By Nadely Requena, VRG Intern

As a returning intern with The Vegetarian Resource Group, I’ve previously had the opportunity to embark on many adventures with the organization. This time, I was able to attend the Animal and Vegan Advocacy (AVA) Summit for their 4-day in-person event at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center just outside of Washington, D.C. on May 2024.

The summit encouraged anyone working in animal rights, animal welfare, alternative proteins, food system change, and related movements to attend. It was a gathering full of panel discussions, informative workshops, and thought-provoking keynote speeches. It was organized by AVA International.

As someone about to enter their final year at the University of Texas at Austin studying Journalism and Latin American Studies, I was particularly interested in the panels related to diversity, inclusion, and collective liberation. Adding on, my headspace during the summit was particularly clouded as I was overcoming some personal challenges and panels related to mental health caught my attention heavily.

The first day of the conference was dedicated to mostly chatting and getting situated with each other before jumping into the official events the following three days. From what I surveyed, past and first-time attendees of the summit enjoyed this day layout.

I, for instance, excitedly attended the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other people of color) meetup. It was meant to provide a space for those of us from these backgrounds passionate about animal rights and veganism to share our experiences, challenges, and victories in advocacy while building a supportive community. It was here where I met many of the people I would go on to further interact with during the summit.

I can’t stress enough how important these diversity and inclusion spaces are, as someone who’s always been looked at weird for my vegan and environmental advocacy due to my Mexican (Indigenous) background. Many of the common sentiments felt among those in the BIPOC space is that we have to fight harder to make our particular voices heard as opposed to our white counterparts.

I also attended the Latin American Advocacy meetup later that day, organized by Fundación Veg. To my surprise, it really was a gathering of Latin America as it seemed there was someone from every country and that warmed my heart tremendously to speak completely in Spanish and mix in my Portuguese every other sentence. Later that night, I went to the Latin American dinner.

The next day, Friday, was the official first day of events for the summit. I attended many including: “How to Empower Youth in the Vegan Movement” led by four incredibly young activists (one being the 2024 winner of VRG’s scholarship), “Animal Advocacy in Universities and Training the Future Leaders,” “Crustacean and Insect Advocacy,” and “Mexican-American activism”. There truly wasn’t a shortage of interesting lectures, as even another VRG intern found themselves splitting their time between panels happening at the same time so they wouldn’t completely miss one!

The following day I attended three talks: “Integrative Activism for Collective Liberation: the Indispensable Role of Fostering BIPOC Allyship Towards Animal Liberation,” “Advocacy at the Edge: Transformative Strategies in Animal Rights Law and Investigation,” and “Empowering Voices: the Role of DEI in Revolutionizing Animal Advocacy”.

The last one, in particular, was one of my favorite. It was led by Dr. Nelva Lee from MiTio and Naijha Wright-Brown from Black Veg Society. It was all about the importance of having a diverse workforce, improving employee communication, and retention rates. As said in the presentation, “If you want to grow your company or organization, diversity, equity, and inclusion are important and cannot be overlooked.”

The talk resonated heavily coming from Texas where many of the DEI initiatives are being revoked by the Texas legislature since the passing of Senate Bill 17 in 2023. Yet, Lee and Brown spoke heavily on how to appreciate culture, different perspectives, and challenge biases with a mixture of open communication and open listening. As they said, “You can be invited to the party, but not to dance” as a metaphor for people of color continuously not feeling welcomed in their workspaces. It’s in that cross-pollination where productivity occurs.

That night, I got together with other vegan, animal, and environmental activists from Austin and can proudly say that I have made some new friends not only on the east coast, but also in my home away from home, Austin.

On the last day, Sunday, of the conference, I was quite thrilled to hear Braille Ringer, a wellness educator, and Leah Garces from Mercy for Animals, speak on “Personal Transformation for Collective Liberation”. This workshop discussed the importance of “honoring your sacred no and embodying your inherent worth” relating to advocacy work where it’s not uncommon to become burnt out. They spoke about why cultivating spaciousness is important, about the external system and factors that breathe exhaustion, and how crucial it is to divest from animal infrastructure that is making us sick.

A good quote from the session: “You are not so important that you shouldn’t take a break, and too important to not take care of yourself.” It’s a very weird feeling to fight for compassion, but to not be fighting for that for ourselves. The session ended with the following from Ringer: “I am whole, worthy, and divine. I have nothing to prove.”

The summit was, without a doubt, filled with many amazing lectures and exhibits. This summit was crucial to me understanding how I want to view the rest of my career. For a while, I’ve hoped to become a correspondent based in Latin America. That remains unchanged.

My favorite quote from this conference, which I will use time after time: “We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

For information about VRG internships, see https://www.vrg.org/student/index.php