005: Tiffany & Marcela
In this episode, we're chatting with accessibility traveler Marcela Marañon, known as The Journey of a Brave Woman across social media, on her mission to travel the world to highlight accessibility and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in a wheelchair.
We discussed:
Marcela’s disability origin story
Her mission to learn about and elevate accessibility around the world
Her project in India and future project in Peru
Reflections on conquering Kilimanjaro
What’s next on her travel bucket list
Show Notes
Marcela’s shop: https://thejourneyofabravewoman.myshopify.com/
FAISR at Kilimanjaro: https://howardblas.com/2020/04/21/the-big-push-to-the-top-of-kilimanjaro/
About Marcela Marañon
Marcela Turnage was involved in a car accident 18 years ago due to a drunk driver that left her paralyzed from the waist down, lost her left leg and boyfriend. Marcela is a solo world traveler who knows first hand the hardships and inequalities for people with disabilities who wish to travel. Marcela spreads her happiness and positivism across the globe and brings accessibility awareness to all who follow her story. She has done missions in India where she donated ramps for adaptive youth athletes to empower them to be more independent.
Follow
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejourneyofabravewoman/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarceTurnage/
Transccript
[Opening medley by RootHub]
Tiffany Yu: Hi everyone, it's Tiffany, and I have a really exciting guests on this episode today. We're chatting with Marcela Marañon. Hi Marcela!
Marcela Marañon: Hi, Tiffany. Thank you for having me on your podcast.
Tiffany Yu: Of course, so I always love sharing a little story about how I met all of my guests. And Marcela and I, I guess we, we met on Instagram. She has this really incredible Instagram under the handle @thejourneyofabravewoman. And I have actually been following her for quite some time and saw that she had been posting a lot of content around her journey, or her, her Kilimanjaro trek. And so I slid into her DMs, as one does, because I also hiked Kilimanjaro, and asked if we had the same summit day because I remember seeing the FAISR group. And since everyone was so bundled up, it was hard to tell who was who, so we realized that we actually both had the same summit day, exchanged a couple of Kilimanjaro stories, and I'm just like so excited to have Marcela on the podcast so we can chat all things Kilimanjaro, and more. So, thank you and welcome.
Marcela Marañon: Thank you. It's too much of a coincidence that we both were, you know, at the same time in the mountain. It's just crazy.
Tiffany Yu: I know.
Marcela Marañon: And you know, and when you say, oh yeah I think I saw you in the summit and I'm like, what, so how do you, I mean how, how did we connect here, what's going on, so I guess this is meant to be.
Tiffany Yu: It is meant to be. So, so there's an Emory professor who is very big on sharing disability origin stories. And as you know, you know I founded a disability advocacy organization and so I'd love to hear a little bit more about your disability origin story.
Marcela Marañon: Perfect. Okay, so when I was 20 years old. Well, 19 years old, I moved to America to enroll in college, to learn English as a second language, because my degree in Peru required one. So, a year later, after moving to Dallas, Texas, I was involved in a really bad car accident. My driver was drinking and driving. So, the accident left me paralyzed from the waist down. I lost my left leg above the knee. And also I was, I got an amputation above the knee on my left leg, and also I lost my boyfriend. He passed away in the accident, so it's been 18 years since then. And this is how I became disabled or maybe let's say, abled, because I don't have that the like, you know, like defines me disabled with everything I have done.
Tiffany Yu: For sure. Well, you know, there's also the movement around really wanting to reclaim our own disability identity, so similar to you I got into a car accident when I was nine years old, my dad was driving he passed away. So I also have a type of paralysis but it only impacts one of my arms. And so, my right arm became paralyzed, you know, also lost a loved one and so I just love kind of sharing these disability origin stories because everyone has a different one. Mine happened when I was nine so I've been disabled for over 20 years but still learning, still doing stuff, you know, so I love that yeah. Thank you so much for sharing.
Marcela Marañon: Yeah. It's incredible that we both have similar situations. You lost your, you know a loved one and then you become, you know you you become disabled, you have a disability. So yeah.
Tiffany Yu: Yeah, and it's and it's the type of thing where and the reason why I really like disability origin stories, and Emory professor--her name is Rosemarie Garland-Thomson. The reason why I love these stories is because you know our story it's not just a disability story. It's also--there's grief in there there's trauma--
Marcela Marañon: Overcoming.
