Criaturas: Encontrando Nuestras Raíces Juntos

(Criaturas: Finding Our Roots Together)

Written by Mama Jazmin, Criaturas Co-lead

There is something quietly powerful about hearing Spanish spoken in the forest. This spring, a small group of families gathered under a canopy of trees in the East Mountains, babies on hips and toddlers at heels, drawn together by something more than a shared love of nature. We came with a common thread woven through each of our stories, a language, a culture, and an ambition to pass something precious down to our little ones.

That gathering became Criaturas.

The name itself has a little story. When we set out to create a bilingual companion to our Tree Tots program, the first instinct was simple translation: pequeños. It was accurate, sweet even. But then Ms. Sally discovered ‘criaturas,’ meaning little creatures, and something clicked. The word carries a dual meaning that pequeños simply couldn’t: it honors both the children themselves and the living world they’re learning to belong to. The forest is full of criaturas. So are we.

For me, the word carried an even deeper resonance, as that’s what my Buelita calls all children.

And just like that, a program name became something more, a bridge between generations, between grandmothers and grandchildren, between the language we inherited and the one we’re now passing forward.

Guided by myself and fellow SOL Mama Kacie, our 8-week bilingual pilot program for Tots (ages 0–3) has become something more than we anticipated: a community of families actively reclaiming, practicing, and celebrating Spanish as a living tie to who we are.

Every family here has their own relationship with the language. For some, Spanish was the soundtrack of childhood kitchens and abuela’s voice. For others, it’s a bridge they’re building now, word by word, song by song, so their children won’t have to cross it alone later. Some of us are brushing off vocabulary that had grown dusty. Others are learning right alongside our toddlers, neither of us ahead, all of us trying.

We watch our criaturas climb and dig, we follow curious little hands through the mud kitchen. And in between, we share a word we haven’t used in years, laugh when we fumble a phrase, tweak the words to our songs, and feel something warm settle in when a child repeats it back perfectly, accent and all. 

This is what SOL Forest School’s mission has always pointed toward: not just children connected to the natural world, but families rooted in community. Criaturas has shown us that culture can be one of those roots. That Spanish, spoken among trees and soil and birdsong, feels exactly where it belongs.

We are grateful to every family who said sí to this pilot, and we can’t wait to see where these roots grow.

Criaturas pequeñas, raíces profundas.