HECHO spoke with Isabel Chavez of Phoenix, Arizona to learn about her personal connection to the Grand Canyon, her favorite memories there, and why she believes the Grand Canyon should be protected from uranium mining.

HECHO: What is your personal connection to the Grand Canyon?

Isabel Chavez (IC): As an Arizona native, my connection to the Grand Canyon is exactly that. It's one of the wonders of the world and it's here in my home state. I think a common thread that I used to share with a lot of native Arizonans is that they had never been there. It wasn't a preferred destination, maybe because of the social economics of my neighborhood, that wasn't an option. When I finally went to the Grand Canyon, I was already older…..

Guest Blog, Grand CanyonadminAugust 17, 2020#MyGrandCanyonStory, Grand Canyon, Uranium Mining, ArizonaComment

#MyGrandCanyonStory | Morgan Moore

HECHO spoke with Morgan Moore of Phoenix, Arizona to learn about her personal connection to the Grand Canyon, her favorite memories there, and why she believes the Grand Canyon should be protected from uranium mining.

HECHO: What is your personal connection to the Grand Canyon?

Morgan Moore (MM): My personal connection to the Grand Canyon is rooted both in its place, as well as the people that connect me to it. I grew up in Arizona. I was born and raised here, so I have been to the Grand Canyon plenty of times, mostly with family. I have gone there since I was a toddler. My parents took me, even though my dad was afraid of falling from it…….

Guest Blog, Grand CanyonadminAugust 15, 2020#MyGrandCanyonStory, Grand Canyon, Uranium Mining, ArizonaComment

#MyGrandCanyonStory | Juliana Huereña

HECHO spoke with Juliana Huereña of Phoenix, Arizona to learn about her personal connection to the Grand Canyon, her favorite memories there, and why she believes the Grand Canyon should be protected from uranium mining.

HECHO: What is your personal connection to the Grand Canyon?

Juliana Huereña (JH): So, what is my connection to the Grand Canyon? It is that it was in my backyard and so I was able to take advantage of the wilderness and the opportunities that the Grand Canyon has offered. The beauty of it, the Majestics of it, all of it….

Guest Blog, Grand CanyonadminAugust 12, 2020#MyGrandCanyonStory, Grand Canyon, Uranium Mining, ArizonaComment

#MyGrandCanyonStory | Mark Cardenas

HECHO spoke with Advisory Board member Mark Cardenas of Arizona to learn about his personal connection to the Grand Canyon, his favorite memories there, and why he believes the Grand Canyon should be protected from uranium mining.

HECHO: What is your personal connection to the Grand Canyon?

Mark Cardenas (MC): My personal connection to the Grand Canyon -- that was where, you know, growing up you would always go on the weekends, to the parks and to go hiking in the mountains, because that was what we could afford. I remember one of the biggest trips that we got to go on was a road trip to the Grand Canyon. I was probably like six or seven years old. was really little, and it was just so amazing that one, we got out of the city and two, there's this huge place that, you know, when you go into the parking lot there's license plates from all around the country…

Guest Blog, Grand CanyonadminAugust 10, 2020#MyGrandCanyonStory, Grand Canyon, Uranium Mining, Arizona, Mark Cardenas, Advisory BoardComment

#MyGrandCanyonStory | Steve Peru

HECHO spoke with Steve Peru of Flagstaff, Arizona to learn about his personal connection to the Grand Canyon, his favorite memories there, and why he believes the Grand Canyon should be protected from uranium mining.

HECHO: What is your personal connection to the Grand Canyon?

Steve Peru (SP): My personal connection to the Grand Canyon started, and I don't know when it was that our parents took us to the Grand Canyon, but I was probably older than grade school, middle school years. It's probably more exciting to the parent, at the time, than it is to the child. At the same time, given the fact that our parents didn't always have a lot of resources to make that investment of time and money to take the family to the Grand Canyon, it must have been very special to our parents….

