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The Accidental Activist: One Man's Environmental Crusade

Paige Brettingen |
February 19, 2012 | 5:01 p.m. PST

Special Projects Editor

A shortness of breath, a tightness in his chest and regular visits to the nurse's office are some of Robert Cabrales' oldest memories.

"It was never really diagnosed.  It was from elementary school to high school... Even now it is an issue where I have to just relax and catch my breath and get a rhythm," Cabrales, 31, said. 

But those memories have made his career path a little more clear.

As an organizer for the nonprofit Communities for a Better Environment in South Los Angeles, Cabrales’ favorite tasks are to educate, motivate, inspire-- whatever gets him working with his childhood community, learning about the environmental problems he can fix, and helping the kids, who like him, have health challenges that may be caused by their neighborhoods.

Gathering under his leadership every Wednesday to strategize what environmental campaigns are on the docket, the community has become like a second family to Robert.

"They have so many stories to share and so much knowledge from the community or prior knowledge from life. I think that’s the most rewarding thing: the engagement and the conversing with the community," he said.

Though he saw most of the community members at a meeting the week before, Robert gives each one a hug or a handshake before it's time to lead the crusade.

“Entonces!” he calls out to the buzzing room of 20 or so attendees; people swiftly take their seats as Robert gets to the tasks at hand: Friday’s fieldtrip to San Diego to visit a community that has overcome environmental problems, the status of the trees they recently planted with the nonprofit Tree People, and how to start gardens for the neighborhood schools. 

Robert's Spanish is vibrant, lively, and accentuated by theatrical hand gestures-- that's how he's always been.

"I’ve self diagnosed [myself with] ADD as a kid," Cabrales says with a laugh, adjusting his black rectangular-framed glasses and baseball cap.

His energy compliments his job well since there is always an environmental justice campaign to be working on.

 

Life In An Environmental Justice Community

The youngest of five children, Cabrales was the first of his family born in the United States.  His father died when he was 3 years old and his mother worked multiple jobs to support her children.  Cabrales learned how to be self-reliant at an early age.

"I was a brat, but I wasn't spoiled," Cabrales says adamantly with a big grin about being the youngest child.  His family has always been an influential part of his life, and they still are.  Robert’s brother Luis played an especially important role.

"Oh, he was a pain in the neck," said Luis in a phone interview about what Robert was like as a kid.

The brothers are eight years apart and Luis looked out for Robert— making sure his younger brother got good grades and nudging Robert to become involved in community activism.  

The Cabrales family lived in Huntington Park and South Gate in South Los Angeles-- neighborhoods that are still surrounded by industrial manufacturing; metal scrapers, chemical manufacturers, freeways, and plumes of factory smoke are some of the most noticeable landmarks.

These areas of L.A. are known as “environmental justice communities” since their residents are most at-risk of developing health problems caused by pollution or chemical contamination.

"We all kind of breathe the same air, but locally if you’re near a freeway, it’s going to be worse… These things become cumulative unfortunately to environmental justice communities that probably aren’t as able to take care of their own environmental health,” said Steven John, the Environmental Protection Agency director for Southern California.

During his senior year of high school, Robert volunteered with Communities for a Better Environment.  Little did he know it would lead to his career.

"I'm really proud of him.  People love him; people really respect his work," said Luis who now works for the Coalition for Clean Air in downtown Los Angeles. 

“Robert is always very positive and helps a lot in an area where we don't always have a lot of victories, where our resources are very limited, where our work is more reactive to stop projects that have a negative impact in the community,” Luis said.

“Our setting is not always a happy setting.  Robert brings in this light that makes people want to work around him and makes everything so much better.”

 

One And The Same

At the Wednesday night meeting, Robert listens attentively to the community members' questions, scribbling notes on a yellow memo pad and kicking his feet under the table in tempo with his rapid-fire Spanish responses.  His focus and commitment to help the community does not go unnoticed.

"I am very grateful to know Robert and to meet other people that come here because I've been learning a number of good things to benefit my community," said Huntington Park resident Ana Cano in a Spanish-translated interview after the meeting.

