Emmanuel Portillo was born and raised in Koreatown and South Los Angeles. Emmanuel has worked in education for the last 10 years, working closely with educators, youth, and families to support educational opportunities that cultivate and advance critical and creative thinking, racial equity, and social transformation. An adventurer at heart, Emmanuel is excited about bikepacking through the San Gabriel/Tongva Mountains to connect with the rich, complex, and erased hxstories of native/indigenous people, plants and fauna of the region. Further, some of his long-term goals of this trip is to leverage that experience and knowledge, to develop deep connections with people of the region and support other BIPOC, especially youth, interested in bikepacking.
