or like, how is
5:26
Speaker 1: the how is the matching being curated. Okay, so there's
5:30
Speaker 1: two things. So some authors that have like the support
5:34
Speaker 1: of the huge publications or the huge publishers that they
5:38
Speaker 1: published their book for, have like book club kits. So
5:41
Speaker 1: we're currently reading Tender was the Night By, and she
5:45
Speaker 1: has a book club kit which comes with a playlist
5:47
Speaker 1: and also a recipe to make a cocktail. Um. That's
5:52
Speaker 1: like viby, It's like something you would read, uh when
5:56
Speaker 1: you're reading the Snore novel and also like of that era,
6:00
Speaker 1: and so it's super cute. And so when I saw that,
6:03
Speaker 1: I was like, this is what we're doing moving forward.
6:05
Speaker 1: Each book is to be paired with a cocktail. And
6:08
Speaker 1: so either I will find one that's already been um,
6:12
Speaker 1: you know, pre selected for this book, or we will
6:14
Speaker 1: create one moving forward, and so I will become a mixologist,
6:19
Speaker 1: is what I'm telling you. I'm obsessed with this. Just
6:22
Speaker 1: another facet, Just another facet, another multitude used to read
6:30
Speaker 1: and drink to be honest, yes, yeah, hell yeah, especially
6:35
Speaker 1: with Look, um, covid is worse now than it was
6:40
Speaker 1: when we first started. Um, I see us going back
6:43
Speaker 1: into some form of lockdown maybe, So what better than
6:49
Speaker 1: to invest in cocktails and books. Honestly, I'm ready. Okay,
6:54
Speaker 1: not to get controversial or anything, but I'm ready for
6:56
Speaker 1: the booster. I'm just like, inject me, please, October as
7:02
Speaker 1: I'm ready. Mainline it, mainline it. Give the antibodies now yes. Um. Anyway,
7:12
Speaker 1: so for today, we have a really cute, a really
7:16
Speaker 1: fun interview with this community member that's been in the
7:20
Speaker 1: space for a long time or since we've been in it.
7:23
Speaker 1: We've seen her, We've seen her grow and that's exciting. Um.
7:26
Speaker 1: And so we're gonna be talking to Ashley Marine Garcia
7:29
Speaker 1: of Brown Girl Travels. Before we bring her on, I
7:33
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you, Mala, about any solo traveling you've
7:37
Speaker 1: done that you want to share with us. It sounds
7:40
Speaker 1: like an accusation. Well it's not. But actually, now that
7:45
Speaker 1: I think about what you're probably thinking about, maybe you're like, so,
7:51
Speaker 1: is there any solo travel you want to tell us about,
7:54
Speaker 1: any sneaking into a country that you did. That's not
7:57
Speaker 1: what I was referring to, but actually, now anybody you
8:00
Speaker 1: have to tell us. So I've talked about this. I
8:03
Speaker 1: don't think on the podcast. You've talked about this on
8:06
Speaker 1: the podcast many episodes ago or okay, many episodes ago,
8:11
Speaker 1: I know, like at many at live events I've shared.
8:14
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, So like for newer listeners, there was a time, um,
8:21
Speaker 1: when I was in college, my sophomore year of college,
8:24
Speaker 1: I had the opportunity to study abroad in two places.
8:27
Speaker 1: So the summer between freshman year and sophomore year, I
8:30
Speaker 1: went to Cuba and I was there for a summer,
8:35
Speaker 1: and then at the end of that summer, I went
8:37
Speaker 1: to London for a year. And that was my my
8:39
Speaker 1: sophomore experience. But don't you know that while I was
8:42
Speaker 1: in Cuba, I fell in love. Honey, this was way
8:46
Speaker 1: before ninety day Fiance. I want to just say that
8:49
Speaker 1: this was like what year, two thousand eleven, two thousand twelve, um. Actually,
8:55
Speaker 1: I don't know when the ninety Day Fiance franchise began.
8:58
Speaker 1: Let me not be a historical. It was a long
9:00
Speaker 1: time ago though. So I go to Cuba. Obviously I
9:03
Speaker 1: fall in love with a Cuban man who lives in Havana,
9:07
Speaker 1: and it was like the moment I met him, and
9:11
Speaker 1: the moment we like, like the moment I saw him,
9:14
Speaker 1: and like the first night we hung out. It was
9:16
Speaker 1: like on from there. It was like that was it.
9:19
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes you just meet someone and it's that
9:21
Speaker 1: automatic fucking it clicks and it's just the energy and
9:24
Speaker 1: it all makes sense. So for two years I was
9:29
Speaker 1: doing everything in my power to visit this fool in Cuba.
9:36
Speaker 1: So there were a couple of times where like I
9:39
Speaker 1: flew to Mexico, Like I flew to Gunko in one time,
9:42
Speaker 1: and then I went to Havannah, and then I flew
9:44
Speaker 1: to Mexico City one time, and then I went to Havannah.