Guest Blog, Grand CanyonadminAugust 8, 2020#MyGrandCanyonStory, Grand Canyon, Uranium Mining, ArizonaComment

#MyGrandCanyonStory | Mesa City Councilmember David Luna

HECHO spoke with Mesa City Councilmember David Luna to learn about his personal connection to the Grand Canyon, his favorite memories there, and why he believes the Grand Canyon should be protected from uranium mining.

HECHO: What is your personal connection to the Grand Canyon?

David Luna (DL): My personal connection to the Grand Canyon begins with the fact that I'm a native of Arizona, which gives me that personal connection to one of the seven wonders of the world. I’ve had the opportunity to take visitors, relatives, and my grandkids to the Grand Canyon so they could see its majesty, its wonder, its uniqueness, the way one should experience it – in person. The Grand Canyon is something that we truly celebrate here in Arizona.

Guest Blog, Grand Canyon, HCLCadminAugust 5, 2020#MyGrandCanyonStory, Grand Canyon, Uranium Mining, Arizona, David LunaComment

#MyGrandCanyonStory | Rebecca Chavez-Houck

Rebecca Chavez-Houck (RCH): So, in reflecting on my experiences and my personal connection to the Grand Canyon, I looked at it through some of the different phases of my life. My first recollection of having visited the Grand Canyon was when my husband and I took our daughter on a trip there. I believe that I was expecting our second child and it was during the off season. It is kind of interesting how, when we think about our experiences in the outdoors and we think about going to different, amazing places, incredible places like the Grand Canyon, the experiences kind of fall together….

#MyGrandCanyonStory | Michael Lerner

HECHO spoke with Michael Lerner of New York, New York to learn about his personal connection to the Grand Canyon, his favorite memories there, and why he believes the Grand Canyon should be protected from uranium mining.

HECHO: What is your personal connection to the Grand Canyon?

Michel Lerner (ML): My personal connection to the Grand Canyon is that I've had the privilege and the honor to be there three times as an adult. Once as a kid, but I was honestly too young to really appreciate it. As an adult, I went on a visit to some family friends in Arizona. I'm from New York City so it's not, by any means, nearby but they suggested going there and I wasn't really aware that you could just drive up and get into the best of it without privileges or paying a lot of expensive fares or permits. So, this family friend suggested staying over at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon…..

Guest Blog, Grand CanyonadminJuly 27, 2020#MyGrandCanyonStory, Grand Canyon, Uranium Mining, ArizonaComment

#MyGrandCanyonStory | Feliz Baca

HECHO spoke with Feliz Baca of Albuquerque, New Mexico to learn about her personal connection to the Grand Canyon, her favorite memories there, and why she believes the Grand Canyon should be protected from uranium mining.

HECHO: What is your personal connection to the Grand Canyon?

Feliz Baca (FB): My personal connection to the Grand Canyon is that I was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but split my time between Arizona and New Mexico growing up. Half my life consisted of living in Northern Arizona, in Flagstaff, taking trips to the Grand Canyon with my family. I didn't start exploring the canyon as much until I got a little bit older and went away from the state because, when you're from Arizona, you don't take as much time to truly enjoy the beauty and everything that it has to offer…..

Guest Blog, Grand CanyonadminJuly 20, 2020#MyGrandCanyonStory, Grand Canyon, Uranium Mining, ArizonaComment

#MyGrandCanyonStory | Whitney Walker

HECHO spoke with Whitney Walker of Maricopa County, Arizona to learn about her personal connection to the Grand Canyon, her favorite memories there, and why she believes the Grand Canyon should be protected from uranium mining.

HECHO: What is your personal connection to the Grand Canyon?

Whitney Walker (WW): My personal connection to the Grand Canyon happened when I relocated here from Virginia. I was all of 23 years old and the first person in my family to not only graduate from college, but the first one to be accepted into law school. I drove across the country by myself, leaving my family 3000 miles behind. I felt brave, but alone. During my first semester, I connected with the group of folks in my section that shared a similar experience. We took a trip up to the Grand Canyon right after our midterms during fall break. That visit was such an amazing and confirming moment where I felt that I could do anything I put my mind to…..

