Today, ZIP codes are still one of the most potent predictors of an individual’s health and well-being. Andrea Vidaurre has had a front-row seat as emissions suffocated her community in California’s Inland Empire as 500,000-plus freight trucks crisscrossed its highways each day. The torch was lit for her leg of the environmental-justice marathon relay.
As co-founder of the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice, Andrea has a unique ability to find the intersection of policy and people. She’s used this skill to advocate for regulations that limit trucking and rail emissions, though such policies face an uphill battle under the new U.S. Administration. Her work shines a light on the compounding inequities that marginalized populations are often left to shoulder, and amplifies what has become a rallying cry for her community: “We’re just trying to breathe.”
Andrea Vidaurre is an environmental-justice change agent at the forefront of safeguarding people’s rights to clean air, and she is an inspiration.
Bullard is the director of the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at Texas Southern University
Update, April 17 at 7:51 p.m.
This article has been updated to more accurately reflect the number of trucks that pass through California's Inland Empire each day. It originally said more than 70,000, but has been changed to more than 500,000.