Tiffany Yu: Exactly and having to work through all of that is all part of the journey as well. So, you know, despite having that, that really traumatic accident happen, you are kind of on this mission to make the world more accessible. So I'd love to learn a little bit more about kind of what you're doing in the accessible travel space, new projects that you're working on.
Marcela Marañon: Perfect. So I'm not trying to make the word accessible because as you know, it's very hard. You know there's not much awareness and education in the world, you know, for society in general. But what I'm doing right now, I'm using my social media platform to educate, bring awareness about the you know the countryside visit when it's about accessibility. I also try to reach out to organizations that fight for accessibility in their countries to, you know, to grow my connections and also when I, you know, and also have information before I post on Instagram or on Facebook about that country. So, last year, for example, I was in Israel, I was in Jordan, in Hong Kong, in India. So when I was in Israel, I reached out to one of the founders of the biggest organization--accessibility organization in Israel. His name is Yuval (Wagner of Access Israel). When I was in India, I also reached out to Prateek (Khandelwal of Ramp My City). He also runs an accessibility organization there in India. So what I'm doing is I'm just trying to meet them and talk about accessibility, you know congratulate them if they have done amazing work for their communities. And that's what I'm doing right now. I am not really going to countries to make them accessible because I think that each citizen in their country is responsible for that, you know. I'm someone who who travels the world and shows accessibility to all the people who follow me that think that, because they're in a wheelchair, they cannot travel or they're going to face a lot of challenges. And they're going to be facing a lot of challenges, but you know there's also places that are working very hard to make to make their, you know, their sights, accessible.
Tiffany Yu: For sure, for sure and I know that, I think it's just really powerful that you have over 50,000 followers on Instagram. You have a Facebook page too. And the fact that you're using those to really elevate the people that you're meeting or the organizations in these different countries that you are traveling to and highlighting their work as part of, you know, showcasing what's out there for everyone.
Marcela Marañon: That's what I'm trying to do, because I do not want to be that type of chick. I don't want to be a traveler with disability that only posts nice photos and makes nice videos. My mission is, I'm gonna go there by myself. I travel solo. I'm gonna test your city to see if it's accessible. I'm gonna meet with you, and I am going to use our meeting to learn more about accessibility, because I don't know about accessibility. I never went to school and got a degree in it. I know about accessibility because of my own experience, and when I spread these messages on social media, I share my own experiences. I never speak about, you know, "I need this, because this is what people with disabilities need." We understand that my needs are very different from other people who have disabilities, so I'm trying to deliver the right message, but also trying to include everyone in my social media and not make it only about myself. So if you go to my social media, you're going to see people that I have highlighted and tell their stories because this is all about sharing other people's stories and sharing their accomplishments when it's about making the lives of people with disabilities better.
Tiffany Yu: Within the inclusive design world, there's often a saying that you design for one to design for all. So you can only approach your experience with your lived experience at the center and start from there to see how can we design this experience for Marcela? And then hopefully that will be able to have a trickle effect to other people who may have similar experiences. I love the fact that you're sharing the stories from the words of the person him or her or themselves. Firsthand experiences are so important, speaking on behalf of yourself, knowing that you are the expert in yourself.
Marcela Marañon: Yes.
