'Crossing borders as a Brown Salvadoran short woman can be very empowering,' says 30-year-old cyclist Andrea Molina.
than white communities to live in areas with limited access to nature, including parks, paths, and green spaces. on cross-country and cross-continental trails. For the San Salvador-born cyclist and educator, biking is a symbol for freedom. “Crossing borders as a Brown Salvadoran short woman can be very empowering,” she says, chuckling. She has already cycled across several borders during her trip through Mexico, Central America, and South America, each one as staggering as the first.
But traveling as a woman with a Salvadoran passport has its challenges. Molina has been detained, interrogated, and her passport has been taken away. As she crosses countless borders from Mexico to Argentina, she’s deeply aware of what being a Brown woman on a bike can indicate. “I was a migrant for almost 11 years in the States. There was a lot of uncertainty based on my visa. It was stressful,” she says. “It feels similar on the bike.
As a woman of color reconnecting and learning more about her Indigenous Lenca identity, Molina feels lucky to be taking this journey for joy and recreation rather than survival. Though she still haswith every border crossing, she knows she carries generations of women behind her who are relishing in the bliss she’s finally able to claim for herself. To center her joy is a privilege her family hasn’t been afforded. The economic and social inequalities in El Salvador are stark.
Molina eventually spotted a casita far on the trail and finally bumped into a couple of people who were shocked to see them so far into a remote part of the mountains. After having some coffee, Molina and Jake’s new hosts offered to let them stay on their dairy farm in a rustic barn house. To their surprise, one of the farmworkers was also lodging there, a Venezuelan migrant living in the Colombian mountains.
For Molina, after a whole day fighting the rain and mud, and a lifetime fighting for joy and redefining home across borders, this moment was special. “The three of us were not from this country. We were not from these mountains, but he was still so generous and loving. That day wasn’t about how many kilometers we covered; it was a reminder that we are not just biking to get to places. These interactions mean so much.
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