9:46
Speaker 1: I had a Mexican travel agent, my friends, because the
9:49
Speaker 1: travel restrictions there was even more restrictions back then, like
9:52
Speaker 1: you would only go for religious purposes or if you
9:55
Speaker 1: had like a university with the like charter to cover
10:01
Speaker 1: you to take you for educational purposes. So I had
10:05
Speaker 1: to go through other countries. There were like really not
10:07
Speaker 1: direct flights from the US to Cuba. So I had
10:10
Speaker 1: a Mexican travel agent and I would hit him up
10:13
Speaker 1: and he would buy me my tickets and then I
10:15
Speaker 1: would fly down to Mexico and then I would meet
10:17
Speaker 1: him in the terminal and I would like Western Union
10:19
Speaker 1: him money ahead of time, and then he would have
10:21
Speaker 1: my tickets ready and then I would board my flight
10:23
Speaker 1: to Havannah, and you know, I had done all my
10:25
Speaker 1: research because there's like plenty of people who have traveled
10:28
Speaker 1: to Cuba by going to third through third countries, and
10:31
Speaker 1: so there's like a lot of writing and literature on
10:33
Speaker 1: like how to not get your passport double stamped, like
10:37
Speaker 1: what to say, like which airports, like the travel you know,
10:40
Speaker 1: all these different tips and tricks. So I did it
10:42
Speaker 1: just by like doing research online. And then when I
10:45
Speaker 1: was studying abroad in London, um, I could fly directly.
10:48
Speaker 1: So I flew directly and I spent a month in Cuba,
10:51
Speaker 1: like during my winter break. Um. Obviously it ended very
10:56
Speaker 1: badly and it was a horrible idea to begin with,
11:00
Speaker 1: but I was very in love. That was like my
11:02
Speaker 1: first love, I would say. And it was very tumultuous.
11:05
Speaker 1: It was very wild. My parents were horrified because they
11:09
Speaker 1: were like, um, she's just like going to Cuba all
11:13
Speaker 1: the time by herself and she's not supposed to. But
11:20
Speaker 1: it was fine. I was fine, and now I've had
11:23
Speaker 1: the experience. UM, I met some really interesting people. I
11:27
Speaker 1: met Cuban people in London and like in Europe, because
11:32
Speaker 1: Cubans like leave Cuba and go everywhere. I've met Cubans
11:35
Speaker 1: here in the States who knew him, and like a
11:38
Speaker 1: lot of Cuban artists because he was an artist. So
11:41
Speaker 1: I don't know. It just like was a period of
11:43
Speaker 1: my life that I look back now and I'm like, bitch,
11:46
Speaker 1: what the fuck were you doing? But it's fine. That's
11:50
Speaker 1: what there is. Because when I asked you this question,
11:52
Speaker 1: I really was not trying to bring all this up.
11:56
Speaker 1: But I will say I did not know that it
11:58
Speaker 1: was for two years that you were doing this international
12:01
Speaker 1: clandestine travel. It was crazy because yeah, uh, it was
12:06
Speaker 1: like through my junior year and then up into my
12:08
Speaker 1: senior year. And it was my senior that was all
12:12
Speaker 1: of College of College senior spring spring break, I was
12:16
Speaker 1: in Cuba. I was in Havana for my senior spring.
12:19
Speaker 1: I took two weeks. I told my professors, look, guys,
12:21
Speaker 1: I'm missing a week of school, but it's because I'm
12:23
Speaker 1: going to Cuba, so it's fine. And they were like, okay, yeah, cool, cool,
12:27
Speaker 1: cool cool, because you know, like in the academy, it's
12:30
Speaker 1: one of those things where oh yes, yes, yes, go
12:32
Speaker 1: see the comrades. You know, revolutionary girl, revolutionary loving communism bitch. Um,
12:40
Speaker 1: But that was the last time I went down there,
12:42
Speaker 1: the last time I saw him, because it ended horribly.
12:44
Speaker 1: But again, for the memoirs, that's that's a different side
12:48
Speaker 1: of the story that I will share another time. For
12:51
Speaker 1: the memoirs, well, girl, I feel like I need to
12:54
Speaker 1: drink after that. It took me through that. I'm so sorry.
12:57
Speaker 1: I didn't mean to bring all that up. I really meant,
13:00
Speaker 1: maybe she's gonna tell us about when she went to Mexico,
13:02
Speaker 1: like like when she went for her birthday last year
13:05
Speaker 1: two years ago. I went with I went with the
13:08
Speaker 1: trappy goth. I went with the trappy goths. Yeah, I
13:11
Speaker 1: was like, maybe she's gonna tell us a cute story. Um,
13:14
Speaker 1: but I'm sorry that I brought up on this trauma
13:16
Speaker 1: from undergrad apology. Okay, it's totally fine. You know this
13:21
Speaker 1: is the travel episode, honey, Um, the travel episode you
13:25
Speaker 1: did solo travel. You did a big trip right before
13:28
Speaker 1: the pandemic. I did. Um. I almost got stuck in
13:32
Speaker 1: Pidu right because I was so determined to go on
13:35
Speaker 1: this trip pre pre pandemic. COVID was out there, but
13:38
Speaker 1: no pandemic yet, there were no cases in South America.
