Suchitra Prasad and
Victor Prajapati
When you haven’t grown up recreating outdoors, it can sometimes be difficult to start the habit. For Suchitra Prasad and Victor Prajapati the answer to starting was with each other.
Both Prasad, 40 and Prajapati, 35 are first generation Americans. Her family is from the East side of India and his from the West. They met each other in Chicago and have since moved to San Francisco and explored their fair share of National Parks, but that love of nature wasn’t discovered until they found each other.
Prasad was the more outdoorsy one, although neither grew up recreating outdoors she would often hike in State parks and had always loved nature. “I think my love stems from one time that our school had a camping trip to Wisconsin,” she says. “It wasn’t in a national park, but we were on the river and went hiking. That experience really stuck with me.”
For Prajapati it was a bit different. He wasn’t introduced to nature by his parents or his schools, and the first national park he went to wasn’t even in the states, but in Belgium. He worked in Belgium for a couple of years and every now again Prasad would visit. It struck them that each time she visited they would go see ornate churches and historic buildings.
“I guess we didn’t really have a lot of perspective of nature growing up,” Prajapati says. “We just felt like that was the thing to do, to go see these churches.”
“Then we went to Tenerife,” Prasad adds. “That was our first National Park and after that we became addicted,” Once they were both stateside, they made up a plan and took some time off for their adventures.
The pair went to the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Redwoods, Glacier and when it came time to stop at Yellowstone National Park, Prajapati had a little something up his sleeve. “We climbed to the top of Mount Washburn where you can see the whole park from,” he says. “And that’s where I proposed, on the top of that mountain.”
Of course, Prasad said yes, and the parks have been a big part of their relationship ever since.
- Of Saguaros and Minority Representation -
I encountered the pair at the Valley View Trailhead in Saguaro National Park, just as they finished their hike through the forest of cacti. Prasad had seen nature documentaries that highlighted the giant saguaros of Arizona, and this past spring they were finally able to see them in person. Since their marriage, they have spent much of their free time in National Parks, and usually try to get their friends and family to go along for the ride.
Prasad’s sister has joined them a few times, but they haven’t had the same luck with the rest of their family or mutual friends. “With my friends, who are mainly nonwhite, there’s this element of not wanting to go to national parks,” says Prasad. “It seems nobody is really interested in going to those outdoor spaces, and they always ask if we can vacation in the city and do things like that instead.”
The two had separate ideas of why it was that their non-white friends and family were often opposed to touring the national parks. Prasad figured it had more to do with exposure as a child and the fact that their parents hadn’t raised them to seek outdoor experiences. Prajapati had a different opinion. He agreed that exposure might be a factor but believed it had more to do with the economic disparity between minority communities and white communities.
I had to bring up the point that in the United States there are plenty of white Americans who are poor, and that economic disparity, although very real, doesn't seem to play as big a role as people might think. In all communities there are people all over the economic spectrum, what changes is what people decide to do with the money they have.
“I mean this whole economic disparity thing, with not having time and choosing your time specifically, I think that's a big thing,” Prajapati says. “Then the appreciation of it is low because you never get exposed to it.”
More than anything it’s a cynical loop. Minorities often do not recreate outdoors because they have not been exposed to it and are therefore uncomfortable in the spaces. Then the ones that do go usually don’t see a lot of faces like theirs and might therefore feel uncomfortable in those spaces. In order to stop the loop, minorities have to be okay with being uncomfortable. We need to take up space in the parks and show that minority and underrepresented groups recreating outdoors isn’t something new, and that nature is not a white-only space.
It’s difficult to hear stories from Prasad and Prajapati where they talk about feeling out of place in the outdoors. These spaces, that are meant for all Americans to enjoy, are usually only fully enjoyed by those with privilege. While at national parks, Prasad says she often feels unsafe when going to stores in the towns nearby, and that not seeing faces like hers ostracizes her from spaces she holds dear. Prajapati’s childhood was filled with being put down for wanting to recreate outdoors. His family would tell him that was a white space, so why would he, a brown man, want to hike outdoors? Experiences like these have slowed progress, and one of the only ways to ameliorate the problem is by defying the stereotypes and reclaiming outdoors spaces.
“I think in the U.S. there's an emphasis on how white people are the ones that know everything about the wild and ecology and are trying to share with everyone else,” Prasad says. “Then you realize when you go to countries like India that the people there, like everywhere else, are interested in wildlife and nature, and it's not just something that white people own.”
