The origins of Puerto Rican environmental justice in the South Bronx (New York City)

This dissertation examines Puerto Rican environmental awareness and activism in New York from historical and social policy perspectives. It focuses on an environmental justice campaign in the 1990s. I base my methodology on historical and social policy perspectives with a particular emphasis on participant observation and ethnographic fieldwork. The central hypothesis is that this particular environmental activism is rooted in a consciousness shaped by both an environmental ethic developed in Puerto Rico, contingent upon its colonial relationship with the United States, and by the Post-Depression experience of the Puerto Rican communities in the Northeastern United States. At the root of Puerto Rican environmental activism in New York is an Island environmental ethos based on traditions of the poor and working classes. Its origins are in the traditions that migrants brought with them from Puerto Rico and address their environmental ideals qualified by gender, race, class and region.; The methodology for understanding the Puerto Rican environmental ethos relies on a combination of research methods for urban planning, anthropology and historical sociology. My data are primarily from three sources: first, I conducted participant observation at the South Bronx Clean Air Coalition (SBCAC)1 to construct a case study. Second, I interviewed Puerto Rican environmental activists in New York to assemble an oral history. Finally, I conducted archival research to contextualize the present environmental efforts of migrants.; The case study of Bronx Clean Air Coalition examines the intersections of cultural identity, political economy and environmental justice activism. It is an example of grassroots organizing and coalition building with social and historical antecedents that are culturally based. I argue that culture is an important element in the mobilization of communities. Second, the case study reveals how the concept of the environment is constructed for urban communities. Textual analysis of representative samples of Puerto Rican music and literature also provide insight into the environmental consciousness of Puerto Ricans in New York. The conclusion reviews the success and failure of a community based environmental justice movement.; 1Although the people who remained were part of the South Bronx Clean Air Coalition, a group that incorporated in 1994, the case study refers to the coalition as the Bronx Clean Air Coalition. The Bronx Clean Air Coalition is the umbrella term for the different groups that united from the other parts of the Bronx to fight the incinerator. The South Bronx group is significant for having Puerto Rican leaders and although few remained in 1997 when Air Coalition will be used to denote the whole organization.