13:41
Speaker 1: I was like, we're good, like you know, and so
13:45
Speaker 1: I go to Padu. I had this beautiful solo trip.
13:48
Speaker 1: I did spend most of it with my family, but
13:51
Speaker 1: I did venture off and I went to Adequipa. UM.
13:55
Speaker 1: Not to get too heavy, but when I was studying
13:58
Speaker 1: abroad during my undergrad in UM, I had this trip
14:03
Speaker 1: plan to Apa for for like a long weekend, and
14:07
Speaker 1: I had to cancel it because I had this um
14:12
Speaker 1: incident with a man that also lived in an Aquipa
14:15
Speaker 1: and the trip was the part of that trip was
14:17
Speaker 1: to go stay with him with some other friends and
14:20
Speaker 1: and hang out and do the whole thing. So I
14:22
Speaker 1: decided it was best for me to stay back and
14:24
Speaker 1: stay in Lima and not go to Anequipa. So I
14:27
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, when I left Bedou at the
14:29
Speaker 1: end of my six months, I that definitely weighed on me,
14:32
Speaker 1: and it was something that I was like, I need
14:34
Speaker 1: to come back and do this by myself, and I
14:36
Speaker 1: need to it's going to be like a thing. And
14:38
Speaker 1: so I waited a long time to do it, and
14:41
Speaker 1: it was what like five years that went by, and
14:44
Speaker 1: so when I went to Lima to Gau to visit
14:47
Speaker 1: my family. I like was very intentional that I was
14:50
Speaker 1: gonna venture off and do this by myself, and it
14:53
Speaker 1: was going to be a very healing experience for me
14:55
Speaker 1: because I associated this particular the batamento or stay with
14:59
Speaker 1: a lot of pain and trauma. And so I went
15:04
Speaker 1: out of Keepa and I stayed at this really beautiful
15:07
Speaker 1: boutique hotel, and I like totally treated myself the entire
15:12
Speaker 1: like three or four days that I was there, and
15:14
Speaker 1: I went on all the like tours by myself, and
15:18
Speaker 1: I was definitely that lone traveler that was the only woman. Um,
15:22
Speaker 1: everyone was there like with their families like on these tours,
15:25
Speaker 1: or there were men by themselves, but I was definitely
15:28
Speaker 1: one of the only, if not the only, at least
15:30
Speaker 1: in my group my tour group that was a woman,
15:33
Speaker 1: but traveling solo. And so I think, like, definitely take
15:38
Speaker 1: precaution when you're traveling, of course, um, but also like
15:42
Speaker 1: if you have the opportunity as a woman to travel
15:45
Speaker 1: by yourself, it's super empowering. Like I went with some
15:49
Speaker 1: trepidation and anxiety, you know, just because I felt like, fuck,
15:52
Speaker 1: like what if I run into this man, Like does
15:55
Speaker 1: he even still live here? You know, and so I
15:57
Speaker 1: definitely felt that anxiety when I was, you know, boarding
16:00
Speaker 1: the plane and landing and taking taxis by myself and
16:04
Speaker 1: doing the whole thing. But at the end of it,
16:06
Speaker 1: I felt super empowered and like I did this, I
16:10
Speaker 1: like conquered this fear, this, this was this was good
16:13
Speaker 1: for me. And then I went back and finished the
16:15
Speaker 1: trip with my family and it was super amazing. And
16:18
Speaker 1: then a pandemic hap in and then you know, two
16:21
Speaker 1: days after I left it. Who the border fucking closed, y'all?
16:25
Speaker 1: But who closed the borders? And people were like driving
16:29
Speaker 1: to the airport's trying to board planes and everything was
16:32
Speaker 1: shut down. And so I left the trip. I left
16:36
Speaker 1: the country unscathed in a sense, but it was definitely
16:40
Speaker 1: um in experience. Yes, I remember that period of time
16:45
Speaker 1: where you were still there and things were getting wild
16:50
Speaker 1: and a little getting wild, Yeah, a little stressful and
16:53
Speaker 1: it was like back okay, and you did, but it
16:57
Speaker 1: was it was stressful because it was sul It was stressful.
