Ronald Trejo walked over 500 miles through California completely alone. He kept walking in spite of injuries on his ankles and fractures in his shin. He even kept walking after waking up in San Jose to find his belongings stolen. In the end, he walked for 40 days from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

Trejo is a USC alum who graduated from the School of Cinematic Arts in 2019. He undertook this walk to advocate for people affected by injustices in immigration enforcement and to raise funds for “The Fractured Fox,” a movie script he wrote about a young man who was followed by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The journey began May 12 at USC and finished June 20 at the Golden Gate Bridge, covering about 530 miles between the two cities. For Trejo, the walk helped him better understand the physical demands of the people whose stories he wanted to tell.

“We are in a society … where people don’t truly understand what it takes to have to sacrifice or give up everything that they have to move into someone else’s world,” Trejo said. “As a filmmaker and a storyteller, these are the things now that I need to do in order to connect more with people through my stories.”

Once on the road, Trejo faced mental and physical challenges of his own. He said he fell “at least a dozen times.” During one stretch near Big Sur, Trejo misstepped while navigating around a tree and fractured the lower portion of his shin.

“The fractures of the shin became a consistent theme throughout the rest of the journey, and it never let up,” Trejo said. “It just was always there, and I had to constantly take these 800-mg ibuprofen all the way through. I was taking two, three of them every six hours just to get through it.”

The physical strain was only part of the struggles he faced. Trejo said long stretches without any companionship left him alone with his thoughts, and sometimes there were moments when he felt like he was ready to “throw in the towel.” Carol Ochoa, who assisted Trejo with social media management during his walk, said Trejo would call her when he became discouraged by the lack of online engagement the project was getting.

“He did have some breakdowns, and there were some times where he was like, ‘Nobody cares about what I’m doing,’” Ochoa said. “I just tried to keep him encouraged and say, ‘You know what, even though it may not look right now like the way you want, you don’t know how the future is gonna be.’”

Nevertheless, Trejo’s urge to advocate for the undocumented community took over, and he kept on walking.

“I felt very strongly [about] what is going on in our nation, the way certain individuals are being treated, undocumented individuals specifically. It’s not just Latinos, but it’s all races and ethnicities that are going through it in some way or another,” Trejo said. “This was my way of sort of saying, ‘Hey, look! I see where you’re coming from.’”

Vanessa Soltero-Alomari, a longtime friend who attended community college with Trejo, supported him throughout the project. She shared his videos on social media and sent him money after his belongings were stolen. Resonating deeply with Trejo’s values, she was struck by his willingness to turn his idea into action.

“The idea of him getting into the mindset of an actual immigrant on foot, that’s something that nobody would have ever put two and two together,” Soltero-Alomari said. “People are still coming into this country now, even with the state and climate of how they can be turned away. … It’s unfortunate that right now the mindset is not allowing [looking for a better life].”

The long walk also connected to Trejo’s time at USC. In an interview with the Daily Trojan last May, before the walk began, he said he chose the University as his starting point because he completed his master’s degree there. He also said that the challenges he encountered at USC taught him lessons he would need later in his career and during his journey.

“I was never the type of person to give up, and that’s actually what my movie also really circles around: resilience,” Trejo said. “The time at USC taught me to pick myself up and be strong, preparing me for what the [film] industry is going to be [like].”

For USC students hoping to combine creative work with advocacy in the future, Trejo said storytellers should listen to others and focus on issues to which they feel genuinely connected.

“Don’t preach. If you think you’re doing enough, I would say push even further. If you really want to be a good storyteller to that issue, then really focus on the ones that affect you the most,” Trejo said. “Just go out there and put your heart and soul into it.”