BRONX, N.Y. — Pablo Segarra looks out to the horizon. From his Bronx balcony, he sometimes thinks about Puerto Rico. He remembers his first visit to the island at seven years old.

What You Need To Know

  • The LatinX Travel Club is a new members group to promote travel within young Latinos

  • The club will hosts it's first ever conference in Miami this October

  • Ten students from our area will be selected for scholarship trips to Puerto Rico for a cultural immersion program

“Never visited Puerto Rico before. My parents and my grandparents they just spoke about Puerto Rico all the time to me and how much they loved it, and how much they love to go back and visit. The first time I got to go, once I landed I really felt I was home,” Pablo Segarra Esq., CEO-Nexus LatinX Travel Club.

Segarra's life has been an interesting journey. He worked as a police officer patrolling Washington Heights. After an accident, he left the NYPD. He eventually became an immigration lawyer, representing children stranded at the border.

In both careers he felt compelled to speak out for the Latino community. In his free time, he traveled the world, visiting nearly 30 countries in Latin America and Europe. Now he is merging his two passions with the Nexus LatinX Travel Club.

“The love of travel can really help push forward our culture, to be able to bring other LatinX people down to our countries and really able to understand the issues there,” said Segarra.

For now, joining the club is free. Photos and videos of the trips are shared on instagram to display the travel experiences of people like himself – those born here on the mainland, to parents from Puerto Rico or Latin American countries.

“It’s not that we don’t belong in either world, but we belong in both worlds. There is a biculturalism to us that we need to be able to fully celebrate and be proud of,” he said.

To do that, the club will be hosting it's first ever conference in Miami in October, bringing together leaders in the Latin tourism industry. The summit will focus on how to connect people in the Latino community with their families’ places of origin. Ten students from our area will be selected for a free trip to Puerto Rico, where they will be immersed in its culture.

Proceeds from the conference will fund the trips and help launch a foreign exchange program, which will allow students from host countries to visit the United States.

“The best education is travel. It just really,” added the lawyer turned travel entrepreneur.

The student trips are planned for the end of 2021.