no one said that you know being part of activism was easy but you cannot stay silent when your community's earned an attack I was born in the United States I am an eighteen year old freshman at Los Angeles Harbor college my dad is Guatemala and my mom is Salvadorian they marketed here in 1991 my dad's a construction worker he's a labor foreman while my mom cleans houses I'm the first person in my family to go to college I am involved with addressing environmental justice issues in communities of color and low-income more affluent communities are being
protected so it's about environmental racism people need to know about what is going on because climate change starts in the hood Wilmington is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles it's a neighborhood with over 50,000 residents the great majority of whom are Latino it is a working-class and low-income community and is burdened by multiple polluting sources it is the third largest oil field in the country you have three huge refineries you have oil drilling that's peppered throughout the neighborhood kids on a daily basis walk by operations beyond residential streets on their way to and
from schools [Applause] there is a huge drilling operation right next to a little league baseball field we have the part of Los Angeles which is a major source of diesel pollution you have the 710 corridor the alameda corridor which have major diesel truck emissions [Music] environmental injustice is the disproportionate citing of polluting sources in particular communities that these industries feel are not going to speak up they're polluting our air polluting our water they're polluting our soil my community is at a 60% higher risk of developing cancer than other communities [Music] there's asthma there's a lot
of bronchitis I have asthma my little sister 9 years old 7 the symptoms of asthma we have a human right to have clean air clean water clean soil we shouldn't have to be subject to leaving because of the fact that there's pollution the pool should leave not the people this year I met Brandon he's a new student to the ASO which is the Associated student organizations and when we've talked about his things that he wants to do to make a difference in our school in our community I was very impressed so the first resolution I
will be presenting today is the green technology implementation Act and whereas the lack of proper environment of education my activism has led me into being interested in politics I'm a Senator in my student government and currently I am running for president for my student government all these refineries all these oil drilling sites they fund a lot of things in our community you know they fund youth in government they find the YMCA they fund businesses that's a way to silence our community LA Harbor college is thinking about restarting a program called process plant technology to help
students from our school get jobs in the refinery Brandon doesn't feel that's a good thing he's concerned that we shouldn't have a collaboration with them we should work with them to find ways to not be polluting our community there's obviously an argument about the fact that the only issue provides jobs but these are jobs that not only pull with the committee pollute the workers as well our community shouldn't have to settle for polluting jobs we can do much better than that and that's why we believe in a just transition from an economy based on oil
to an economy based on clean energy I think that we should put you know people over profit not profit over people [Music] this is really about savings our species our livability our habitat preserving our environment as a whole for future generations and really respecting our natural resources and everything that composes the the fabric of our environment that we are dependent on it's really about self preservation what if this happened in your committee you know what would you do to fight this the fight will never stop until it's all shut down that's the goal to to
have no mori polluters in our community I will be loud and we will not stop biting and so we have the right of clean air clean water to feed so now I'm going to get into the election results the students that came in second place with 36% of the 210 votes was Brandon Malina and Joseph Reyes and our election winner was [Applause] it never leaves my mind the fight for environmental justice never leaves my mind and that motivates me to do good in school after I get like my bachelor's of political science I want to
go to law school I want to become a civil rights lawyer what we eat is a healthy decision and I want to run for public office one day time machine starts in our lives and we must represent you know being a congressman and a senator or even president one day you know we'll see about that we will resist we will build a mule rise we need to empower one another the Nords to create change in our communities you you
