by Carolina Escalera
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Verde means green and green could mean the solution to a lot of the issues the Latino community is facing.
For a thousand political leaders and activists who traveled from throughout the country to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center here Sept. 14-15 to participate in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 2009 public policy conference on ”Latinos Leading in a Global Society,” the environmental movement was a central part.
Zeroing in on solutions in the world’s energy revolution, it pointed to new directions for Latino green, including in labor, healthcare and immigration.
“We feel it’s time to start talking about it,” said Gloria García , vice president of strategic communications and events for CHCI. “We can’t afford to let the community be left behind again.”
In an interview with Hispanic Link News Service, President Obama appointee Lisa Jackson, top administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, offered a number of reasons why she is working to get the Hispanic community fully on board with the green revolution.
“My goal is to open the dialogue,” Jackson said. “We want to broaden the idea of environment. Our fault is that the movement tends to talk about things like wide-open spaces. But it is also about clean air and finally seeing asthma rates go down,” She stressed that issues such as pollution can have disproportionately greater negative impacts on Latino communities.
“Nearly 30 million Latinos — 72 percent of its number in the U.S. population
— live in places that don’t meet U.S. air pollution standards,” she said. Whether pollution increases in a community, she cited, can depend on something as basic as new businesses opening up and their impact on a community’s health.
She emphasized, as has President Obama in several of his speeches, that a clean energy economy does more than improve a community’s health, “It translates into jobs.” Secretary of Labor Hilda Solís spoke during another CHCI session and reiterated the potential payoff for Latinos who become part of the green revolution.
Green jobs pay 10-20 percent more on average than comparable jobs in other fields, she said. Solís encouraged Latinas as well as Latinos to seek out careers in math and science.
García said that one of the ways the Hispanic community can tackle immigration issues is by encouraging more of its members to pursue education in math and the sciences. CHCI has partnered with the STEM Consortium for many of its programs. It has expanded its graduate and young professional fellowship offerings to include STEM fellows.
The CHCI conference also featured some examples of Hispanic business ventures and entrepreneurship that are making strides in the green revolution.
Robert Hertzberg, director and co-founder of G24 innovations, which designs and manufactures solar modules, spoke during a session on Latinos developing more leaders in the green revolution.
“It used to be about rich people. It has been a top down revolution,” Hertzberg said.
“That isn’t sustainable and it is not right. We have that power. We have to deal with economic and environmental justice.”
Anyone can be a part of it, he said. “The notion of green jobs is critical, but a cornerstone is about owning a piece of the pie, becoming entrepreneurs and joining the companies.”
Jackson also ended her presentation with a call for action. “We want to ensure that Latinos are securing the green jobs of the clean energy future. We want to ensure that they are being heard when they call for cleaner land, air and water and the protections they need to safeguard the health of their children.”
(Carolina Escalera is a reporter with Hispanic Link News Service based in Washington, D.C. Email caroescalera@gmail.com) ©2006
