Publication Date

Summer 2023

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Chicana and Chicano Studies

Advisor

Johnny C. Ramirez; Christine Vega; Jonathan D. Gomez

Abstract

Ingenuity and tending to the land are anything but contemporary to Communities of Color (COC). Even when our communities become targets of environmental racism and experience the brunt of institution-based degradation, COC resist in a multitude of ways. While there is a plethora of documented social movements led by the Chicanx community for civil, educational, and labor rights, there is a paucity of Chicanx presence in environmental discourse. Thus, my scholar-activist commitments are to highlight Chicana/Latina herstories, epistemologies, and praxes that debunk the narrow white-heteropatriarchal male narrative in mainstream environmentalism. This dominant narrative fails to: (a) address the historical and contemporary analysis of settler colonialism, (b) recognize that environmental degradation disproportionately impacts Communities of Color, and (c) acknowledge that Women of Color have been at the forefront to protect natural and neighborhood environments. By illuminating the histories and intergenerational epistemologies of Chicanas/Latinas, I foreground their dynamic connections to the land, and I identify how “sustainability” and “environmental activism” are racialized terms that actively overlook the contributions by Women and Communities of Color.

Download

Included in

Epistemology Commons

Share

COinS