RAR Bay Area

RAR Bay Area is currently led by non-binary and femme folks with Brazilian, Chinese, Mexican, Filipina, Honduran, and Salvadoran heritage, with intersections of LGBTQIA, masculine/femme, and cis-gender identities. We are here for two things: to decolonize and to live in joy.

To us, decolonizing is co-creating and deepening the current labor of love that radical cycling communities are working towards to create bike spaces that directly support communities of color that center the experience of Indigenous, Black and Brown cyclists while also honoring the land we ride on. Celebrating joy means creating a space for healing,community growth, creativity, cultivating confidence and community, while planting seeds for future generations. 

We are interested in continuing to uplift the vision of those that came before us while coming together with our passion for: adventure, community and celebration.  

*Community organizations that have inspired and informed our work include: Root to Bloom, Cycle Healers, Bicis del Pueblo in San Francisco, Los Angeles Rooted/Roots In Motion, and 718 Cyclery in Brooklyn, NY. 

*We would like to honor the co-founders who started the Bay Area Chapter, a group of women from Mexican and Chicanx, Salvadorean, Colombian, Filipinx, Dominican, Puerto Rican,backgrounds with intersections of queer, questioning, pansexual-bi, femme, cis-gender identities. The original cohort met for the very first time after finding one another through Bay Area Bike Folx, a community that has made it possible for FTWN-B cyclists to find one another throughout the Bay Area. Through these connections, we sought to uplift the importance of environmental, transportation, and decolonial justice by investing our gifts, passion, and commitment to our communities into this chapter. 

Natalia

Natalia (they/them) is a Mexican-American child of immigrants. Currently residing in San Jose, ancestral lands of the Tamyen tribe. Always keeping it real, unafraid to stand up for their beliefs and for other people on and off the bike. Typically unafraid to push themself to learn and always looking for people to join them in trying new things.

@nataliusca_

Emma

Emma (she/her) is of Cantonese heritage, and was raised on the unceded ancestral lands of the Chumash, and the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ peoples, in sunny SoCal and the rainy PNW respectively. Emma now resides in Yelamu, on the unceded ancestral lands of the Raymatush Ohlone. She believes that bikes are vehicles for fun, friendship and freedom. And that everything is better with ice cream.

@justemmaing

Sophia

Sophia (she/her) is a Brazilian-American who was raised between South Africa, Brazil, Seattle, WA and Eastern Oregon. From using a bike to complete her newspaper routes as a child to bikepacking as an adult, Sophia strongly believes in the power of cycling to nurture adventure, self-confidence, and an environmentally-centered understanding of the world. She is passionate about adventure preparedness. Sophia currently resides in Oakland, CA, the ancestral lands of the Ohlone people.

@phia_scsc