17:02
Speaker 1: It was on the wire. And what I saw I
17:06
Speaker 1: saw people starting to like hoard, you know, like there
17:09
Speaker 1: was so much misinformation being spread while I was there,
17:14
Speaker 1: like through the what's app of course, like through the
17:17
Speaker 1: What's app there were so many things that were being
17:18
Speaker 1: shared that were not true, um at least, like there
17:22
Speaker 1: was just no way that the way the information was
17:25
Speaker 1: being spread that these were factual or anything coming from
17:28
Speaker 1: their own department of Public health. And so to see
17:30
Speaker 1: like all the hoarding happening, and then to come home
17:33
Speaker 1: and to hear all these stories that there were like
17:35
Speaker 1: there's no toilet paper, there's no this, there's no that
17:38
Speaker 1: people are fighting at the grocery stores. It was wild
17:42
Speaker 1: all around, very scary stuff. We've had some experiences, I'd say, yes, girl,
17:51
Speaker 1: we've lived. We've lived through some things. We've also you know,
17:56
Speaker 1: our own travels when you and I travel, when we
17:59
Speaker 1: would try the for the podcast, you know, lots of
18:03
Speaker 1: we've shared our Chicago trip many times at this point
18:06
Speaker 1: where we were flat broken in Chicago and everyone helped
18:09
Speaker 1: us without knowing. Um. We've had lots of different things happened,
18:14
Speaker 1: you know, and so but we've made it through all
18:17
Speaker 1: of it with lots of kindness from strangers, from listeners,
18:20
Speaker 1: from people that invite us out and um, and it's exciting.
18:24
Speaker 1: Hopefully we'll be able to travel one day again. It's
18:27
Speaker 1: exciting soon. Thank god people like us. Thank god we're likable. No,
18:33
Speaker 1: it's true, thank god we're likable, and like we're so
18:35
Speaker 1: grateful because it's true, Like look to be able to
18:39
Speaker 1: get through a trip in a different city like that
18:41
Speaker 1: with zero dollars in our bank account and we made
18:44
Speaker 1: it and we were okay because every step of the way,
18:47
Speaker 1: the people with us like wanted to take care of
18:51
Speaker 1: us without us even asking, without them even knowing that
18:54
Speaker 1: we needed so nobody that is that's what makes it
18:58
Speaker 1: also in pressionable, Like what, um are angels angels honestly
19:06
Speaker 1: our little angels out there, so you know who you are.
19:09
Speaker 1: We love you all. Yes, thank you. That being said, Um,
19:14
Speaker 1: we are super excited to introduce our guest mo. Let's
19:18
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about Ashley Maria Garcia. Yes,
19:22
Speaker 1: so you probably follow her on Instagram. If you don't,
19:26
Speaker 1: you should. Brown Girl Travels. This is a really cool project.
19:31
Speaker 1: It is a travel zine, a travel blog, a travel
19:35
Speaker 1: magazine in print and digital. Um. Ashley Marie Garcia hosts events,
19:41
Speaker 1: she curates really beautiful spreads about women of color and traveling,
19:48
Speaker 1: and she accepts submissions from all kinds of people who
19:52
Speaker 1: want to share their experiences with travel, whether that be
19:56
Speaker 1: abroad or as Ashley calls it, in your backyard backyard travel.
20:00
Speaker 1: So this is a really fun interview. We hope you
20:02
Speaker 1: enjoy it. Thank you for tuning in, or Cara, and
20:09
Speaker 1: and and and and and and and and and and
20:17
Speaker 1: and and and and and and and and and and
20:30
Speaker 1: and m um um um um um um um um
20:42
Speaker 1: um um um um of it and well ship all right, look,
20:53
Speaker 1: I'm motives. Today we have a super exciting interview. We
20:56
Speaker 1: are joined by Ashley Garcia of Brown Girls Travels. Ashley,
21:01
Speaker 1: welcome to look at our radio. Say hello, hey, Brown Girls,
21:06
Speaker 1: what's up? Thank you for having me Ashley. We absolutely
21:11
Speaker 1: love Brown Girl Travels. You do events, you have an
21:16
Speaker 1: online magazine and in print magazine, you do all kinds
21:19
Speaker 1: of really cool content on social media, and we wanted
21:22
Speaker 1: to bring you in because we've seen you tabling at events,
21:26
Speaker 1: we see your cool content online. We love the idea
21:29
Speaker 1: of Brown Girls doing travel content. So welcome to the show.
