Hi, I’m Christina.
Welcome to the archives of City Girl Rides.
What began as a blog about bicycle commuting grew into something much larger—a space for storytelling, advocacy, and community. Over the years, City Girl Rides and later Cyclista Zine became places where thousands of people gathered to talk about mobility justice, cycling culture, sustainability, and the ways our identities shape how we move through the world.
Although I no longer actively publish here, this archive remains an important part of my journey. These stories represent years of learning, organizing, writing, and imagining more equitable cities and more inclusive outdoor spaces.
I grew up in California and am a proud Chicana and descendant of the Kawaiisu people of the Tejon Indian Reservation. I’ve always believed that walking, biking, and wandering are some of the best ways to know a place. My years commuting by bicycle through college and city life taught me as much about justice, community, and belonging as they did about transportation itself.
That experience eventually led me to study sustainable transportation and mobility justice at UC Berkeley before moving to Brooklyn, where I immersed myself in bicycle advocacy and community organizing. Along the way I worked alongside organizations such as Transportation Alternatives and WE Bike NYC, helped build community through Eleanor’s NYC, and spent nearly a decade working in the life sciences, where I discovered another form of storytelling through data and patient advocacy.
Looking back, I can see that every chapter of my work has been asking the same question:
How do we help people reconnect—to themselves, to one another, and to the places they call home?
Today, that question has led me somewhere new.
I now spend most of my time building Terra Soma Rituals, a botanical wellness practice rooted in community herbalism, somatic practice, and seasonal living. While my work has shifted from bicycles to botanicals, the heart of it remains the same: cultivating connection, resilience, justice, and belonging.
If City Girl Rides was about helping people reclaim their place in our cities, Terra Soma Rituals is about helping people reconnect with themselves and the natural world. Both are rooted in the belief that care—for our bodies, our communities, and the Earth—is transformative.
Thank you for being part of this journey.
Whether you found me through City Girl Rides, Cyclista Zine, or Terra Soma Rituals, I’m grateful our paths have crossed.
The archive will remain here as a record of that work and the community that made it possible.
You can now find me creating under By Christina Torres and at Terra Soma Rituals, where the next chapter continues to unfold.