Every year, from September 15 to October 15, we observe Hispanic Heritage Month across the United States to recognize the contributions and influence of Hispanic culture to the nation’s achievements, culture, and history. Though the month has now officially come to an end this year, centering Hispanic and Latinx histories, issues, and voices in the environmental field must be a year-round effort.
Latinx community movements have played a crucial role in bringing to light environmental injustices and advocating for change. Under the leadership of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, the United Farm Workers (UFW) fought for regulations that would protect farmworkers from harmful pesticides. In San Antonio, Texas, grassroots organizations like the Southwest Workers Union have mobilized against industrial pollution affecting predominantly Latinx neighborhoods. And in New York City, South Bronx Unite has been sounding the alarm for years about the high rates of asthma among the Bronx’s Black and Latinx communities due to poor air quality. These struggles and efforts—which continue to this day—highlight the disproportionate environmental burdens that minority, low-income, and other marginalized communities bear. While steps have been made toward addressing these inequities through environmental law and policy, such as the Biden Administration’s Justice40 initiative and environmental justice executive orders, there is still a long way to go.
As human-caused climate change continues, it is increasingly important to consider the ways in which Latinx communities—both in the United States and abroad—are cumulatively and disproportionately impacted. A 2021 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report reveals serious disparities in climate-related impacts affecting Hispanic and Latinx individuals: they are more likely to live in areas with significant labor hour losses in weather-sensitive jobs; more likely to reside in coastal regions facing traffic delays from high-tide flooding; and more likely to live in areas at risk of property flooding damage from climate-driven precipitation increases and sea-level rises.
After decades of fighting for a just and healthy environment, these communities now also find themselves at the front lines of climate justice. Hispanic Heritage Month serves as an opportunity to not only celebrate the resiliency of our Hispanic and Latinx communities, but to also give a voice to their ongoing struggles against environmental and climate-related risks in our work. EPA’s report merely provides an outline of social vulnerability to climate change, but the lived reality of climate injustice extends well beyond lost work hours, traffic delays, or property loss. From extreme heat to natural disasters, Latinx communities are front-and-center in this new era of environmental law and policymaking.
In the case of heat, farmworkers are once again on the front lines. Outdoor workers are 35 times more likely than indoor workers to die from heat-related illness. And, in the case of farmworkers, an estimated 83% of them are Latinx. Despite high temperatures killing an estimated 815 workers between 1992 and 2017 and seriously injuring 70,000, there are currently no heat safety regulations. Hispanic and Latinx communities have been leading the charge in advocating for stronger worker protections against extreme heat. In Miami-Dade, the ¡Qué Calor! campaign—led by hundreds of primarily Latinx farmworkers, plant nursery workers, and construction workers—has been working to introduce mandatory water breaks and other accommodations during increasingly common extreme heat episodes. Given that some states like Florida and Texas have recently banned all local heat protection laws, initiatives like Que Calor have grown in importance as they prepare to take their advocacy beyond the state and local level.
Yet, outdoor workers are not the sole victims of extreme heat. A recent analysis by Politico highlights the flaws in our current governance system, finding that unreliable National Risk Index ratings, a lack of tax credits for window units, and the exclusion of heat-mitigation from climate protection funding opportunities has put low-income and minority communities at risk during extreme heat episodes. Some Hispanic and Latinx organizations have taken advantage of funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to tackle these issues; GreenLatinos, for example, is leading the Trees in Your Community Grant. This program provides funding to heat-vulnerable communities so they can carry out tree planting and maintenance to combat extreme heat.
Latinx and Hispanic communities also face a disproportionate risk of natural disasters due to climate change. According to 2021 data from the Pew Research Center, roughly 56% of Hispanic individuals in the United States live in areas that have experienced extreme weather events within the past year. In 2017, during Hurricane Harvey, an estimated 48% of flooded properties were home to Latinx families. The increasing frequency and strength of natural disasters—such as wildfires and hurricanes—across states home to most of the country’s Latinx population, including California, Florida, and Texas, accounts for why Latinx communities have found themselves riddled with climate crisis after climate crisis. The impact of these disasters on local livelihoods can already be traced: home insurance prices are soaring across higher risk states (especially Florida), and Latinx and Hispanic communities, which are already increasingly struggling to afford housing, find themselves paying higher premiums or unable to pay for home insurance at all.
The impacts of climate change-induced disasters are also not limited to the confines of the United States. Many Hispanic and Latinx households in the United States have family members in Latin America who have also been victims of extreme weather events and are increasingly being displaced as a result. A recent survey focusing primarily on immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean revealed that 43% of respondents had faced a climate-induced disaster in their country of origin prior to coming to the United States. This survey does not even consider the record-breaking thousands of Puerto Ricans that moved to the mainland after Hurricane Maria in 2017. Climate displacement and migration has long been a hypothesized impact of climate change, but it is no longer a theory—it is a reality.
This blog is not an exhaustive list of environmental and climate issues being faced by Hispanic and Latinx communities in the United States, nor are many of these issues unique solely to the Latinx experience. However, as we reflect on Hispanic Heritage Month, let us remember to be guided in our work by these histories—both past and present. Hispanic Heritage Month need not only be a time for observance, it can and should also be a time for action. Community organizations across the United States have already taken up this mission and it is imperative to join them in ensuring that law and policy meets today’s needs.