The Press-Enterprise
Published May 17, 2004

Environmentalists woo Latinos

By Jennifer Bowles

MEETING

FORUM: The activist groups start an outreach campaign and a Web site.
Water and land are key.

When: 6 p.m. Tuesday

Where: San Bernardino, Villa Senor Library

Address: 525 No. Mount Vernon Ave.

Information: (909) 889-2799

Seeking to reach out to Inland Hispanics, local and national groups will hold a forum Tuesday night in San Bernardino to raise awareness about environmental issues.

"There's a very strong awareness growing on the part of the people as to the destructiveness of the environment that is taking place," said the Rev. Patricio Guillen, executive director of Libreria del Pueblo, an Inland nonprofit geared toward helping Hispanics.

"We want to create a social awareness among people so they can become a more active advocacy group rather than just taking for granted that our legislators are going to do it for us and everything will be dandy."

Other environmental groups welcome the support.

"For us it's critically important that we get all sorts of new constituents joining the fight for public lands, and everyone's recognizing that Latinos are going to have the potential to play a large role in the protection of public lands," David Slater, a Wilderness Society spokesman said by telephone from Washington, D.C.

Guillen said Hispanics should become more active in the issues that affect the air, water and land used by everyone.

In many cases, however, low-income and minority communities live near polluted areas, Guillen said. Groundwater pollution lurking below Rialto, for instance, has tainted 20 drinking-water wells used by the city and neighboring Fontana and Colton.

Guillen will speak at the forum at the Villa Senor Library, which will be mostly in Spanish. Sabrina Parra-Garcia, an organizer for the National Hispanic Environmental Council and the California Wild Heritage Campaign, also will speak.

"These communities sort of have a burgeoning sense of the environmental factors that impact them," she said. "Right now, they're only interested in the ones they see, but some of these are related to issues on a grander scale."

The council recently joined mainstream environmental groups in supporting a federal wilderness bill that would preserve public lands in California, including 400,000 acres of forest and desert land in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Part of the reason, Parra-Garcia said, is because preservation of forests helps protect the source of drinking water for urban users.

Mainstream environmental groups are increasingly attempting to court the growing Hispanic population. On Friday, the Wilderness Society launched a Spanish-language campaign, "Nuestras Tierras," that will use radio and newspaper ads to create awareness and inspire activities on public lands. A Web site, also will feature information.

The campaign, in partnership with the Hispanic Radio Network, which has AM affiliates in the Inland area, will focus on public lands across the West, including the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument, the scenic backdrop for the Coachella Valley.

© Copyright 2004 by The Press-Enterprise