21:33
Speaker 1: And we just want to ask, like, how did Brown
21:35
Speaker 1: gol Travels come to be? What was the origin? Okay, well,
21:40
Speaker 1: originally Browngo Travels, which is gonna be like a small,
21:43
Speaker 1: little passion project, something that I wanted to give to
21:46
Speaker 1: my my then five year old niece Mia. I wanted
21:49
Speaker 1: her to grow up and know that she could travel too,
21:53
Speaker 1: because growing up I never felt like I could, and
21:55
Speaker 1: I had since at that point, I had been to
21:58
Speaker 1: New York, Chicago in Portland's by myself, and I was like,
22:02
Speaker 1: I'm gonna write down these stories for her, and I'm
22:04
Speaker 1: gonna include tidbits on like little history facts of women
22:07
Speaker 1: of color who have also traveled in the past. So
22:10
Speaker 1: I went online and I'm looking for these little tidbits
22:12
Speaker 1: to include in this little vene that I was in
22:14
Speaker 1: a handmake, and I found out that there wasn't a
22:17
Speaker 1: lot of documented things on this like covering this, and
22:20
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, I know these stories are there because
22:23
Speaker 1: my grandma came from Mexico to here, so like, these
22:25
Speaker 1: women are traveling, like someone needs to be writing these stories.
22:28
Speaker 1: So I kept and I kept searching, and I couldn't
22:31
Speaker 1: really find anything where they were all put in one place,
22:33
Speaker 1: you know, somewhere where we can go to and and
22:35
Speaker 1: see ourselves reflected in this way. Um, So I decided
22:40
Speaker 1: to make this ZNE bigger than just myself and I
22:43
Speaker 1: invited a bunch of people to be a part of it,
22:47
Speaker 1: and thankfully Yessica saw she re reposted like my call
22:51
Speaker 1: for submission, and I think that was like the tipping
22:55
Speaker 1: point for Brown Girl Travels. Like she she gave me
22:57
Speaker 1: that street cred. You know, a bunch of people are
23:00
Speaker 1: did coming to my Instagram and saying, hey, hey, hey,
23:02
Speaker 1: I saw your post on her thing. I would love
23:04
Speaker 1: to share my story with you. And I was like, wow, okay,
23:06
Speaker 1: I can't believe you'all are trusting me with your stories.
23:08
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. So I got twenty four women
23:11
Speaker 1: to be a part of that first issue. I printed
23:13
Speaker 1: three hundred copies. I was just gonna make two copies,
23:15
Speaker 1: you know, originally one to me one for her, but
23:17
Speaker 1: I was like, this is huge. Printed three hundred copies.
23:20
Speaker 1: I sold out of every single one. Um. I attended
23:23
Speaker 1: like Elle zene Fest. That's where like I really wanted
23:25
Speaker 1: to launch it for the first time. And it was
23:28
Speaker 1: a huge success. And ever since then, Brown Gonna Travels
23:31
Speaker 1: to just kind of take it on its own entity,
23:32
Speaker 1: you know, it's its own being. That's amazing. UM, can
23:37
Speaker 1: you tell me what what consistent like what type of
23:42
Speaker 1: stories consisted in the original or the very first print
23:46
Speaker 1: of the zine. Was it like tricks travel hacks? Was
23:50
Speaker 1: it just storytelling? What kind of stories were shared in
23:54
Speaker 1: the zne It was definitely chocked full of a few things,
23:57
Speaker 1: but specifically traveling solo, women of color traveling solo. That
24:02
Speaker 1: was the whole thing. And so there was tips and
24:04
Speaker 1: tricks on that, how to save money, actual stories from
24:07
Speaker 1: women drawings. UM, someone made like a small comic strip
24:10
Speaker 1: which is really cool of like her going back to
24:13
Speaker 1: the motherland and realizing that, you know, like she She's like, fuck,
24:19
Speaker 1: I've been dreaming of going to this motherland my whole
24:21
Speaker 1: life and I finally gone and it's like, ship, I
24:23
Speaker 1: don't fit in here, you know, like and so these
24:25
Speaker 1: stories really really resonated in a really uh big way
24:29
Speaker 1: with everyone that got that first issue. And so since then,
24:33
Speaker 1: I've I've made every issue a little different so it
24:37
Speaker 1: hits every niche in this you know, this realm of
24:40
Speaker 1: women of color who traveled. So like the second issue, well,
24:44
Speaker 1: the second major issue was dedicated to my mother, UM
24:48
Speaker 1: and it focused on healing, and it was something that
24:50
Speaker 1: I released during the pandemic UM. So it was like
24:53
Speaker 1: a really strong focus on what we can do for
24:56
Speaker 1: ourselves in our home personal space. And there was articles
25:00
Speaker 1: like on how plants are good for you and ship
25:03
Speaker 1: like that, you know, like how they bring healing because
25:05
Speaker 1: they teach you patients, they give you something to do. UM.