Tiffany Yu: I love that. I also saw that you had a merch store, and a portion of those proceeds supports accessible travel, how does that work? Marcela Marañon Last year when I traveled to India, I partnered with Prateek. He is the founder of Ramp My City in Bangalore and now he made his national. So what Prateek does, is he goes and speaks in corporations and talks about accessibility, work with business owners on how they can improve their accessibility in their businesses with restaurants, bars. So he knows a lot of people because he's very involved into making his city accessible. So I partnered with him last year, and I said Prateek, I love what you're doing. I've been following you on Instagram for a long time. I would love to contribute in India, and start something, start a movement. And I would like to do this in India and then maybe in another country. But for that I need funds, right. So my first accessibility project, when I partnered with Prateek because you cannot go to another country and say I going to donate these ramps, or I'm going to donate this money, and you do whatever with that, right. So with Prateek--you have to reach out to these people from these organizations that are working with wheelchair access and try to make a plan and work with them. Because they have to really get permission from the city and do all of that. They are the citizens of those countries. So, Prateek did everything for me, all I did was is, okay let's have all of this together, you're an expert on this. You know your your community very well, so I'm just gonna go there. I'm gonna donate these ramps, and we're going to host an event for over 20 kids with disabilities, all disabilities, Tiffany, not only spinal cord injury. We had all disabilities, and you can see that on my Instagram page. And Prateek and I did that. I mean, I donated that. It was very successful. The part about this whole mission work that I did is that, in Bangalore, there is a tennis complex. Okay, and this tennis court complex didn't have ramps at all. Tiffany, it was so bad, I was there. In Bangalore, there is a very popular adaptive tennis team. They go and play with different adaptive athletes around India, and these kids are all ages, you know from 13, 14, 15-20, 25. And they all have different disabilities, mostly wheelchair users, and they didn't have ramps to get to the tennis court. And they go to practice three times a week. So they always had to depend on people to help them get into the tennis court. So all I did was, I donated ramps, I made the complex accessible for them. We had permission from the city, of course, and now these kids are able to go to their tennis practice, and do not depend on people helping them to get to the tennis court. So when I donate those ramps, I kind of give them the freedom and the independence to do themself. And that's I want to do. Help people to be a little bit more independent with my project. So I am planning to do the same in Peru, but this year, I launched a T-shirt line, sweaters and T shirts. If I sell one T shirt, I am donating money. But to be honest, this is a brand new business, and I want my projects to do well and I will do anything I can to make it happen. And if I don't have to make profits this year, because I am going to be spending every single dime that I made with my T-shirts this year to make my project accessible, I am going to do it, because that investment is already there. If it multiplies, good, because it's going to contribute to my projects. I'm not a not for profit. And I am not someone that is asking people to donate money. This is something that I want to do. And I think that God has blessed me with so many opportunities. And I just want to give back, and that's what I'm trying to do right now.
Tiffany Yu: It's beautiful. I know you mentioned something about a fundraiser, so is this new merch store to try and do something similar in Peru the next iteration of where you'd like the funds from this merch store to go?
Marcela Marañon: Yes, if you go to my Instagram, you're going to see The Brave Woman shop. I have all my T-shirts and sweaters in Shopify, so if you buy one, that money is going to go to the next project.The investment is already done, and my goal is to not be able to touch any more money from my savings. I want whatever I have invested to multiply to make projects available. I mean, to make my projects possible.
Tiffany Yu: For sure. We'll include a link to the Shopify in our show notes, but it's beautiful messages like, "Be kind to yourself," "Be a good human," "Know your why," "Mental health matters." I love all of this stuff. That's great. And then what exactly is the project in Peru?
Marcela Marañon: So what I'm going to do in Peru. I am working right now because I haven't selected the organization, but I joined a Facebook group in Peru that has lots of leaders that run disability organizations, so I really want to attack the poorest cities in Peru. That's my mission, help the poor. And by doing that, I have to really choose the right organization that is really going to benefit from what I want to do like donate ramps. For example, this year what I want to do and I hope I can make it happen, Tiffany, because this coronavirus is just messing up my whole thing, believe me.
Tiffany Yu: You're not the only one.
Marcela Marañon: People don't want to spend money right now because they don't know what's gonna happen in the next month. But in Peru, what I want to do is go ahead and connect with a school that helps children and young kids with disabilities to get better--empower them to do better or give them good education and stuff like that. So what I'm trying to do is go into that school and make it accessible for them if it's lacking accessibility, like if they don't have ramps, if their doors are too small, try to make their doors a little bit bigger, maybe put some ramps. Also I would like to donate technology, I would like to donate iPads or computers, where they can learn new skills, because we have a lot of good applications--learning applications that they can use to improve their skills. So that's what I would like to do. And for that, I need money.
Tiffany Yu: I love it, I love it.
Marcela Marañon: I have to find the right organization because any of my projects consist on-- I give you $500-$1,000, and you see what you're gonna do. No, my projects are like, I'm gonna do this and I am going to be there to see that you're doing what we agreed. So this is very important to do research and find the right organization that fits your vision, and what you want to do as your project.