Guest Blog, Grand CanyonGuest UserJuly 13, 2020#MyGrandCanyonStory, Grand Canyon, Uranium Mining, ArizonaComment

#MyGrandCanyonStory | Patrice Horstman

HECHO spoke with Patrice Horstman on her connection to the Grand Canyon, and why she believes it deserves protection and advocacy.

Patrice Horstman (PH): I moved to Flagstaff in 1972 to go to school in Northern Arizona University, and like many, I fell in love with the San Francisco peaks and the Ponderosa Pine Forest. Having the Canyon as a neighbor has allowed me an up close and personal relationship with it. I've been able to spend over four decades exploring and hiking its trails, river running on the Colorado river through its red walls, and spending literally countless hours on the rim. The Grand Canyon is also an economic engine for us here in Northern Arizona. It has over 6 million visitors that visits the Canyon annually, which brings hundreds of millions of tourists dollars here to Arizona and has produced tens of thousands of jobs.

Guest Blog, Grand CanyonadminJuly 6, 2020#MyGrandCanyonStory, Grand Canyon, Uranium Mining, ArizonaComment

Event Recap: Sharing Personal Connections Through Letters to the Editor

Community members across the nation joined HECHO on Wednesday to participate in the Advocacy Training Series to learn about Letters to the Editor (LTE), and why they are an essential advocacy tool in having our voices heard on issues from racial inequity to the protection of our public lands. Speakers included the HECHO team, Elvia Diaz, Editor of La Voz Arizona, and Frank Moraga, journalist, publisher, and editor of AmigosNAZ.

#MyGrandCanyonStory | Elizabeth Archuleta

#MyGrandCanyonStory | Coconino County Supervisor, Elizabeth Archuleta

HECHO founding member and Coconino County Supervisor, Elizabeth Archuleta sat down with us to talk about why advocating for the Grand Canyon is important for her.

Guest Blog, Grand CanyonadminJune 29, 2020#MyGrandCanyonStory, Grand Canyon, Uranium Mining, Arizona, Liz ArchuletaComment

#MyGrandCanyonStory | Nikki Julien

HECHO spoke with Nikki Julien, Outreach Director for the Arizona Wildlife Federation to learn about her favorite memory at the Grand Canyon, and why she believes uranium mining poses a dangerous threat to the National Park.

HECHO: What is your personal connection to the grand Canyon?

Nikki Julien (NJ): My personal connection to the Grand Canyon started the first time I visited, I was probably about five, six years old. My family had moved to Arizona and my parents, of course, put my brother in boy scouts. They had a boy scout trip to go down to Havasupai Village and we all hiked all the way down and back up again. While I was there, I actually learned to swim in that beautiful blue, green water. I learned how to swim in Mooney Falls. I was just a kid at the time, so I didn’t think much about it until after I realized how major it actually was. In the education field and nature writing field, and nature advocacy field, one of the first questions that is asked at almost any conference, is about your connection to the land. When that is asked, I get to say that I learned to swim at Mooney Falls at Havasupai Village which is an amazing, amazing experience. Not many six year olds can make that trip down and back out again. In 2014, I was able to helicopter down into the village and that was remarkable.

Event Recap: May 27, 2020 Digital Briefing and Advocacy Training to Protect the Grand Canyon

Advocates for the Grand Canyon came together on Wednesday for a digital briefing and advocacy training about the threat of uranium mining at the Grand Canyon. Community members joined the call from across the nation, sharing why protecting the national park is important to them.

HECHO presenters Camilla Simon and Elizabeth Archuleta discussed recent recommendations released by the Nuclear Fuels Working Group supporting opening up public lands near the Grand Canyon for uranium mining. They also informed advocates about a proposal to permanently protect the public lands around the Grand Canyon, introduced by Rep. Raul Grijalva and passed by the House in March 2020 called the Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act.

