1915: “The Mather Mountain Party” with Chef Tie Sing and National Park Service director Stephen Mather.
Courtesy of National Geographic.
Mainstream environmentalism has reserved the term “environmentalist” for a narrow group of actors, neglecting the broad scope of issues that affect our environment and possible solutions.
This narrow vision of environmentalism presents immigrants, working class, and communities of color as uninterested or impeding a clean environment. But scholars and activists show that these communities face greater threats from environmental problems such as air pollution, water contamination, and industrial hazards. They are also vulnerable to environmental solutions such as conservation practices that segregate poor communities, recycling centers that pollute ethnic minority neighborhoods, and population control policies that target immigrant women’s reproduction.
Broadening our vision of environmentalism deepens our understanding of the environment and the diversity of people who protect it. Environmentalists like Parent Pioneers—comprising immigrant mothers and grandmothers—seek equity in their neighborhood through everyday practices of care.
1909: Hermann Neumann and workers on Neumann Farm in Oxnard, CA.
Courtesy of Oxnard Public Library.
Say Tang with her family at the Hong Kong Refugee Camp. She resides in Oxnard, CA.
Courtesy of Frances Tang.
1945: Japanese and Mexican workers gather by a delivery truck for Flower View Gardens.
Courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library.
1959: Angustain family evicted from home in Chavez Ravine.
Courtesy of UCLA Special Collections.
1986: Mothers of East L.A. oppose an East L.A. Prison.
Courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library.
2019: “Bolsa Desechable” card from an environmental Lotería game created by Victoria Rodríguez Ramírez of Parent Pioneers.
Courtesy of Victoria Rodríguez-Ramírez.
2019: “How Grandmother Spider Stole the Sun” dramatization at Parent Pioneers’ annual Family Literacy Festival.
Courtesy of Alonso Garcia.
2019: Vendor sells fresh fruits and vegetables in Panorama City
Courtesy of Azeneth Martinez.
2019: Grandma Say Tang working in her backyard garden
Courtesy of Frances Tang.
1920s: Mama SooHoo, Owner of the historic Chicken Inn and mother of Oxnard’s first Chinese American mayor
Courtesy of Bill Soo Hoo Collection.
1920s: Children playing in Oxnard China Alley
Courtesy of Oxnard Public Library.
2019: Parent Pioneers at the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve
1959: LA Sheriff Deputies carry Aurora Vargas from Chavez Ravine home
Courtesy of UCLA Special Collections.
2019: Parent Pioneers in the classroom
Our Point of View
Students and faculty in the Asian American Studies Department at UC Santa Barbara and Chicana/o Studies at CSU Northridge are proud to bring together the interconnected histories of environmental justice across immigrant communities. Partnerships with organizations like Parent Pioneers remind us of the power of community-based research and activism, and our intertwined fates. What has been most rewarding is learning and teaching about the historical legacy of environmental justice that shapes access to affordable housing, immigrant rights, gender rights, and labor and educational equity.
—California State University, Northridge and University of California, Santa Barbara
Padres Pioneros/Parent Pioneers is a local grassroots organization established 25 years ago composed of immigrant Latina mothers and grandmothers addressing education and environmental justice in low-income communities. Their mission is to work with schools to develop families’ capacity to support their children’s academic success and to increase their environmental awareness about how to care for and love Mother Earth.
—Padres Pioneros/Parent Pioneers