Tiffany Yu: Of course, of course, and you want to make sure you do the diligence on finding the right organization. I know there's a nonprofit that's based in Chile, Alvaro and Wheel the World had done some work in Peru around making Machu Picchu wheelchair accessible, and I know they have much larger sites, but not quite sure what the what the scope is but, well
Marcela Marañon: I'm from Peru and it's very hard for someone who is from Chile or from Ecuador or from Colombia to come to other people's country and make it accessible. You know what I mean, so Wheel the World partnered with tour agencies to bring people that they already--to bring tourists to go to Machu Picchu. So these tour agencies are already working with people with disabilities. So they haven't made that Machu Picchu accessible, they are just bringing people to visit Machu Picchu. And that's one of the projects I wanted to do this year. But like I say again, we don't know what's gonna happen. But I wanted to do an inclusive trip for girls to be Machu Picchu. I already had my contractors and my tour operators. They are amazing, they have been doing this for a long time, but back in February, we had like the mud slides and the train rails came off. And then weeks later, the coronavirus. So I don't know how is that right now, I don't know what is the status. I've been in touch with my tour operators. I haven't said no programs, I haven't said anything to the girls that are interested because I want to make sure that everything is back to normal in Peru, because I don't feel like bringing people that--they could be in danger. So I have to wait.
Tiffany Yu: 100%. Yeah, so I love all the messages here around leveraging local expertise, wanting to support local organizations, making sure you're doing the diligence. I think the coronavirus epidemic has really you know put a lot of initiatives on pause because we're just in such a period of uncertainty, but what we'll do is we'll take a quick break and then when we come back we'll talk about all things Kilimanjaro.
[ad]
Tiffany Yu: And welcome back to Tiffany & Yu. We're here chatting with Marcela Marañon, very visible on social media. You can find her at @thejourneyofabravewoman. Before the break, we were chatting a little bit about a project that she's looking to launch in Peru, which I think is a good segue to the remainder of our conversation about Kilimanjaro. But, interestingly enough, the first time that I ever did a high altitude hike was hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.
Marcela Marañon: That's amazing I bet.
Tiffany Yu: I did that in 2017, and now come 2020, both you and I have done the Kilimanjaro trek. What was the inspiration there, is that something that you've always wanted to do?
Marcela Marañon: The opportunity to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, yes came as a blessing for me. To be honest, I was never interested, or was my dream but I think that was a challenge for me is that, something different, very different from all of my travels. I have never, after my disability, I have never been hiking or camping, go for camping. I wanted to do this because this was a new challenge, a new experience for me. The inspiration behind all of this is like, "okay, well I'm gonna use this opportunity that I have right now to be able to spread awareness about inclusivity and accessibility in the most beautiful parts in the world and in the most challenging parts of the world, like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro." So this is why I decided to do that. And that is the reason that kept me motivated to get to the summit. I'm gonna do this because I know that they are very good people around the world like Friends of Access Israel that want to make the world inclusive and accessible. And I support their mission because they go with mine. So that's why I did it.
Tiffany Yu: I love that, and did you do any training?
Marcela Marañon: No, but I go for boxing, I go to boxing classes. So, I bike, I go to boxing classes, and I'm very active so I didn't need to be in the gym all the time. I think boxing once or twice a week is a lot for me. When you travel around the world by yourself, you already have survival skills. You already train yourself, you know, you have this mentality that, I'm going to be okay, nothing will stop me. So, I think that mentally I was already prepared.
Tiffany Yu: Yes, and as a person with a disability, it's like you likely also have had to learn how to adapt and persevere and be resilient and overcome adversity. There's so much mental strength that's already there as well. How did you actually find the whole experience as a wheelchair user, your first time hiking, your first time camping?
Marcela Marañon: Those 15 days were--I learned lots of lessons from that hike. As a wheelchair user, it was very hard for me to adapt to 15 days, with no independence at all because as you know, it is a very steep mountain, and I was sitting in the trekker 24/7. I was depending on my porters, because you know without porters, you're nothing on Mount Kilimanjaro. You have to have your porters. So my porters became my team, and my team became my legs. And so I was always depending on them to do--to get to the next stop. So, to, to answer to your question is that, it is all about adapting your mind and your body into that situation, right. So for 15 days, I had to do that to make it happen.
Tiffany Yu: Yeah. And I think this is also a beautiful lesson. I think one of the things I'm learning as a disabled person is, I just grew up being hyper-self reliant and hyper-independent, because I felt like asking for help was a sign that--would remind me that I was disabled, and then it would reinforce these messages, but I'm also learning beautiful lessons about interdependence and the fact that the only way we move around in this world is by connecting with other people. And that was actually one of the lessons I learned that Kilimanjaro, which is, you know, I had to--the porters and the guides were so wonderful. They offered to carry my pack. I had to--someone from my group and one of our guides, holding each one of my arms, as I was making it to the summit. I literally needed people to help hold me up because I just was--it was hard.
