The story of how I got involved with local guide is rather a story of how the community I live in inspire me to join.
I was born at the border line between USA and Mexico, a town named Mexicali “the city that captured the sun” (they called that way because it’s the second hottest city in the world), though when I was little it wasn’t a relevant place, it’s culture growth has been exponential for the past few years and all of this is due to a reason:
Many people all around the world come here to seek shelter in the USA, but not all have the opportunity to obtain it, many of them stay here at first with mix feelings (you know, it’s hard to leave your home),but It really touched my heart the way the city opened its arms and abraced All the refugees. Our culture enriched in many ways and people found hope.
My story resumes three years ago, I noticed that lots of new places owned by refuguees were opening, offering new art, music, and flavores. they were incredible, but there was one probablem-a: people didn’t know they were opening! The reason for that was that many of the restaurants were established at the city’s old Town (a place that was already being abdondoded by that time)
there wasn’t enough money to pay for advertisement so people would come and the streets there seem to be a maze some times, The local government invested money so the place would be more “attractive” but it was in vain… Hope was being lost, and many refugees were thinking that their efforts were being in vain and with it our culture was dying…
One day my uncle invited me to one of this new places he just found out, he told me the name of the place , but for my surprise when I searched for the place on Google maps I couldn’t find it, at first I thought the app was broken but then I realized the placed wasn’t registered, This made so much sense! People weren’t visiting these places because they didn’t Know how to get there! And believe me you don’t want to be searching for a place outside when the temperature is approximately 122°f, not everyone can afford ac on their cars (or may not even have a car).
After a few months and thanks to the hard work of lots of local guiders many of the shops were settled on the app, after a while I noticed that this places were flourishing and now a days the old Town isn’t the ghost town it used to be, it’s full of new places and people are visiting them.
I really appreciate that my favorite part of the city didn’t disappear, but what really made me happy is that thanks to a Simple tool, ordinary people were able to help those who were in need. Some Times you don’t need a bunch of money to do good stuff, it’s just a matter of Goodwill. These inspired me, since that moment till now I’ve been taken pictures of the beauty of our places (full of diversity) in order to share it with locals and tourists!
I’m proud of being a local guider, I do my best to add my little grain of sand. Some people may see Google maps as simple and practical tool, but after all of these, I see Google maps as a way to connect cultures, people, and hearts!
