Climate Change & Latinos in the Midwest

The state of Ohio and the Midwest is very rich in parks, rivers mother nature beauty is rich in this part of the country and on this mother’s day have to say we do not appreciate it and take care of it like we should. Let’s not forget that the Midwest was home to our amigas and amigos in the Native American community we forget that they can teach us a lot about this land and how to take care of it. It has been a love hate relationship with the Midwest I lived in Ohio and Indiana for a while and what I can not still understand is the reason climate/nature organizations do not include Latinos and other cultures when they have a lot to offer in issues of climate and the environment. Only when I left the Midwest in 2014 did I get the opportunity to get involved with a national group called GreenLatinos that works to promote the Latino agenda in the issues of climate and the environment. The year I got involved with GreenLatinos I was able to attend their second conference at Grand Teton National Park where I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. David Vela the parks superintendent. Superintendent Vela told us that for the National Parks to survive more diverse communities would have to visit and explore our great parks. Meeting Latinos who worked at various climate organizations was great but also disappointing since they were usually the only Latinos and diverse staff in the organization.

Most of my work has focused on working with the Latino community but on the subject of climate and the environment organizations that work on this issues hardly talk about reaching out to Latinos. They believe that the Latino community is only concern about one issue usually immigration which it is important since it still impact the Latino community highly. But in the issue of climate and the environment their is really no attempt to reach out to the Latino community. As the Midwest is growing more diverse as well as our country we need to be aware that if we want to grow as a nation we need to accept that we are becoming more diverse. Especially in the issue of climate change and the environment we need to get people in the Latino community as well as other diverse communities because they do have a lot to share on the subject. Also educate everyone on the issue of climate change since it affects the only planet we live in. So on this mother’s day let’s not forget that we need to take care of it but also cherish our diversity and go out and enjoy it’s beauty and work together to protect it since it is an issue we can only achieve together.

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