Marcela Marañon: Let's be honest here. We need that people, we need them, we need them to conquer the mountain. And you really learn humbleness. Because you see these porters, they are very poor, they don't have the right equipment. They don't wear the right equipment, they don't use the right equipment, they don't have the clothes for this kind of mountain, for this kind of trekking. And you see them. They are poor people that has one of the hardest jobs in the world. And they're happy. They're happy, they're always singing. They are always with a lot of energy, they're always willing to help tourists all around the world, and you learn to be humble, and you learn to do not be able to egotistical because you lose everything. That mountain is very challenging in so many ways, because if you think that you are the best of the best, once you are on that mountain, you really aren't.
Tiffany Yu: It's so true. I love this. All of the porters, all of the guides, everyone is there to help us make our dream come true of making it to the summit. It's such a selfless, beautiful act and the amount of positivity that they have--
Marcela Marañon: We do this together, we conquer the mountain together. And actually, the most beautiful thing here is that your victory, you conquering the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, is also their victory. You know what I mean.
Tiffany Yu: Yeah, yeah. One team, one dream. So, I want to chat a little bit more about summit day. For those who haven't hiked Kilimanjaro, you end up making it to something called Gilman's Point. That's kind of the first checkpoint, then there's Stella Point, and then there's Uhuru Peak at the end. I know just following some of your posts on social media, you ended up making it to Stella Point, is that correct?
Marcela Marañon: That's correct. We were in these trekkers, and it was--the trekker were very--when we got to Kibo, did you stay in Kibo? Okay, so when you ascend to the summit, you know that it's very steep, right. There's a lot of rocks to get to the summit, to get to the peak. And it took us a little while to get to Gilman's, more than anybody who doesn't have a disability. I made it to Stella very late because the path from Gilman's to Stella is very narrow. And did you see that cliff? That was super scary.
Tiffany Yu: Yeah, yeah, well it was a very narrow path, and it was also very icy.
Marcela Marañon: And it was very windy in Uhuru and it was very icy for the trekkers. So the leader of the Paratrek team, the owner of the Paratrekkers decided to not continue. The four people with disabilities should not continue going to Uhuru because it's too windy, it's too icy, and it can be too dangerous. So that's why I got to Stella, and I couldn't move forward because I was stopped by Omer, who decided not to take us all the way there with.
Tiffany Yu: How did you feel about that?
Marcela Marañon: It was freezing for me. I was already--
Tiffany Yu: I was wearing 7 layers.
Marcela Marañon: I don't know if you saw me, but we were wrapped with sleeping bags. We have nine layers. We have four layers to protect our legs. So, how can I say--to avoid hypothermia, we had to cover ourselves. For me, I really wish I made it to Uhuru and take my photo. But to be honest, I am not trying to impress anybody. Stella was fine for me, if that was for my safety and the safety of others. I am happy that stopped at Stella. And if people said, "did you climb Mount Kilimanjaro?" I did, I trekked Mount Kilimanjaro and I got to the summit. I don't have to prove to you that I made it to Uhuru, just to look cool. I was in the summit and that's enough for me.
Tiffany Yu: Your group leader knew what the conditions were. You also know yourself well and the conditions. And the funny thing s, it's like you see all these photos, but it was so hard, like the photos don't capture how difficult that summit was, and to get to Uhuru Peak, to get to any of the points, Gilman's or Stella, or Uhuru, to even just get there is so hard. My full summit day was 16 hours, and as you know, we sleep two or three hours before waking up at midnight or 1am to start summit day. It was a very long day. I actually had, and I want to share it with you because we both have similar disability origin stories. I just had this beautiful moment on the mountain where--because all of our guides were men, all of the people who were in my smaller group who were a little bit slower were also men, and we were all just helping each other. It really just reminded me of my dad and the fact that he really gave my sense of adventure. It's only been within the past couple of years that I have been exploring more adaptive sports, so like learning how to ride a bicycle again, going adaptive rock climbing, exploring hiking. And the nature of our disabilities are different so we'll participate in different sports or we'll use our own adaptations however we need to, but I just had this wonderful moment of feeling like he was there with me that day.
Marcela Marañon: And I bet he was, Tiffany. Once you are in that in the summit, it's just unbelievable and you get very emotional and you start thinking about how blessed you are. And not only that it's like, man, if I was able to climb the summit, I can conquer anything in my life.