Both Prasad, 40 and Prajapati, 35 are first generation Americans. Her family is from the East side of India and his from the West. They met each other in Chicago and have since moved to San Francisco and explored their fair share of National Parks, but that love of nature wasn’t discovered until they found each other.
Prasad was the more outdoorsy one, although neither grew up recreating outdoors she would often hike in State parks and had always loved nature. “I think my love stems from one time that our school had a camping trip to Wisconsin,” she says. “It wasn’t in a national park, but we were on the river and went hiking. That experience really stuck with me.”
For Prajapati it was a bit different. He wasn’t introduced to nature by his parents or his schools, and the first national park he went to wasn’t even in the states, but in Belgium. He worked in Belgium for a couple of years and every now again Prasad would visit. It struck them that each time she visited they would go see ornate churches and historic buildings.
“I guess we didn’t really have a lot of perspective of nature growing up,” Prajapati says. “We just felt like that was the thing to do, to go see these churches.”
“Then we went to Tenerife,” Prasad adds. “That was our first National Park and after that we became addicted,” Once they were both stateside, they made up a plan and took some time off for their adventures.
The pair went to the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Redwoods, Glacier and when it came time to stop at Yellowstone National Park, Prajapati had a little something up his sleeve. “We climbed to the top of Mount Washburn where you can see the whole park from,” he says. “And that’s where I proposed, on the top of that mountain.”
Of course, Prasad said yes, and the parks have been a big part of their relationship ever since.
- Of Saguaros and Minority Representation -
I encountered the pair at the Valley View Trailhead in Saguaro National Park, just as they finished their hike through the forest of cacti. Prasad had seen nature documentaries that highlighted the giant saguaros of Arizona, and this past spring they were finally able to see them in person. Since their marriage, they have spent much of their free time in National Parks, and usually try to get their friends and family to go along for the ride.
Prasad’s sister has joined them a few times, but they haven’t had the same luck with the rest of their family or mutual friends. “With my friends, who are mainly nonwhite, there’s this element of not wanting to go to national parks,” says Prasad. “It seems nobody is really interested in going to those outdoor spaces, and they always ask if we can vacation in the city and do things like that instead.”
The two had separate ideas of why it was that their non-white friends and family were often opposed to touring the national parks. Prasad figured it had more to do with exposure as a child and the fact that their parents hadn’t raised them to seek outdoor experiences. Prajapati had a different opinion. He agreed that exposure might be a factor but believed it had more to do with the economic disparity between minority communities and white communities.
I had to bring up the point that in the United States there are plenty of white Americans who are poor, and that economic disparity, although very real, doesn't seem to play as big a role as people might think. In all communities there are people all over the economic spectrum, what changes is what people decide to do with the money they have.
“I mean this whole economic disparity thing, with not having time and choosing your time specifically, I think that's a big thing,” Prajapati says. “Then the appreciation of it is low because you never get exposed to it.”
More than anything it’s a cynical loop. Minorities often do not recreate outdoors because they have not been exposed to it and are therefore uncomfortable in the spaces. Then the ones that do go usually don’t see a lot of faces like theirs and might therefore feel uncomfortable in those spaces. In order to stop the loop, minorities have to be okay with being uncomfortable. We need to take up space in the parks and show that minority and underrepresented groups recreating outdoors isn’t something new, and that nature is not a white-only space.
It’s difficult to hear stories from Prasad and Prajapati where they talk about feeling out of place in the outdoors. These spaces, that are meant for all Americans to enjoy, are usually only fully enjoyed by those with privilege. While at national parks, Prasad says she often feels unsafe when going to stores in the towns nearby, and that not seeing faces like hers ostracizes her from spaces she holds dear. Prajapati’s childhood was filled with being put down for wanting to recreate outdoors. His family would tell him that was a white space, so why would he, a brown man, want to hike outdoors? Experiences like these have slowed progress, and one of the only ways to ameliorate the problem is by defying the stereotypes and reclaiming outdoors spaces.
“I think in the U.S. there's an emphasis on how white people are the ones that know everything about the wild and ecology and are trying to share with everyone else,” Prasad says. “Then you realize when you go to countries like India that the people there, like everywhere else, are interested in wildlife and nature, and it's not just something that white people own.”