Latino and Hispanic people have played a significant role in struggles for racial, economic, and climate justice. In observance of Hispanic Heritage Month, our Senior Policy Analyst for Climate Justice, Catalina Gonzalez, reached out to several Latino advocates and organizers working on the frontlines of climate justice campaigns. The first post in this series, a reflection on the history of Hispanics and Latinos in social movements, can be found here. Today, we are sharing a response from Amy Tamayo of Alianza de Mujeres Campesinas.
As the daughter of Mexican immigrants to the U.S, my heritage guides me in the way I move through the world. I was raised in a small town in Idaho by two parents who were very proud of their Mexican culture and traditions and who courageously passed it down to me, even in an environment that was not always welcoming of it. Although it is something that I always draw strength and motivation from, during Latine/Hispanic Heritage Month especially, I take immense pride in the struggles our Latine leaders and predecessors have overcome to make it possible for us to freely express our culture today. It brings me deep joy to stand in community with my fellow Hispanas and Latinas, celebrating our traditional foods, music, language, and — most importantly — our ability to come together.
An issue that heavily affects Latinas is gender and sex discrimination. As the National Policy and Advocacy Director at Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, the first national organization in the U.S. founded and led by campesinas, or women farmworkers, and who advocate for farmworker women’s rights, I am constantly reminded of the many ways women are mistreated and undervalued. Whether it’s the rampant harassment, gender discrimination, wage gaps, or even violence in the workplace, women are subjected to so many challenges in just a single part of their day. Many also endure violence at home, are dismissed when seeking help, and bear the responsibility of being the primary caregivers and housekeepers for their families. Farmworker women confront all of this, while also being exposed to extreme heat, harmful pesticides, and for nearly half — the added challenge of living without immigration status.
I encourage others to educate themselves on our lived experiences and contributions and to support our calls for equity. Latina farmworkers are among some of the most impacted by the climate crisis, and yet are often not considered or included in important environmental justice discussions. I challenge others to make sure key voices and perspectives are being included and represented in this work and to recognize how much can be learned from farmworker women, many of whom have been movement building and creating change in their communities for decades.
This year Latina Equal Pay Day fell on October 3, the day on which Latina women caught up to what non-Hispanic white men earned last year. The average Latina woman earns just 52 cents for every dollar a non-Hispanic white man earns, marking the largest wage gap in the U.S. — a gap that is even wider in many professions. This lack of economic equity has a lifelong impact on our ability to provide for our families, prepare for emergencies and retirement, and support our families’ next generations. We have a long way to go for Latinas to have the equality, resources, and mobility that they deserve, and I encourage others to reflect on their own biases that could be perpetuating this systemic issue that is hurting us.
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Amy Tamayo | October 30, 2024
Latino and Hispanic people have played a significant role in struggles for racial, economic, and climate justice. In observance of Hispanic Heritage Month, our Senior Policy Analyst for Climate Justice, Catalina Gonzalez, reached out to several Latino advocates and organizers working on the frontlines of climate justice campaigns. Today, we are sharing a response from Amy Tamayo of Alianza de Mujeres Campesinas.
James Goodwin | October 29, 2024
Pending House spending bills confirm that conservative members of Congress are all in on Project 2025. Specifically, I reviewed the nearly 500 “poison pill riders” that have been crammed into those measures, and I found over 300 that were aimed at advancing specific recommendations contained in Project 2025’s comprehensive policy blueprint.
Jenny Hernandez | October 29, 2024
Latino and Hispanic people have played a significant role in struggles for racial, economic, and climate justice. In observance of Hispanic Heritage Month, our Senior Policy Analyst for Climate Justice, Catalina Gonzalez, reached out to several Latino advocates and organizers working on the frontlines of climate justice campaigns. Today, we are sharing a response from Jenny Hernandez of GreenLatinos.
Catalina Gonzalez | October 28, 2024
To recognize Hispanic Heritage Month this year, the Center for Progressive Reform asked Latino leaders in the environmental justice and climate movement to share personal reflections about their heritage and their work on a wide range of cross-cutting, intersectional issues that disproportionately affect Hispanic and Latino populations.
Daniel Farber | October 24, 2024
The Project 2025 report is 920 pages long, but only a few portions have gotten much public attention. The report’s significance is precisely that it goes beyond a few headline proposals to set a comprehensive agenda for a second Trump administration. There are dozens of significant proposals relating to energy and the environment. Although I can’t talk about all of them here, I want to flag a few of these sleeper provisions. They involve reduced protection for endangered species, eliminating energy efficiency rules, blocking new transmission lines, changing electricity regulation to favor fossil fuels, weakening air pollution rules, and encouraging sale of gas guzzlers.
Robin Kundis Craig | October 15, 2024
The U.S. Supreme Court will test how flexible the EPA and states can be in regulating water pollution under the Clean Water Act when it hears oral argument in City and County of San Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency on October 16. This case asks the court to decide whether federal regulators can issue permits that are effectively broad orders not to violate water quality standards, or instead may only specify the concentrations of individual pollutants that permit holders can release into water bodies.
Alice Kaswan, Catalina Gonzalez | October 9, 2024
Around the country, in blue states and red, policymakers are engaging in climate action planning, guided by a far-seeing Inflation Reduction Act funding program — the Carbon Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program — which has devoted $250 million to state, metropolitan, and Tribal planning efforts. A new report from the Center for Progressive Reform, Environmental Justice in State Climate Planning: Learning from California, offers critical insights to help policymakers and advocates working on these plans translate climate goals into action and advance environmental justice.
Joseph Tomain | September 24, 2024
T.S. Eliot was wrong. April is not the “cruellest month.” June is. In slightly over two weeks at the end of June 2024, the United States Supreme Court made mass murder easier, criminalized homelessness, partially decriminalized insurrection, ignored air pollution and climate change by curtailing agency actions, made it more difficult to fine securities and investment frauds, and deregulated political corruption while failing to affirmatively protect women with possibly fatal pregnancies. To this list, add the Court’s July 1, 2024, ruling effectively giving Donald Trump a pathway to an authoritarian presidency by delaying his criminal trials and then, as extralegal protection, effectively immunizing him from the worst of possible crimes. How did we get here? Rena Steinzor's new book, American Apocalypse, makes an important contribution to the literature examining the Right by bringing together several movements that have landed us where we are today.
James Goodwin | September 19, 2024
A government that recognizes that it has an affirmative responsibility to address social and economic harms that threaten the stability of our democracy. An empowered and well-resourced administrative state that helps carry out this responsibility by, among other things, collaborating with affected members of the public, particularly members of structurally marginalized communities, while marshaling its own independent expertise. We believe that these are some of the core principles that should make up a progressive vision of an administrative state.