Another resident, Maria Kennedy, voiced her appreciation as well.

"He’s a very nice person, very loyal, and very responsible for his job, very respectable for the people; [he does] very nice work.  We don’t have complaints about him.  Everything is ok," Kennedy said with a big smile and an approving nod.

Sylvia Zamora of South Gate first met Robert during one of his public “Toxic Tours" in which he shows some of the community's most polluted areas, including Superfund or brownfield sites— areas recognized by the EPA as harboring potentially hazardous contaminants.  Zamora was a freshman in high school on that tour and Robert’s enthusiasm has stuck with her 16 years later.

"I don't see too many organizers who you get the sense that they're one and the same with the community.  He is very much a part of that community and is helping to lead them into action," Zamora said in a phone interview. 

Robert is also the communities' spokesman at public meetings for projects such as the I-710 Corridor project-- a freeway expansion proposal that has been ongoing for nearly a decade.

“Our 710 Monster,” Robert calls it as he points to the paper mache monster puppet on the wall with the 710 Interstate sign glaring from its mouth.

The I-710 is a major artery serving the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach-- where capacity is expected to triple by 2020. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) and California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) have proposed expanding the freeway to alleviate traffic congestion.  Robert has stepped in to represent the communities along the I-710.

"Our engagement since the beginning was [to make sure that] expanding the 710 freeway – which means more traffic, which means more pollution in this region – doesn’t go without including the community’s concerns," he said.

Metro and Caltrans seem to support this by encouraging the communities to voice their concerns at regular public project meetings.

“We took baby steps [with the I-710 project] because we made a commitment to the community,” said Gene Daniels, a member of the I-710 Corridor Project Committee at a meeting in Paramount, Calif., on January 31. 

“It seems like it’s taking a long time, but it’s because of the outreach to communities [along the I-710] and our commitment to these communities that air quality would be the main issue [we would focus on],” Daniels said. 

There have been other successful environmental campaigns Robert has led, but the one that first comes to mind is when he helped defeat a 943-megawatt fossil fuel power plant scheduled to be built in Vernon in 2008.

"[It was] almost twice the size of Dodger Stadium… Should it have been built, we would have seen 800 tons of pollution per year just from this power plant.  So it’s a significant victory for the community that fought against this project," Robert said.

His work is not always met with pleasantries, but that’s only caused him to work harder.

“When we were fighting the power plant we encountered a lot of old rich folks who were being mean to us because we were fighting this project that would potentially bring millions of dollars in tax revenue for the city… but even with that nasty attitude we got from individuals, we were still moving forward and were successfully able to defeat it,” he said. 

The success of stopping the power plant serves as inspiration when his work gets tough.

“Just keep going, you know, it doesn’t matter who’s going to be there, or how people the people are going to be or how racist the remarks towards the people are going to be who are fighting this.  It’s the right cause, you know, to protect people and their health.”

 

Beliefs In Practice

When Robert is not out representing the community or briefing them on the issues he is trying to improve, he enjoys cooking, gardening and making soy candles as part of his own candle brand: "La Candelaria." 

Yet, these are more than just hobbies for him— they are his beliefs in practice.  Robert also is working with his alma mater, Huntington Park High School, to establish a community garden.

"Then, we can move to other schools and create local gardens to start connecting people to our roots.  We need to reconnect with Mother Earth and really start understanding the Earth," he said.

Though music was his focus when he attended East L.A. College and then Pasadena City College over 10 years ago, he continues to play the drums and feels his music training has prepared him well for the work he does now.

"In music you have to listen to other instruments, and drums are a very loud instrument, so you have to bring yourself down to listen.  In the same form – with organizing and working with communities – you have to step back and listen to the community," he said.

Returning to school this year is one of Robert’s goals, this time to get his bachelor’s degree in Chicano studies with an emphasis in environmental science.  But he knows exactly where he’ll end up afterward.

"I think it's good to go away, get your degree, and then come back and change the things you’re unhappy with," he said.  

For Robert Cabrales, it's not just about making changes; it's about making better memories-- for himself and his second family.


 


 

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