Environmentalism and Economic Justice: Two Chicano Struggles in the Southwest

Society, Environment, and Place

by Laura Pulido

Ecological causes are championed not only by lobbyists or hikers. While mainstream environmentalism is usually characterized by well-financed, highly structured organizations operating on a national scale, campaigns for environmental justice are often fought by poor or minority communities. Environmentalism and Economic Justice is one of the first books devoted to Chicano environmental issues and is a study of U.S. environmentalism in transition as seen through the contributions of people of color. It elucidates the various forces driving and shaping two important examples of environmental the 1965-71 pesticide campaign of the United Farm Workers and a grazing conflict between a Hispano cooperative and mainstream environmentalists in northern New Mexico. The UFW example is one of workers highly marginalized by racism, whose struggle--as much for identity as for a union contract--resulted in boycotts of produce at the national level. The case of the grazing cooperative Ganados del Valle, which sought access to land set aside for elk hunting, represents a subaltern group fighting the elitism of natural resource policy in an effort to pursue a pastoral lifestyle. In both instances Pulido details the ways in which racism and economic subordination create subaltern communities, and shows how these groups use available resources to mobilize and improve their social, economic, and environmental conditions. Environmentalism and Economic Justice reveals that the environmental struggles of Chicano communities do not fit the mold of mainstream environmentalism, as they combine economic, identity, and quality-of-life issues. Examination of the forces that create and shape these grassroots movements clearly demonstrates that environmentalism needs to be sensitive to local issues, economically empowering, and respectful of ethnic and cultural diversity.

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment, Politics, Race, Economics, American History, History

282 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1996

Reviews

[david · Rating 4 out of 5]

fantastic and important book that broadens an analytic of environmentalism to encompass an environmental justice analysis; but it also goes beyond critiques of environmental racism to include "livelihood and cultural domination" (20). the chapter on resource use is especially important and should be read alongside contemporary work on water justice struggles...by engaging resource use politics, Pulido shows also how EJ struggles go far beyond fighting solid waste facilities and include all sorts of struggles for material provisioning.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Pesticide Campaign of the UFW Organizing Committee, 1965-71

[Aida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written and detailed with multiple cases to defend the argument of the complexity of environmental justice issues and the current management styles in the US of these problems.