Bringing Los Angeles’ Spanish-speaking community into climate conversations

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00:00I grew up in central Mexico. One of the most prominent issues that I remember

00:04like growing up with was the lack of like water and the access to water. We

00:09would go sometimes like days or even weeks without it. Those struggles fueled

00:14Maite Abrica's passion for environmental work. Now at USC, Maite is helping more

00:19people understand climate issues through advocacy and storytelling. Once I came

00:24over here and I immigrated and learning more about the environment, climate change,

00:28and then environmental justice, it became a really rooted issues. It kind of

00:33helped shape my view of like the different disparities in terms of the

00:40environment. In 2024, Abrica co-founded the bilingual newsletter

00:44Sustainability Sin Fronteras or Sustainability Without Borders. The

00:49newsletter serves the Latino community in Los Angeles with articles in Spanish,

00:53professional development opportunities, and information on environmental events

00:58nearby. We try to be as accommodating as we can by like making the

01:05information more digestible, making it more in simpler terms for everyone to

01:09kind of understand. And then in terms of language, we use both English and

01:15Spanish. Uno es trabajar, tratar de traducir el trabajo y otro tratar de traducir

01:21este cualquier frase. Y también el trabajo es traducir el valor de este tipo de trabajo.

01:29Also doing this work is Miguel Ordeniana, an environmental educator and wildlife biologist,

01:35who has been featured in the newsletter. I grew up here in Los Angeles, so I my

01:42perspective on nature, my perspective on science is really informed by my

01:49multiple identities. I identify as a proud descendant of Nicaraguan immigrants who

01:56worked really hard to create a better life for the next generation. In his role at the

02:02Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Miguel leads community science projects, helping

02:08LA residents discover wildlife in the city. My community is historically excluded from

02:13environmental education, scientific research opportunities, and I want them to be part of

02:19this conversation as, especially like when we're working on projects, working in a community

02:23called El Sereno in LA, and the 80% of the the community is identified as Latino.

02:31To involve community members, Miguel leads events like the annual bilingual community

02:36habitat survey at Edelton Hill, a rare 150 acre green space in El Sereno. Here, residents

02:43of all ages are invited to connect with nature, learn about native species, and take part in

02:49education that speaks to their lived experiences. We are going to have two of our team members

02:57that are fluent in Spanish, be translating all the training, all the orientation, and offering

03:04to be on these hikes with community members that maybe have somebody in their group that

03:10may just feel more comfortable speaking in Spanish. Being out in nature is very healing. So events

03:16like habitat surveys in Elephant Hill is something where you can be out in nature and do something

03:24that you normally don't do in cities sometimes because you're always indoors or surrounded by

03:29buildings and things like that. My daughter is going to have the access to this and there's

03:34hope that areas like this are going to be preserved for future generations and people of all ages

03:41and backgrounds are standing up for it.

03:47A lot of the joy from my work comes from when maybe I'm speaking with my younger sibling or a family member

03:54or a neighbor or a friend that may not know about what's going on. Making that little difference or at least

04:01changing someone's perspective or at least having them think about it, you know? I think it's a step in the right direction.

04:08For PBS News Student Reporting Labs, I'm Jose Guzman-Wook in Los Angeles.

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