There is much concrete evidence to support this belief. The proposal could destroy up to 200 houses in El Sereno and one or two of the exhaust filter stacks would be located in El Sereno. No other area would be affected in this manner or to this degree. Your work would consist of working with community mentors, developing informational material and literature (flyers, letters, and brochures) to in
form neighbors of the Caltrans proposal and its consequences and of distributing this information. Background: To address the Tunnel and other environmental racism issues El Sereno residents are bonding together in what is know as La Red (The Network) to oppose the tunnel plans and to propose environmental justice and dignity. To create awareness of the Tunnel environmental hazards specific to El Sereno. LA Red proposed to have and had 3 Community Cultural Event/Dialogues in El Sereno. The artists participating at this point are mainly from El Sereno and include Domingo Siete, Quinto Sol, Quetzal, Las Cafeter@s, Ollin, In Lak Ech, La Santa Cecilia, Olmeca, Las Ramonas, Tolteca, Buyepongo, MonteCarlo 76 (members of Quetzal and Ozomatli) Mariachi de El Sereno, Huasteco Xi, Olmeca, Quetzal and many others. All of these three events have occurred and students that came before you helped to make them happen. April 26, August 14 and the third cultural event was a 2 day festival for Day of the Dead Festival on the October 29th and 30th. One of many possible repercussions of struggling for environmental justice is being singled out and targeted by vindictive companies and/or state agencies. Don Jones and his family have been evicted 3 times by the State of California Department of Transportation housing because of his resistance to shoddy work and negligence and high rents. He has won 2 cases but this has taken a toll on his family. The Don Jones case has been fully integrated into La Red’s No on 710 efforts. The funds that are made during the 3 community events went directly into the Eviction NO Unity Fund or ENUF! PROJECT II: CSULA STUDENTS FACULTY AND STAFF FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: The aim of this effort is to establish and help sustain an environmental justice committee on this campus that would work in tandem with community efforts. Some work has been done on this project already. A representative of the effort will be present at the orientation to inform you of the effort. Another project that you can be part of is the on-going project to set up and an on-campus student organization against environmental racism. Its first project would be to set up a region wide conference on Environmental Justice and
Building Autonomy Projects: In response to the environmental racism facing El Sereno the community has not only resisted but has embarked on several projects that are taking the initiative building another way of life, another El Sereno. The two projects are the Bungalow Project and the Garden Project. PROJECT III: THE BUNGALOW PROJECT: For the last 5 years residents of El Sereno and volunteers have been working on converting a group of 8 abandoned one-room houses into an Art & Culture Space as an expression and practice of Self-determination; build and administered by the community. Interestingly, the California Transportation System (Caltrans), through eminent domain, acquired the Bungalows more than 40 years ago. Caltrans, as you know is also in charge of the Tunnel project. The method of the Bungalow committee of consulting with, planning with and building with the community represents a sharp contrast to the top-down imposition that usually accompanies the siting of chemical and waste plants and/or freeway projects. PROJECT IV: THE GARDEN PROJECT: Another resistance through creation project is the El Sereno Garden. The El Sereno Garden was established to start addressing the lack of food sovereignty and the poisoning of our bodies through pesticides and genetically modified foods. Growing food locally is also an antidote and solution to pollution caused by semi-trucks carrying food from far away places. At the same time, taking control of what we eat is another expression of self-determination. Once again, the lot where the community garden sits was transferred over from Caltrans to the community.
