A
Bronx man is hoping to bring the Latinx community together through travel.
Latinx
is a term used to refer to people of Latin American cultural or ethnic identity
in the United States.
Pablo
Enrique Segarra cofounded the Latinx Travel Club to bridge his life in America
together with his Puerto Rican heritage.
“My
mother used to have a painting on her wall, in her office, it was a painting of
a bridge,” Segarra says. “One side of the bridge was the island of Manhattan,
the other side of the bridge was the island of Puerto Rico. And I used to think
continuously, how cool it would be if we could build the bridge—a bridge for
the diaspora to stay connected to their culture.”
Segarra
says the community’s net worth and GEP is increasing.
“We
wanna be able to hone in on this force, and to be able to push these ideas of
biculturalism and tri-culturalism,” Segarra says. “That it is OK for you to be
both American and Latinx at the same time.”
A
member of the Latinx Travel Club and activist David Ortiz says he knows how the
panemic has affected Latino people.
“Latinx
Travel Club can bring light to these destinations that people that have been
ravaged by COVID-19 and do not have the resources to reach out to bring in any
type of tourists,” Ortiz says.
Segarra
plans to host the first Latinx Travel Summit in Miami in October for Hispanic
Heritage Month as a way to bring industry leaders together.
Portions
of the proceeds from the club will go to local community organizations.