Tiffany Yu: Exactly, yeah, it's funny because when I came back from Kilimanjaro, I came back right into the beginning of this COVID-19 outbreak. And after you come back from Kilimanjaro, you're just like, I'm on top of the world. I can do anything. And then, now we're all in our homes.
Marcela Marañon: That's exactly how I feel.
Tiffany Yu: But I'm grateful because I remember thinking that I had booked that trip too soon, and that I wasn't giving myself enough time to train because I'm not normally very active. But I couldn't have picked a better time because if it had been a week or two later, there likely wouldn't have been a chance that we would have an opportunity.
Marcela Marañon: Yeah, I agree with you. And the opportunity to meet each other. Because it's just too much of a coincidence that we were there at the same time, and also meeting on social media, you know.
Tiffany Yu: I know, and there was a part of me that--I did want to approach the FAISR group because given the nature of my work, I always want to learn about why wheelchair users or people that have different disabilities have decided to do something so challenging. But I was just so sick. I did not have any energy so very serendipitous that I started seeing your posts afterwards. And I just remember for probably the next month after Kilimanjaro, I just could not stop talking about it, so thank you for giving me another opportunity to relive that experience because it was so real and it was so valid and I don't want it to be another trip.
Marcela Marañon: Exactly, I don't want it to be another trip either because you cannot compare this kind of trip with any other one. No. I have been to many beautiful places around the world, and Kilimanjaro is the top for me. It's at the top of my list right now of the most beautiful places I have visited because I learned lots of lessons. And so, lessons that I didn't learn when I was traveling to the other beautiful places in the world.
Tiffany Yu: Yeah, yeah. And what's next on your travel bucket list when all of this sheltering in place is over?
Marcela Marañon: I wanted to travel to Europe, be more in Europe. I heard Barcelona is very wheelchair-friendly and I wanted to go and see that, because I don't go by what people say is alright, I just want to see it with my own eyes. I wanted to go to Barcelona. I wanted to go to Italy because one of my one of my goals is to visit the Seven Wonders of the World. So far I have been in four. I have been in Mexico, I have been in Peru, I have been Jordan, and the other one that I have been is Taj Mahal in India. So I wanted to go to Italy to go to the Colosseum. So after Barcelona, and then from there, I wanted to go to Turkey and then back to Israel.
Tiffany Yu: Sounds like there's a big Eurotrip in your future.
Marcela Marañon: I wanted to do that for three months once my girl goes with her dad. Because I am divorced and my ex husband always takes my daughter the whole summer. It's his job. So I'm taking my break, and I want to travel. So that's what I'm doing and that's what I wanted to do this summer. I don't know if that's going to be possible, and then after that I wanted to come back and go to Peru and make this accessibility project possible, then do my Machu Picchu with the girls, but I don't know. Right now, all I have to do is just live day by day and pray for the best.
Tiffany Yu: Exactly. And, just like we always do, we adapt.
Marcela Marañon: Yes, adapt, and hope for the best. And always stay positive. If you stay positive--if you plan too much, I don't think this is very fun. I don't like to plan my things 100%, to be honest, Tiffany. I know that when you hang with people, you have to, but in my case, I go by myself, so all I have to do is worry about myself. So I don't I don't plan it to the fullest. I just go with the flow.
Tiffany Yu: Solo travel is something that I would love to do more of. So, I'd love to close by just asking, how can we support your work? I know you have this merch store. Where can we find you on social media and how can we better support you?
Marcela Marañon: Yes, you can support me by by purchasing my T-shirts so I can make my accessibility projects available. Check out my website and read my blogs that I'm going to be posting soon. That's how can you support me. And this is how I want to end this, Tiffany. Do not do things--if you want to support me do it. But the best gift, or the best support that you can give me is, if you help someone else that is near to you. You know what I mean, like for example with these coronavirus thing, there are so many people with disabilities that are in their homes, they cannot leave their homes because they're very vulnerable to catch this virus. And it can be very fatal for them. So they don't have many families, they don't have many friends who can help them buy--who can help them go to the grocery store for them. So it's very good--it will be nice and probably you're gonna post this podcast later--later than the whole pandemic. But I think that it's very important to help people with disabilities on anything because we are very forgotten community. So, if you like my story, if you want to support me, all I'm asking you is that, support my community, advocate for my community on accessibility and inclusivity.
Tiffany Yu: I love it. And on that note, thank you so much Marcela for being on my podcast, excited to follow your work.
[closing medley by RootHub]