25:08
Speaker 1: It was so many beautiful articles. And our third issue
25:11
Speaker 1: was a look book and it was just really pictures, UM,
25:14
Speaker 1: something to flip through with like quotes and stuff. So
25:16
Speaker 1: every issue is a little different. I love how you
25:20
Speaker 1: have taken like the seat of an idea and grown
25:24
Speaker 1: it in all these different directions, UM. And I wanted
25:27
Speaker 1: to ask you, how do you define travel in this
25:30
Speaker 1: project because I think a lot of people think of
25:33
Speaker 1: travel and they think international and taking flights and going
25:38
Speaker 1: to different continents, you know, but how do you really
25:41
Speaker 1: define traveling in the context of this project. I feel like,
25:47
Speaker 1: especially when the pandemic came UM, the term travel had
25:51
Speaker 1: to take a really significant turn and what from travels
25:56
Speaker 1: was representing. And so I started doing like this backyard
26:00
Speaker 1: level where I'm traveling neighborhoods and I'm going here and
26:03
Speaker 1: I'm going there in my own city. And I really
26:06
Speaker 1: feel like even moving forward, pandemic or not, like that's
26:10
Speaker 1: what Brown Girl Travels is Like. At the base of it,
26:14
Speaker 1: we're just all about adventure, like you could you could
26:16
Speaker 1: find adventure and travel anywhere you can go to you
26:19
Speaker 1: can take a train a few cities down and find
26:22
Speaker 1: something new and it's really truly beautiful. UM. And then
26:26
Speaker 1: also to like something that because I'm born American citizen
26:30
Speaker 1: here my mother came, I'm first generation UM. But there
26:34
Speaker 1: are so there are things that I don't understand. And
26:36
Speaker 1: so once the Instagram started building and I started getting
26:39
Speaker 1: a lot of messages in my dams, a few women
26:41
Speaker 1: were reaching out to me and they're like, yo, I
26:44
Speaker 1: can't I can't travel far because I don't have papers.
26:46
Speaker 1: And I'm They're like what you know, what do we do?
26:48
Speaker 1: And I'm like, fuck, I don't know, like and so
26:50
Speaker 1: I had to really think about that and I'm like wow,
26:52
Speaker 1: like okay, so this is something that I feel at
26:56
Speaker 1: the base of it, and we can we can travel
26:59
Speaker 1: anywhere of us, every single one of us, and I
27:01
Speaker 1: want to make sure that we all know it's accessible.
27:04
Speaker 1: You can hop a train, you don't need papers, honey,
27:05
Speaker 1: you like to go down the street like, we can
27:07
Speaker 1: do it. It's totally accessible, and I want to share
27:09
Speaker 1: everybody that that's really cool. Um, I'm gonna share this
27:15
Speaker 1: only because he shares this publicly. But my partner is undocumented,
27:19
Speaker 1: and so he's very much of course about the domestic travel.
27:23
Speaker 1: And so when we started dating four years ago, it
27:26
Speaker 1: very much opened my eyes into like, wait, there's so
27:28
Speaker 1: much to see in our own backyard or in our
27:31
Speaker 1: own country, um, just the state next door, right, Because
27:35
Speaker 1: like when I said, I used to think of traveling
27:37
Speaker 1: as like I need to catch a flight and I
27:39
Speaker 1: need to get my passport stamped. But actually there's so
27:42
Speaker 1: much beauty in our backyard and what we can see.
27:45
Speaker 1: And so I'm curious about what was one of your
27:48
Speaker 1: maybe your favorite like backyard hang out during the pandemic, honestly,
27:54
Speaker 1: like a city you really love that you explored for
27:56
Speaker 1: the first time. Um, it was down Santa Barbara. Like
28:01
Speaker 1: I caught an Amtrak. I I even I think I
28:04
Speaker 1: even took the bus there from like my house an
28:06
Speaker 1: Amtrak to a bus to the Union station, caught an
28:09
Speaker 1: amtrack two hours to Santa Barbara. Um the trip round
28:13
Speaker 1: trip was like fifty dollars and I stood there for
28:16
Speaker 1: the whole day. You know, it's my day trip and
28:18
Speaker 1: like I've made it since. Uh, something that I try
28:21
Speaker 1: to do often. I've done it with my boyfriend, I've
28:24
Speaker 1: done it solo, you know, and like I'm going to
28:26
Speaker 1: continue to do it. Uh. I love it. The town
28:30
Speaker 1: is beautiful. You arrive in Santa Barbara on the beach
28:34
Speaker 1: like you're the train leaves you a block away from
28:36
Speaker 1: the beach and in downtown Santa Barbara, so you're surrounded
28:40
Speaker 1: by everything. It's a culture shock, but it is a
28:44
Speaker 1: beautiful place and I love to that it's just right
28:46
Speaker 1: down the street and I can go explore it, like
28:48
Speaker 1: I can buy a ticket right now and go tomorrow morning. Yeah.
28:52
Speaker 1: I think it's it's really fun to kind of rediscover
28:56
Speaker 1: the areas that maybe we take for granted. I went
29:00
Speaker 1: to Joshua Tree recently and San Diego, and I don't know,
29:05
Speaker 1: I've never spent any time in San Diego. And I
29:07
Speaker 1: didn't realize that I don't know about San Diego until
29:11
Speaker 1: I was there recently and I was like, oh my god,
29:13
Speaker 1: this is nice. Like it was fun. It's Fando Logan
29:18
Speaker 1: like it's fun. It's it's fun. Yeah, definitely, it's like
29:23
Speaker 1: something going on down there. M. Yeah, they don't know
29:27
Speaker 1: a funk about us. They got all they got their
29:30
Speaker 1: own high rises. They don't they don't need l A.
