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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
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Speaking up in Boyle Heights
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Speaking up in Boyle Heights
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SPEAKING UP IN BOYLE HEIGHTS by Emily Frost A Thesis Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS (BROADCAST JOURNALISM) August 2012 Copyright 2012 Emily Frost ii Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………….…………………......iii Staying Up in Boyle Heights Script……………………………………………………….1 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………..……... ..8 iii Abstract Air pollution has long been a problem in Los Angeles. The city is known for having the worst air quality in the country; but the problem is even worse in the neighborhood of Boyle Heights, just east of downtown. Boyle Heights is surrounded by several major freeways that spew diesel and other particle pollution into the largely Latino and working class neighborhood. Residents have said they at times feel helpless in changing the air they breathe every day and which has affected their health. This documentary profiles Alex and Sylvia Nunez, two longtime Boyle Heights residents whose son suffers from asthma. The radio story chronicles their transformation from regular residents who don’t know how to change their environment to community activists. Gradually, and through training by non-profit organizations, the Nunez become the couple their neighbors turn to for answers in solving local problems and getting public officials’ attention. The narrative of the Nunez family is supplemented with data on air pollution and the input of air pollution expert Andrea Hricko. 1 Staying Up in Boyle Heights Script HOST INTRO: Environmental justice movements tend to be top down operations – a group from outside notices what’s wrong in a community and tries to fix it. But when insiders get passionate about an issue, sometimes all they need are the right tools to get to work. Emily Frost brings us the story of regular people transformed into their communities’ best pollution warriors. (Sound up full: a child playing in a nearby yard, sprinkler on) [Narration in bold throughout]: Mid-day on a lazy Sunday afternoon, the five freeways surrounding Sylvia and Alex Nunez’s craftsman style home in Boyle Heights – feel worlds away. It seems idyllic, that is if you don’t look or listen carefully (Sound of rushing cars, the freeway) But that’s just what Sylvia and Alex have started doing – taking notice of what surrounds them. (Sound of Sylvia and Alex) Boyle Heights lies just east of downtown LA. There’s an ironic saying about the neighborhood: “All roads lead to Boyle Heights.” Almost every freeway in LA passes through or around Boyle Heights. 95 percent of the residents are Latino and working class. And they’re all breathing in some of the worst air in the country…even for LA. “We’ve got all these freeways around us and there’s always a little bit of dust on something.” LA’s abysmal air quality is something many city dwellers ignore except on exceptionally hazy days. Resident Arnulfo Yanez says it’s an unavoidable part of everyday life in Boyle Heights. “If I was to get a white rag, a white towel and just wipe it across the living room, that white towel would turn grey. And I'm thinking you breathe that stuff every day and there has to be some type of damage.” In many ways, Boyle Heights is just like other parts of America that have felt the impact of being nestled next to busy roadways and polluting industries. When the steel mills in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania were booming, dirty air and water were the byproducts. But unlike Pittsburgh, the warehouses and factories of East LA aren’t 2 going anywhere, and the freeways will only get busier as the population of LA County continues to expand. (Ambient sound of Sylvia and Alex) Sylvia and Alex bought their home as a young couple and now are raising their three children in it. “You can hear the noise from the freeway. We’re about four blocks away. Four blocks away. And we can hear at night the humming of the cars going by – we can hear –um – we can practically hear cars screeching on the highway.” (Freeway sound up) “The diesel fuel. (Freeway sound fade.) It’s all over the car and sometimes you can … smell it. It’s faint but you can smell car exhaust, especially on the hot days.” Almost worst of all though, is the smell from nearby rendering plants. A rendering plant takes all kinds of animal waste – even grease from McDonalds – and processes it into a paste used in soaps and creams. “I’ve never smelled like a flesh burning, but I imagine that’s the way it would – to me – it’s just it’s an awful smell.” “There’s been these times when it’s just been so powerful. It’s like a flesh spoiling sour but with a sweetness to it… odor… and sometimes it’s just really unbearable.” It’s worse on hot days they say, and also at night. “When the odors starts a lot of times we’ll just close the windows because we’re basically locked in our homes.” That feeling of being trapped only got worse when their son was diagnosed with asthma as a child. “He almost had like a barking cough. Like a seal. And the pediatrician told me keep all my windows shut and stay indoors.” Research bears out what the Nunez family was experiencing. UCLA researchers have found that people living near high-density traffic zones are 80 percent more likely to experience chronic asthma symptoms. 