MONTSERRAT HIDALGO
Activist, Gold Award Girl Scout, co-founder of Youth Action Club
South Gate, California
Like a lot of the kids in Southeast LA, I grew up with asthma. We had health conditions brought on by industrialization, poor air quality and pollution. Because we’re in such a heavily industrialized area, our surface temperatures are high, and that can cause heat exhaustion, too. When you look at other places with higher incomes and fewer people of color, kids don’t have those issues growing up. That’s what got me into environmental justice: the fact that my family was being hit so hard by pollution, and there was something that I could do about it. My advice to others is to start small: Any kind of community you can create, whether it be at school or at home, really helps build the support system that you’re going to need to create change.
NÄ«a MacKnight is a photographer and educator based in Los Angeles. Her reporting centers on Indigenous ecologies, urban health and youth rights. We welcome reader letters. Email High Country News at editor@hcn.orgor submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline I Am the West.
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