#MyGrandCanyonStory | Viviana Reyes

HECHO spoke with Viviana Reyes of Flagstaff, Arizona to learn about her personal connection to the Grand Canyon, her favorite memories there, and why she believes the Grand Canyon should be protected from uranium mining.

HECHO: What is your personal connection the Grand Canyon

Viviana Reyes (VR): As far as my personal connection to the Grand Canyon, I was born and raised in Arizona. I grew up in Phoenix, and, as a child, the Grand Canyon was one of the only places that we were really able to visit. For one, it’s in our home state and it was really close. And, also, it’s kind of an affordable place to visit in the sense that we would just kind of get together as a family and drive. One of the first times I got to visit was with an uncle and it was super breathtaking and beautiful. I remember thinking that it wasn’t real, that it just looked like a picture, like a postcard almost.

#MyGrandCanyonStory | Lynn Córdova

HECHO sat down with Lynn Cordova of Arizona to learn about her connection to the Grand Canyon, and why she believes the Grand Canyon should be protected from uranium mining.

HECHO: Why do you think it’s important to advocate for national parks against the threat of uranium mining?

Lynn Cordova (LC): I think national parks are important, and we, as a society, need to have places to visit and unwind. As you probably know and read my story about growing up, and growing up low income, I didn't have a ton of exposure to public lands. I lived in Colorado, and it's a beautiful state. There are tons of mountains and hiking trails, but I rarely got to experience that because, often times, it was a matter of my mother not having enough money to even get us to the mountains. If we did, it was the closest foothills we could get to and that was our version of a picnic or camping.

Now that I'm older, and since I have yet to visit the Grand Canyon, it’s on my bucket list— especially since I now live in Arizona. I want to ensure that it's going to be available for me to visit. But if uranium mining occurs, I’m worried about the potential of water contamination in the area, and who knows what other repercussions could happen from that. It’s important to ensure that it doesn't happen so that everyone can visit the Grand Canyon.

Event Recap: HECHO's Cocktails & Conservation Celebrates 50 Years of Earth Day

With the Grand Canyon set as their Zoom virtual backgrounds, over 20 community members came together virtually to celebrate Earth Day’s 50th anniversary with HECHO, enjoying a cocktail demonstration (a fan favorite, La Paloma), a virtual visit to the Grand Canyon, and climate change trivia.

Community members from across the nation participated in the event that was presented in partnership with the Grand Canyon National Park and the Grand Canyon Trust. Event presenters included HECHO Advisory Board and founding member, Elizabeth Archuleta, as well as Senior Advisor for the Stewardship and Tribal Programs at Grand Canyon National Park, Jan Balsom, Energy Program Director for the Grand Canyon Trust, Amber Reimondo, and Energy Program Associate for the Grand Canyon Trust, Megan Kelly.

Press Release: New Recommendations Risk Public Health and Safety, Invites Uranium Mining at the Grand Canyon

FLAGSTAFF (April 23, 2020)—Hispanics Enjoying Camping, Hunting, and the Outdoors (HECHO) opposed new recommendations released today from the Nuclear Fuels Working Group citing the audacity of its claims that the U.S. Government ought to “revive and strengthen the uranium mining industry” by streamlining “land access for uranium extraction”—a move that could open up uranium mining outside the Grand Canyon.

Event Recap: Local "Agua Es Vida" Event Informs and Engages Community Members about Uranium Mining Impacts Around the Grand Canyon

Nov. 20, 2019 (Phoenix, Arizona) – Today more than 30 community leaders gathered at the Rio Salado Audubon Center for an event organized by HECHO (Hispanics Enjoying Camping, Hunting, and the Outdoors) to discuss uranium mining near the Grand Canyon, and its effects on Native American and Hispanic communities.

Grand CanyonGuest UserNovember 21, 2019Event Recap, Agua Es Vida, Grand Canyon, Uranium Mining, Cocktails & Conservation, Liz Archuleta, ArizonaComment

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