This video is an episode from AARP’s Real People, Real Stories, a series that celebrates individuals making an extraordinary impact. In this piece, we spotlight Erick Cedeño, a historian and explorer who immigrated to the U.S. from Panama. He travels across the U.S. on his bicycle to better understand the lengths individuals have gone to seek freedom. This specific video chronicles his journey following the 25th Infantry Regiment Bicycle Corps, a Buffalo Soldiers unit.
Our objective for this video was twofold: to show how Cedeño is journeying through America on a bicycle and highlight untold stories from African American history. Cedeño has traced many historical routes of African American groups on his bike, including the Underground Railroad. By taking these arduous journeys, Cedeño is biking in the figurative footsteps of these historically forgotten groups to become closer to their stories.
We used a sit-down interview, archival footage of his 50,000-mile bike journey, and authentic historical photographs to create a raw and authentic story of a modern man seeking out his connections to the distant past. By framing this story through our award-winning series Real People, Real Stories, we sought to inspire others to explore their connections to past historical figures to better understand their heritage.
This video aligns with AARP’s focus on telling underrepresented historical stories through the 50-plus lens. Cedeño was 51 at the time this video was shot, and exploring these untold stories helped him better connect to America as an immigrant. This lens allowed us to create a multi-platform story that could resonate with audiences no matter where they access AARP, through our proven and award-winning series, Real People, Real Stories.
Because this video is about real historical individuals who have been overlooked, it was important to ensure accuracy. During pre-production, we pre-interviewed Cedeño to thoroughly understand both his story and those of the individuals he followed. Additionally, our producer did extensive archival research to find historical photos from the expeditions.
This video was filmed on site in California with a locally-hired crew. Since AARP staff could not be on site, it required extensive planning and communication with folks on the ground. In addition to the sit-down interview, we were able to capture professional biking b-roll and on-handlebar GoPro footage.
By the time we created this video in 2024, Cedeño had already finished his journey following the 25th Infantry bicycle regiment. Fortunately, Cedeño had already captured extensive self and professionally filmed footage on his journey. To allow viewers to feel like they were on the journey with him, we were able utilize this footage to bring an authenticity that would not have otherwise been possible.
The heart of this story is not only Cedeño’s journey, but also the stories and lives of the Black soldiers that he is helping uncover. The video required a delicate balancing act of ensuring viewers identified with Cedeño's personal narrative, but also making sure the audience connects with stories of individual Buffalo Soldiers. This was achieved in the edit through creating a video that was comprised of a sit-down interview, vast number of historical photos and sources, and well as the self-shot footage of his journey.
This video was one of our keystone efforts around 2025’s Black History Month. We published this video across AARP’s social channels and website and additionally was promoted in newsletters as part of our Black History Month campaign. In addition, AARP the Magazine used our transcript to create an article further highlighting Cedeño’s work, which was shared in print and digital editions. This strategy allowed us to elevate and amplify the untold stories that Cedeño is highlighting on AARP’s multimedia properties.
As of June 2025, this video generated over 91,000 views. Viewers on our social media channels connected with Erick Cedeno’s personal historic bicycle journeys, as well as with the individuals he is helping to uncover from this historical era. Many expressed admiration and inspiration from watching his story.
Here are comments from supportive audience members on Facebook:
“Wow! This was the most inspiring story I've seen on a very long time. Awesome job Erick Cedeño! Thanks for sharing this small piece of Black History, of unsung heroes!😇🙏🏽”
“Amazing and inspiring! I needed a Kleenex 🤗”
“Thanks for sharing this timely, informative and important story.”
“Amazing amount of human powered movement.”
“I love this for so many reasons - as a cyclist, a person of color, a history buff and as an advertiser. Using a brand to tell stories that are powerful are relevant create deep affinity. AARP was a white envelope in the mail for my parents - I can now see myself in the potential of this community of what it means to redefine growing old and how exciting, fun, vast and expansive that experience is. @aarp you are going for it and I’m here for it. Officially following.”
