L.A. asks how to equitably achieve 100% clean energy by 2035

First and foremost, we would like to thank all of our speakers, which include: Abel Valenzuela (Interim Dean of the Social Sciences), Raúl Hinojosa, Charlene Villaseñor Black, Isabel Cruz Hernandez, Auguanita Zamora, Magali Sanchez-Hall, Yannick Ndoinyo, Valentin Lopez, Stanley Rodriguez, and Gustavo Sanchez Valle. The speakers include important voices from professors and experts at UCLA, voices from Mexico (la Universidad Indígena Autónoma de Oaxaca) alon with California Indian leaders. From a global perspective, the conference also shared the voices of the Maasai people, with a native speaker from Tanzania/Kenya (Oxford University). 

We would also like to thank all of our supporters and sponsors, which include: the division of Social Sciences, the Chicano Studies Research Center, the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, the Center for Mexican Studies, the Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies, the Institute for the Environment, the Institute of American Cultures, the Department of Art History, the Center for African Studies, and the Department of History. We would also like to thank the students and UCLA staff members who assisted us in getting the word out, and for participating in this event. 

This conference touched on many aspects regarding global climate initiatives, and critical perspectives on the global crises for sustainability. Particularly, speakers discussed and shared the problems of indigenous and frontline communities, and offered their respective solutions towards empowering people who are directly facing the onslaught of social injustices. This conference successfully brought together activists, students, scholars and leaders from around the world to engage with the issues of Indigenous land and environmentalism, and the arts. To introduce the conference, native and indigenous leaders (Valentine Lopez and Stanley Rodriguez) spoke about the importance of indigenous lands, and respecting people's rights to their culture. Thereafter, Interim Dean Abel Valenzuela (UCLA Social Sciences) and Professor Raúl Hinojosa (Chicana/o and Central American Studies), both touched on the significance of including indigenous people as the original communities who have always been fighting for global sustainability.

Raúl Hinojosa (Professor, UCLA), opened the dialogue with global major zones of Indigenous Peoples that currently face environmental crises, and destabilization issues. Over 500 million people (2023) are currently being impacted by global climate change. These climate Destabilization Zones correlate with Indigenous Peoples Territories, and present the world with one of the greatest current crises, and upcoming future crises to be seen. Hinojosa also presented the UCLA GIS Mapping projects, and how the use of big data, and new technologies can be used to demonstrate the needs of peoples across the world, and to find global solutions.

Isabel Cruz Hernandez, President AMUCSS (Oaxaca), joined the conference via Zoom and discussed rural/indigenous financial market activities, directly in regards to remittances, transnationalism, and community formations. She delved into details about Micro-Community Banking, Social Capital and the impacts of Remittances in Mexico, particularly Oaxaca. She discussed the long histories of financial inclusion projects, and the successful programs that exist today.

Auguanita Zamora, Lider Purepecha (Michoacan), spoke passionately about indigenous communities, and the global problems of overproduction and overconsumption. She discussed the injustices towards the Earth, which are in direct consequences for humans and all life. She offered solutions about how to view sustainable lifestyles by encouraging people to be more self-reliant, and to be aware of how our consumption (particularly with plastics) have an everlasting negative effect on the Earth, and that this action we take is easy to do now, but impossible to fix later. 

Magali Sanchez-Hall (UCLA M.A., Civic Leader, Wilmington CA) discussed the issues that frontline communities have faced, in particular, about the City of Wilmington, which sits in between Long Beach, and Los Angeles, CA. She described the human health issues that the community faces (there are 5 refineries + 3 more surrounding refineries in Wilmington). Communities fighting for health and for their rights to clean air is one of the most pressing issues in the discussion about the environment. She concluded that frontline communities need to be respected for community leadership, and for the years they have already spent fighting for themselves.

Yannick Ndoinyo, Maasai TEST and University of Oxford, UK (Kenya/Tanzania), shared deep stories and critical mapping data about the Massai peoples. He discussed the border-fication of cultures, and how the Maasai are divided by nationalistic lines, which has been a wound for the people. He shared his visions of cultural preservations, and a historical outlook on colonization. He sees the fight for sustainability and justice for the Maasai to live in harmony with nature, and with their own culture, to be one the most critical and defining moments in history.

Valentin Lopez, Tribal Chair, Amah Mutsun, Santa Cruz, CA, opened and closed the conference. A very poetic individual with passionate feelings brought the necessary ingredients to understand how the Earth is troubled. He advocated for us all to respect and help the indigenous communities all around the world, and see them as a part of the solution instead of a problem. Stanley Rodriguez, Professor, Kumeyaay Community College, CA, also shared his visions of a future that is peaceful and sustainable. He spoke in his native language, and offered that we learn how to work together, and to love each other. He advocated for working together, and to have more productive dialogue as one of the ways in which we may find a way to solve the global struggle for sustainability.

Gustavo Sanchez Valle, President Red MOCAF (Mexico and Central America), a scholar and global leader, presented a significant keynote on numerous activities that are currently going on worldwide. Primarily, he focused on the participation of communities on a global level, particularly for indigenous communities. He cites an organization, of which he is a part of, that is collaborating effectively on the preservation of forest from North America, Central America, and South America. This organization is also working to become a Global Powerhouse to insure that the Earth is not destroyed by deforestation. He also discusses using remittances and incoming flows of money for sustainable projects, and regional development projects that can work across borders to solve the biggest issues of our time.

This conference took place on Friday April 21, 2023 from 1PM - 5PM at the Chicano Research Studies Library at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). End.