Goldman Environmental Prize awarded to Latina organizer fighting air pollution crisis
Andrea Vidaurre, a 29-year-old community organizer, wins the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for her work protecting the predominantly Latino community she grew up in from rampant air pollution.
Andrea Vidaurre, a 29-year-old Peruvian American organizer from Southern California, has won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for her work protecting her predominantly Latino community from rampant air pollution.
Vidaurre is one of six grassroots activists being awarded the prize, which recognizes people from all six inhabited continents who are taking extraordinary actions to protect the planet, on Monday night. She is being recognized for her grassroots leadership that persuaded state officials to adopt regulations to substantially improve air quality for millions of people in California and reduce toxic emissions from the local freight industry.
The prize was first awarded in 1990 and continues to be administered annually by the Goldman Environmental Foundation, which was founded by the late businessman and philanthropist Richard Goldman and his wife, Rhoda Haas Goldman.
"I feel incredibly honored and privileged to be the one to talk about our movement’s work," Vidaurre said in an interview. "I feel a great responsibility to just uplift the fact that this has been decades of work from communities impacted by freight in the United States.”
Vidaurre was born and raised in California’s Inland Empire, a region about an hour east of Los Angeles that today is known for having some of the country's worst air quality. But many of her childhood memories of the valley region are idyllic — climbing up and down the surrounding hills with her father and dog and enjoying the sprawling mountain scenery.
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