Los Angeles, Jan 27 (EFE).- After graduating from a prestigious university, a young Hispanic woman decided to return to her community in East Los Angeles to start a campaign against pollution blamed for an increase in local cancer and asthma cases.
"When I was a little girl, I saw the trains go by and it was a happy thing and fun. We waved to the conductors and I wondered why they didn't have any passengers," 24-year-old Isella Ramirez says of her childhood in the small city of Commerce, six miles from downtown Los Angeles.
Pollution resulting from the shipping of merchandise has been identified as the main cause of cancer among the population in general and asthma among children in this municipality of 13,400 residents, 94 percent of them Hispanic.
In Commerce there are four large rail yards that produce more than 40 tons of polluting emissions from diesel fuel every year.
A study conducted by the California Air Resources Board in 2007 concluded that residents living near the rail yards and the 710 Freeway face a risk of developing cancer that is up to 180 percent greater than residents of other areas.
Isella's mother, who was born in western Mexico, came to live in Commerce in the 1970s.
Just before graduating from high school, Isella was accepted at several prestigious universities, "but Vassar College (in Poughkeepsie, New York) was the one that offered me the best financial and academic package, although it was the one that was farthest away," she said.
At Vassar, Isella found herself in a completely different environment, surrounded by mainly affluent Anglo students.
Upon obtaining her degree in Latin American Studies, Isella faced the decision on whether to "stay there, being part of a completely different world from my own or returning to my people and my roots."
In the end, her mother and siblings were the reasons why Ramirez decided to return to Commerce.
Soon after she returned she joined East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice as a community activist, and she is now the group's co-executive director.
"Although it's not easy, we've gotten the community to not only become aware but also to have a voice," said Ramirez in emphasizing how the members of EYCEJ learned to analyze reports and participate in community forums.
One of EYCEJ's main achievements has been to get a complete environmental study scheduled for the 710 Freeway Expansion, a report that will be undertaken this year.
For her work with EYCEJ, Ramirez was nominated by the Liberty Hill Foundation as one of the 2011 Grassroots Leaders to Watch.