29:35
Speaker 1: The beaches are gorgeous. The beaches were like clean. I
29:39
Speaker 1: was like, wow, look at this luxury right two hours
29:45
Speaker 1: down that way, Like yeah, yeah, so I love the
29:50
Speaker 1: that that that's part of your uh, you know, your content,
29:54
Speaker 1: like let's let's let's make travel less complicated, like let's
29:59
Speaker 1: make it simple because it could be simple, right, and
30:04
Speaker 1: and especially with um the reality of some countries not
30:07
Speaker 1: even being open, and some places that you fly to
30:12
Speaker 1: literally begging people not to go. You know, it's almost
30:16
Speaker 1: like the more ethical travel is going to be the
30:20
Speaker 1: one that you can take on a train or a
30:22
Speaker 1: bus or or locally domestically. So yeah, I just think
30:26
Speaker 1: it's great. And there's just so many different layers to that. Yeah. No,
30:31
Speaker 1: and I love that what you said, like Hawaii is
30:34
Speaker 1: literally begging people not to come, and people are still
30:37
Speaker 1: like I need to go to Hawaii, go to Manhattan Beach,
30:41
Speaker 1: honey this summer, like you could wait go to Catalina Islands. Yo. Okay,
30:48
Speaker 1: First of all, Catalina Island people are sleeping on that
30:51
Speaker 1: and I ampty, like I haven't been and I really
30:53
Speaker 1: really want to go so bad. Dude, you can go.
30:57
Speaker 1: You can get a discount. Well this is a couple
30:59
Speaker 1: of years though, but you can get a discounted trip,
31:02
Speaker 1: a discounted ticket on the ferry. If it's your birthday,
31:05
Speaker 1: it's either like free or discounted. Because we took my
31:08
Speaker 1: mom once for her birthday, and so check that out.
31:11
Speaker 1: That's a cute little solo trip you could do for
31:14
Speaker 1: your birthday. For anyone listening, if you're local, that's good
31:17
Speaker 1: to know. My birthday is coming up in January. So
31:21
Speaker 1: are you a January Capricorn. I'm a January Aquarius. Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,
31:28
Speaker 1: we love we still like it. We still love it.
31:30
Speaker 1: We're still here for it. We're so Actually, you have
31:37
Speaker 1: an event coming up. Yes, you tell us a little
31:40
Speaker 1: bit about the event, um and what folks can expect.
31:44
Speaker 1: So the event is going to be on September UM
31:48
Speaker 1: from one to six. The event is a long time
31:51
Speaker 1: in the making. Um. I have been wanting to do
31:54
Speaker 1: something to give back to my community for so long,
31:56
Speaker 1: and then with COVID, of course, like I wasn't prepared
31:59
Speaker 1: to do anything that was unsafe. So I've just been
32:03
Speaker 1: kind of sitting on this for a while, and I
32:05
Speaker 1: think the longer I sat on it, the more it
32:08
Speaker 1: grew in like my idea of what it was gonna
32:11
Speaker 1: look like, and so it manifested into just what I
32:14
Speaker 1: thought it would look like like. Honestly, I when I
32:16
Speaker 1: first started thinking about it, I got on a piece
32:18
Speaker 1: of paper and I drew like an outline, like will
32:20
Speaker 1: be vendors here, and there'll be Myriachi's here, and then
32:23
Speaker 1: it all started kind of coming together. A few months ago,
32:26
Speaker 1: I reached out to um, someone that used to work
32:30
Speaker 1: at the elementary school I went to who now owns
32:32
Speaker 1: a dance studio in the neighborhood. I grew up in
32:35
Speaker 1: um Illegion Valley, which is right next to the Dodger Stadium,
32:38
Speaker 1: and she said, you could have your community event here,
32:41
Speaker 1: and I was like, damn. The wheel started rolling from
32:44
Speaker 1: there and I got uh La Familia Edibles to sponsor
32:50
Speaker 1: the Mariachi's. Um my friend who owns Montefort Studio is
32:54
Speaker 1: sponsoring signage. All these people started kicking in, All these
32:57
Speaker 1: people started donating stuff, like, honestly, nothing about this event
33:02
Speaker 1: is done alone with ground gold travels. It was all
33:04
Speaker 1: community built and so because of that, I think it's
33:07
Speaker 1: gonna be so beautiful. There's gonna be self defense, a
33:11
Speaker 1: free community self defense class. There's gonna be a writing workshop,
33:15
Speaker 1: meditation workshop with sound bowls. You can come and get
33:19
Speaker 1: free clothes that we're gonna have a clothing swap um,
33:22
Speaker 1: and we're gonna be having vendors, about twenty plus vendors.
