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View Winners → Movements Oct 07, 2020
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Latinos care about the environment, even if they don’t always call themselves “environmentalists.” A Yale study conducted in 2019 found that people in the U.S. who identify as Hispanic or Latino tend to be especially worried about extreme weather events and health hazards like pollution, which they are disproportionately exposed to. You wouldn’t be able to tell that by how the environmental movement in the U.S. is usually portrayed — or by looking at who’s in charge of it. Leadership for many leading environmental organizations is overwhelmingly white and male . As the number of young climate activists of color grows, the representation of the movement itself is changing, and they want Latinos to get more recognition. After all, many traditional Latin American customs are sustainable — and often, working-class immigrants from the region also simply can’t afford not to be. “We just don’t look at it the same way that, you know, white people have practiced it, like going outdoors and hiking and Patagonia jackets,” said Crystal Mojica, a communications specialist at Greenpeace whose family is Colombian and Puerto Rican. “It’s about our grandmothers teaching us natural recipes, saving food scraps and having composting in our homes. These […]
