Day 3: LJI and Montgomery & Andrews

Kamil Cook & Natalie Festa

There we were; digging dirt, listening to Johnny Cash, and getting hailed on in Albuquerque. How did we get there? Let’s start from the beginning.

We woke up from our second night in Santa Fe to Ivan telling everyone to eat breakfast. So, we ate breakfast, and got ready to head to Albuquerque. The drive was about an hour long and we arrived around 9:00 am. The first community partner we met with was Los Jardines Institute.

They were in a neighborhood just outside of the Albuquerque city limits. Behind their house was a garden with a greenhouse and a mural painted by different people in their community. Sofia led us through their main room and were surrounded by books, social justice political stickers and posters, and Chicanx movement things. They also had a table set up with snacks and juice for us. We started the conversation by going around the table and talking about our majors and home states. Sofia and Richard (who came in a bit later) wanted to know where we were from because they wanted to show us the national extent of the environmental justice movement. This meant a lot to all of us because it showed how they took an interest in us when they didn’t necessarily have to.

Over the course of our meeting, they established how water is intertwined with everything and that, therefore, the environmental justice movement is an intersectional movement aimed at improving the world and the people living here. They emphasized this movement through a grassroots method in which the people directly affected by environmental destruction have the tools themselves to enact positive change. Richard and Sofia were passionate about helping their environment and their community. By creating a local garden and hosting programs to educate the youth of their community and connect them with the elderly, they have shown how much of their lives they have dedicated to their community. They weren’t just focused on their community, though. They understood the power of federal and state laws on their community, so they also talked about national legislation. They were proud of people like Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but they were still critical of them if their work didn’t help their community. For example, the Green New Deal was something they were happy with, but they did talk critically about it for if it would not involve grassroots activists in their plan. Once they were done talking, we were led outside into their garden to help plant onions, lay compost, and move stray twigs and tree branches. Their apprentice, Xavier, helped show everyone around the garden and help make it run smoothly. After about an hour of working it started hailing, and we went back inside for lunch and questions and answers. Sofia and Richard ended our dialogue by emphasizing three things: Give back to your community, don’t forget who helped you get to where you are, and never forget where you came from. After we took a picture together Richard and Sofia hugged all of us and encouraged us to come back and visit them. It was really sweet.

As we drove back to Santa Fe on the way to Montgomery and Andrews Law Firm to meet Jeff Wechsler, attorney at law. They laid out drinks and food for us, and we all sat in a conference room while Mr. Wechsler presented a PowerPoint to us about water in New Mexico through the perspective of the law. He began by talking about a few important cases that were both ongoing and finished. He talked about the Gold King Mine litigation where the EPA is being sued for messing up a clean-up job on an old gold mine. He also talked about litigation with the Sandia National Lab and the Los Alamos National Lab. He offered a perspective we hadn’t heard the whole trip. Overall, it was quite jarring going from a grassroots organization inspired by the likes of Che and Cesar Chavez to an established law firm. However, both organization were incredibly insightful and interesting to listen to. It was really interesting hearing two very different approaches to the same issue and I think it made all of us think about different ways water justice and social justice issues can be solved.

In our meeting with Mr. Wechsler, an attorney who specializes in environmental law at the Montgomery & Andrews law firm in Santa Fe, we learned a lot about the history of environmental cases and litigation in the state of New Mexico. Some of the case studies he discussed included the Gold King Mine, the Sandia National Laboratory, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. We also discussed water quantity issues in New Mexico, an especially important issue because of the state’s dryness, the competition for resources, and the complicated involvement of historical and culturally valued acequias, which are part of the fabric of New Mexico and thus maintain their own water laws and rights. Additionally, we discussed how new water projects must be balanced with conservation efforts, and some of the interstate water disputes that have been taken to the court, in some cases even the Supreme Court. Jeff also discussed how cases depend on the facts and how principles from precedent cases and decisions are applied to nuances in new cases, creating the potential for new laws. He also mentioned the scope of judicial power; judges must be able to make the law fit the case in a way they perceive as fair without damaging future legal principles. In our discussion, we discussed how this perspective of water justice through a legal lens was valuable because of the crucial role the court and the law have in either inhibiting or allowing long-term change to be created; it is through these legal battles that grassroots organizations and other advocates of the Environmental Justice Movement can move forward or be set backward.

The community focus of LJI stood out to all of us as we discussed the day in our reflection that night. Their emphasis on the inter-connectedness of all the communities they serve, the issues they address, and the principles they stand by helped us understand the unique approach of this organization, and how it has been so impactful serving its communities. Their mission statement reflects this emphasis, through specific goals to “build and support healthy and sustainable communities and workplaces” through “multi-generational learning, sharing, and movement building." The clarity of this mission connects to their different programs—the Environmental and Economic Justice Project, the Agricultural Project, and the Literacy/RESIST (Reclaiming Education through Self-Determination Intergenerational Storytelling & Traditional Knowledge) projects.

Additionally, we discussed how LJI helped create the Environmental Justice Health Alliance (EJHA), an alliance of grassroots organizations across the country that works to reform the chemical and energy industries so that they no longer damage communities. As we learned about the monumental involvement and accomplishment of LJI in confronting and working to solve environmental justice issues, Richard and Sofia shared their knowledge on the history of both New Mexico-specific and national environmental justice issues. This contextualized the extensive history of environmental racism that has preyed upon vulnerable communities, specifically people of color, for decades. Further, Richard and Sofia stated that these environmental injustices have been so extensive, have disallowed grassroots people a seat at the table, and have been so clearly intentional, that these cases of environmental racism had become an overall environmental genocide—their community has become “expendable." Richard compared New Mexico to a “neocolony of the United States” because of this genocide, which ignores people of color and people from New Mexico and the need for their leadership in education and reform efforts at the grassroots level and beyond.

Another interesting aspect of our discussion with LJI that our ASB found fascinating was the concept that the Environmental Justice Movement is not a nonprofit movement, but a liberation movement, in this community born out of the Chicanx movement. Liberation movements are movements of the “mind, body, and soul”; they move away from the rhetoric of the “I” and move toward the “we.” Richard and Sofia emphasized how this crucial facet of liberation movements is also deeply-rooted in the success of community organizations, which depend on collaboration and teamwork. Further, Richard discussed how community organizing requires a human-focused approach; degrees are important, but they can only get one so far in a movement that requires interpersonal skills, commons sense, and creativity to succeed. As students, we thought this insight was extremely valuable going forward into future projects, experiences, and careers.

The most impactful takeaway from LJI was their unwavering commitment to their community, other communities affected by these issues, and the Environmental Justice movement as a whole. Though they have been hit with countless roadblocks and their communities have been left behind time and time again, they will not be silenced. Richard and Sofia summed up this lifelong perseverance in just three words: “it’s our life.”