JaNell Gore / KERN SOL NEWS
Luz Almanza, founder of the Girls Run Bakersfield club, is taking a new route to making her and others’ voices heard by hosting a co-ed run against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The run will be held at 8 a.m. and will be a 5k (3.1 miles) on Saturday, February 28, at Hart Park.
“I think it’s a healthy way to get your word out there,” said Almanza on why she chose to run. “My why is just creating community for those who may be afraid or who just want to be a part of a community.”
Although the group is typically for women, Almanza chose to have a co-ed run for this because she did not want to exclude anyone from having their voices heard.
“I just wanted everyone to feel like they have a space if they want to come,” said Almanza.
This will be the second time Almanza has held a run against ICE. She said during the first one, someone read a poem, and another gave a speech during the run, and afterward, people told her part of their stories and how they felt about the event.
“They were saying that they were touched, or some were telling me that sometimes they’re afraid to go out because of their status and things like that. So, I’m just glad I was able to be a safe space for people,” said Almanza.
Almanza’s desire to hold a safe space for people goes beyond her run club, as she is also in grad school for social work and wants to be a therapist.
“I love how it’s very person-centered, but also takes into consideration someone’s environment, and someone’s macro-level, systematic things. So that really resonated with me, because I feel like I’m passionate about those things,” said Almanza on why she chose social work.
The run is personal to Almanza because she is an immigrant herself. She and her parents used to visit their family in the States on travel visas, and when she was eight years old, they decided to move to the States permanently.
“So I moved countries, and I was just navigating a whole new language, culture, and education system,” said Almanza. “Now that I think about it, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I’ve done some pretty hard things.
Almanza said it was a full culture shock for her, along with not having her friends and family like she had been used to. One thing she missed in particular about Mexico was the community.
“I’m really big on community just because I think it’s really big in Mexico. People are really friendly and tend to want to get others involved,” said Almanza, reminiscing about her community.
She continued to say that while people say hi to their neighbors, they don’t go to each other’s houses or spend as much time together. Her need for community is what drove her to start the run club originally. When she came back to Bakersfield after leaving for undergrad, many of her friends were scattered across the state, so she started the club.
“I just wanted to create a community for myself, and just meet new people, and I feel like I’ve done that, and I’ve also met amazing people, and it’s also helped me reconnect with old friendships,” said Almanza.
Now every Saturday, a group of about 20 women goes running together at a different location each weekend.
To lawmakers and policymakers, Almanza said she wants to point out that there is an issue with how people are being treated, and she wants to see a change in policy.
“I would want to say that there is an issue, a larger issue, of how people are being treated, the ones that don’t have legal status, and I want to create a policy or a law that allows those people that have been here for most of their life to be able to get legal status without having the fear of being deported or having the fear of being detained,” said Almanza. “I just want to know how we can go about that. Because it’s really frustrating to have these talks with, my peers or my, um, even professionals, and I always come to, like, to an endpoint, because it’s like, Well, what can we do? Well, we can try to change policy.”
More information about the run and the club can be found on the club’s Instagram page: girlsrunb.