33:25
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be a great way to kick off
33:27
Speaker 1: Latino Hericage monk amazing, and you're also you're giving away
33:33
Speaker 1: things as well. Right, let's talk about the philanthropic portion
33:37
Speaker 1: of this event is a back to school event, and
33:40
Speaker 1: I am gonna be giving away a hundred backpacks to
33:43
Speaker 1: children teenagers and they're filled with a bunch of goodies.
33:46
Speaker 1: So we got school supplies, crayons, the Mariachi's actually wanted
33:51
Speaker 1: to kick in, and they got like charging cables, which
33:53
Speaker 1: I thought was a really good idea because a lot
33:55
Speaker 1: of kids are using the iPads nowadays. Um, So the
33:58
Speaker 1: backpacks are gonna have a bunch of good these we
34:00
Speaker 1: have a hundred of them to give out, um, and
34:02
Speaker 1: we're also collecting a donation's day of but like Honestly,
34:07
Speaker 1: I'm just excited to give away a bunch of stuff. Absolutely,
34:10
Speaker 1: it sounds like a glorious event. What is the name
34:13
Speaker 1: of the event and where can people find more? Infolk
34:16
Speaker 1: get tickets, rs v key, whatever the case may be.
34:21
Speaker 1: So I am calling it the b GT Back to
34:23
Speaker 1: School Event. Um. You can go onto the Brown World
34:26
Speaker 1: Travels Instagram to find the flyer and find all the info. Um,
34:30
Speaker 1: it is free. You can walk in. There is no
34:34
Speaker 1: you don't have to register at all. Just show up,
34:36
Speaker 1: bring the good vibes, bring your family. Um. The event
34:40
Speaker 1: is gonna be any Lesion Valley, Uh, the First Impressions
34:44
Speaker 1: Dance Studio. It's gonna be at three zero zero one
34:47
Speaker 1: Gilroy Street, right alongside the l A River. So it's
34:51
Speaker 1: gonna be like in the neighborhood I grew up in,
34:53
Speaker 1: which is super like full circle for me because this
34:57
Speaker 1: is where my community giving should start here here. I
35:01
Speaker 1: love that love. That's beautiful. Absolutely, Ashley Marie Garcia, you
35:07
Speaker 1: are a force to be reckoned with and a visionary.
35:11
Speaker 1: I love your project. I love what you've accomplished and
35:15
Speaker 1: what you put together. And I don't know, maybe we
35:17
Speaker 1: should figure out, like should we do like a Brown
35:19
Speaker 1: Girl travels podcast one day. That would be a cue.
35:23
Speaker 1: I think you need a podcast, girl, So anyways, put
35:26
Speaker 1: that in the universe, manifest that because I can totally
35:29
Speaker 1: see that, UM in your future. We need more travel shows.
35:34
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get like a good, wealthy like benefactor
35:38
Speaker 1: to pay for my projects, aren't we all? We are
35:45
Speaker 1: all manifesting benefactors. If there are any benefactors listening to
35:49
Speaker 1: this episode, there's yeah, you you heard, you know, come
35:53
Speaker 1: find us, please pay us for the love of all
35:59
Speaker 1: that is good, Ashon Garcia, thank you so much for
36:02
Speaker 1: coming by. Look at our radio. Um is there anything
36:05
Speaker 1: else that you want to plug and leave our listeners with? Um?
36:10
Speaker 1: Is there a Venmo? Is there a website? Is there
36:12
Speaker 1: a Patreon? Okay, so we are working on the website,
36:17
Speaker 1: but there is a Venmo. There is always a venmo.
36:19
Speaker 1: Plug the Venmo girl. Get your coins zero three sixteen,
36:24
Speaker 1: y'all at b GT zero three sixteen if y'all want
36:27
Speaker 1: to help, like donate to this a bet to whatever
36:30
Speaker 1: I do your girl. This is all like self funded.
36:33
Speaker 1: Like everything b GT does is like out of my pocket,
36:36
Speaker 1: and like I don't mind it because like I'm investing
36:38
Speaker 1: in myself so absolutely. But yeah, if you'll want to
36:42
Speaker 1: help your girl and definitely follow my page and like,
36:46
Speaker 1: stay tuned for more opportunities to be a part of
36:49
Speaker 1: the next issue. Love it. Thank you, thank you so
36:54
Speaker 1: much for joining us, Thank you for teching me alright,
36:58
Speaker 1: look at what is we will catch in next time?
37:05
Speaker 1: Radio Radio Radio Pummies a myth and Bullshit, a radiophonic novella.
37:20
Speaker 1: Look at a Radio hosted by Malamnios and saf