3 At first Sylvia and Alex didn’t connect the dots between the worsening of their son’s asthma and the high level of air pollution surrounding them. And they didn’t see how a mail carrier and a homemaker could make a difference anyway. That came later. It was their worry over a series of break-ins in their neighborhood that got them out to a community meeting at their Catholic Church, a place they trusted. “And sometimes there’s two, three police representatives. So I remember that’s why we started showing up to these meetings, initially. But there’s so much more to them.” (Sound up on meeting) Sylvia and Alex found that the weekly meetings at Resurrection Church – led by Father John Moretta – were a window into much more than stopping crime – they were a way to become active participants in changing the environment, the quality of life in their neighborhood. (Sound window with Moretta and congregants talking at meeting) The confidence the group has in fighting local polluters is drawn from the David and Goliath-like battle they waged against the neighboring city of Vernon a few years ago. The city only has about a hundred residents. It’s known as a home for industry and usually gets its way when it comes to new projects – like a 943- megawatt power plant it wanted to put in just a few miles from Boyle Heights. The Resurrection group put up a fight. (Sound from the meeting) Boyle Heights Resident Terry Marquez described their victory over the power plant at a recent public health forum. "They came in a meeting like this, with 300 people and told us, only 39 more people will die a year. And we said our lungs are not for sale. Our children's lungs are not for sale and if there's 39 more people that are going to die. You stand in line first." "We had nothing, we just were fighting -- walking, we walked to Vernon. Resident Miguel Alfaro remembers it took two and a half years of fighting to stop the power project. “We went to Sacramento two or three times. And politicians saw that Vernon was coming to us and coming to the community with very, lying, lying to the community." “We can't just pick up our kids or our belongings and move somewhere else because this 4 is our community. I'm not going anywhere. I mean I've been here since 1979 and I don't see myself going anywhere else because this is where I belong.” That fighting spirit and sense of agency began to rub off on Sylvia and Alex. “What got us really involved was first of all being aware of what was going on. The more we became educated on it we started seeing a lot of similarities that we saw going on in our homes and our neighbors homes and talking to our neighbors. You know ‘oh we didn’t know where those smells were coming from before,’ you know we just used to complain about ‘em and then we said ‘oh that’s the smell we were smelling, oh okay that’s the traffic.’” They came to see their son’s asthma in a new light. “When he was little, when he was first diagnosed, he was taking eleven doses of medications a day. It’s not something you catch. It’s gotta be the environment. I don’t see it any other way.” And Alex recognized that it wasn’t normal for so many kids on the basketball team he coaches to have trouble breathing. Six out of twenty kids on the team suffer from asthma. Numerous studies show a strong link between the pollutants Boyle Heights residents breathe in every day and serious health problems. Boyle Heights residents are 57 percent more likely to be hospitalized for asthma than the average Californian. Andrea Hricko is a researcher at USC's Keck School of Medicine. "We now know that if you live near a busy road or freeway you're more likely to develop asthma. You are more likely to develop reduced lung function. Your lungs don't work as well. Cognitive decline. Respiratory effects from that near the exhaust kind of exposure that you're getting.” Trucks constantly go through and around Boyle Heights to deliver goods coming in from the Port of Los Angeles … some 23 miles away … to the city and the rest of the country. Hricko has been working with Boyle Heights residents to teach them about the connection between their neighborhood and the Port and how it affects the air they breathe. "They sometimes describe themselves as living in a sacrifice zone. They always describe themselves as living in a diesel death zone, but they often describe themselves as being in a sacrifice zone that they are sacrificing their health so that somebody in Kansas can get a cheap pair of shoes, but they're also sacrificing their health so that somebody in Beverly 5 Hills can get something cheap.” After scientists and experts talked with the Resurrection group, they felt their personal experiences being validated. Finally, there was scientific evidence they could point to to explain what they faced in daily life. Arnulfo Yanez says the evidence is there in each breath he takes. "Spend some time here and take in the air, take in the oxygen. And I think after some time, you as a person will realize there's something going on here because wait a minute, ‘cause I'm having trouble breathing." Terry Marquez marks the air quality in trips to the ER. "I know my grandchildren, when they lived here. They had a horrible time with some type of asthma attacks, especially at night. If the window was open, oh that was emergency time. I mean I don't know how many times my daughter had to get up in the middle of the night and take them to emergency because they couldn't breathe. Ever since they moved out of here, they live in Whittier, they don't have any problems." "We live in a health hazard." Hricko and the non-profit East Los Angeles Community Corporation saw an opportunity for action. They began a series of workshops for residents aimed at building a movement. "I think that for a long time people in Boyle Heights have felt that there isn't much opportunity for them to fight this problem that is way beyond their small and vibrant local community." (Sound from meeting, chatter and leaders talking, then fade under) Holding paper plates with tamales or chicken in their laps, residents follow along in bi-lingual packets as Hricko and other leaders talk about how to get the attention of city representatives. (Sound of residents discussing meeting) The session led by Hricko that stands out the most to Alex was when he took the podium to practice making a public comment at a community hearing. “Thank you councilmembers for giving us the opportunity to speak here before you. My name is Alehandro Nunez. I am a resident of Boyle Heights and I’ve been a resident here for twenty-six years…” 6 “When we started the sessions people were quite timid. So, the more and more we worked with them in these nighttime sessions – the more confidence they gained in themselves and by the time we got to the public speaking session they felt very confident in both the subject matter and in getting up in front of an audience.” Alex and Sylvia rarely miss a meeting. Monday night is in some ways more sacred than Sunday mass. “If we don’t go we miss something ‘oh darn what did we miss.’ ‘What did they talk about?’” The group boosts their confidence and fires up members. "Yeah because you know what we fight. Our community fights for what we believe in. And we're tired of everybody dumping stuff in our community. So yeah, our voices are heard. And if not, we're going to keep fighting until we do get heard." That energy is contagious. “They think that they can just pollute the air and no one’s going to be affected and so yes, I think we will speak up on it and we will continue to.” “It’s easy to speak when it’s something that’s true to you.” Andrea Hricko: “I believe it is a pivotal moment where you can get enough people coming together to really have a force of residents educated about this issue in Boyle Heights who can really try to make a difference.” “Our group here has grown.” With the movement taking off -- Sylvia and Alex’s whole sense of who they are in the community has changed. They’re not just a mail carrier and a homemaker anymore. They’re community activists. And they’re proud that people are finally noticing them. “And now I’ve noticed that when we see representatives, instead of us recognizing them. They recognize us. And they see us and they come up to us and they say how are things going? Did we take care of that situation?” “It’s just like I said power in numbers. There are so many people in our group that representatives listen. They listen. They come and visit us. And I think they take our 7 opinions and our issues at heart.” Sylvia and Alex don’t see themselves as typical parents either. They’re instilling a will to fight in their children. The family usually stays close to home, but when Sylvia and Alex went to Sacramento as part of a group meeting with state senators, they decided to take their kids along. “They came back --they were kind of pumped up about it. They kind of just went to keep mom company and because mom made ‘em go. To see the capitol. (laughter) But you know what they came back and I could tell they had a positive feeling about it.” Now when they smell the rendering plants and it gets too bad to keep their windows open, they call the Air Quality Management District and report it. They don’t feel trapped the way they once did – with no way to fight the powers that be. “The way AQMD works is like the squeaky wheel. The squeaky wheel gets the oil and so if we don’t call, they don’t know about it and they won’t do nothing about it.” “So occasionally people will come up to us and say and tell us their problem and my response is ‘well you know there’s a meeting on Monday nights and there’s representatives there and there’s the police department, so why don’t you come and you can tell them exactly what your issue is.” “So I do feel people look to us.” “Now that we’re part of this group, we’re so much more educated and informed and have more resources. ” Sylvia and Alex are looking for their next battle, the next Vernon power plant to take on. Right now their big concern is the number of trucks plowing through their neighborhood. That’s likely their next fight. Now they have a head start. They know how to speak so that people will listen. “You know, we know where to go when there’s an issue.” For Sylvia and Alex, becoming community activists isn’t just about what you accomplish. It’s about seeing yourselves and your community in a whole new way – not as victims but as fighters. “It’s a time to stand up.” “We see things through different glasses now.” 8 Bibliography Alfaro, Miguel. Personal Interviews. September – March 2011 -2012. “Focus Health Profile of Boyle Heights.” Health Policy, UCLA. July 17, 2011. <http://www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu/uploads/CDC_REACH_CORE_Boyle_Heights_Profil e_2011.07.17.pdf>. Last accessed April 1, 2012. Gracian, Isela. Personal Interviews. September – March 2011 -2012. Hricko, Andrea. Personal Interviews. September – March 2011 -2012. “L.A., Bakersfield remain among U.S.'s most polluted cities, report says,” LA Times. April 27, 2011. Last accessed April 5, 2012. Marquez, Terry. Personal Interviews. September – March 2011 -2012. Moretta, John. Personal Interviews. September – March 2011 -2012. Nunez, Sylvia and Alex. Personal Interview. September – March 2011 -2012. “Up in the Air: The Fight for Clean Air in Boyle Heights,” KCET. < http://www.kcet.org/shows/socal_connected/content/environment/up-in-the-air.html>. Last accessed February 24, 2012. Yanez, Arnulfo. Personal Interviews. September – March 2011 -2012.
Abstract (if available)
Abstract
Air pollution has long been a problem in Los Angeles. The city is known for having the worst air quality in the country
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Frost, Emily
(author)
Core Title
Speaking up in Boyle Heights
School
Annenberg School for Communication
Degree
Master of Arts
Degree Program
Journalism (Broadcast Journalism)
Publication Date
07/18/2012
Defense Date
07/01/2012
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
Air pollution,Boyle Heights,environmental justice,Los Angeles air quality,OAI-PMH Harvest,radio documentary
Language
English
Contributor
Electronically uploaded by the author
(provenance)
Advisor
Seidenberg, Willa (
committee chair
), Pryor, Lawrence (
committee member
), Tolan, Sandy (
committee member
)
Creator Email
efrost1@gmail.com
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-59127
Unique identifier
UC11289203
Identifier
usctheses-c3-59127 (legacy record id)
Legacy Identifier
etd-FrostEmily-964.pdf
Dmrecord
59127
Document Type
Dissertation
Rights
Frost, Emily
Type
texts
Source
University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
(collection)
Access Conditions
The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...
Repository Name
University of Southern California Digital Library
Repository Location
USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA
Tags
environmental justice
Los Angeles air quality
radio documentary