In 2023, Cultivando, a Latino-led community group, made the decision to decline a grant and end an air monitoring project near Suncor Energy. Despite this setback, they persisted in monitoring toxins and recently presented their findings on April 22, Earth Day, with a focus on community impact.
The presentation took place at the University of Denver in a packed auditorium of community members, environmental activists and researchers.
To deepen their understanding of the community’s needs, Cultivando sought the expertise of Dr. Ramona Beltran. Beltran shared insights gathered from direct conversations with community members, and shed light on the generational trauma perpetuated by heightened pollution levels.
Beltran, who is an associate professor at the University of Denver in the Graduate School of Social Work, and the interim associate dean of research and faculty development, is also the co-investigator of the social science component of the Cultivando AIR project.
Beltran emphasized the importance of amplifying the voices and experiences of affected individuals, urging collective action to address environmental injustices. She underscored the role of community-based research in empowering marginalized communities and fostering healing.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
🎙️La Ciudad: Share with us what just happened this morning during the “Our Health > Cheap Gasoline” press conference at the University of Denver.
Dr. Ramona Beltran: We were able to present our findings, and key to what we wanted to share today was the lived experiences, the direct stories coming from the people whose lives have been affected not only in the here and now, but for decades and generations.
We did this in collaboration with our colleagues who presented findings on air pollution, and other pollutants and the potential health impacts. What an honor to hear from the Promotoras themselves, and see them acknowledge and witness the incredible work they do to amplify these voices, and these issues in the community.
🎙️La Ciudad: How would you explain this issue of trauma, related to communities of color and communities that are, not only here in Denver but around the United States, experiencing pollution. It’s almost like they are invisible.
Beltran: Environmental injustice and environmental racism has been documented for decades.
It really comes from the communities themselves who have been overwhelmingly represented near polluting industries, near garbage dumps, refineries and recycling facilities. They are the ones who have said, this is impacting us, and they’ve been saying this, for decades.
Our attention comes from them because they have been demanding to be heard. I just really want to honor that, but I also want to acknowledge that (they have been) calling for attention to these real documented issues, which impact physical health, mental health and social cohesion, for decades, and (they’re) not getting a response or getting sufficient response and support. That leaves a mark.
We talk about that in terms of trauma and intergenerational trauma. Not only do you have the direct impacts, but you have the indirect impacts of the overwhelming stress, the lack of validation, the lack of support and the lack of ability to reach out to anyone who is making those decisions about resources and policies.
That increases a sense of trauma, a sense of isolation. We talk about the intergenerational transmission of trauma that one generation, maybe generations back, has experienced some form of acute trauma. Maybe it’s ongoing trauma. Those things, if they’re not dealt with, if there’s no support and resources available to heal, then those things can be transmitted over generations.
We can inherit high levels of stress, high levels of anxiety and depression, or hypervigilance around our environment because that’s what we’ve learned. But what we also know is that it’s not a foregone conclusion that folks are going to be living with this trauma indefinitely. One of the things that we’ve seen so powerfully here today is just how healing it is to have your voice heard.
And to see other folks who have an experience like you do, that’s validating, and that reduces that sense of isolation that people often have when they experience that trauma over generations. Here, all the stories that were shared, along with the data, is proof that there are already ways that we can connect with one another.
We can heal each other. We can also mobilize, and that is another way to interrupt that intergenerational transmission of traumas by improving our social cohesion. So as we mobilize and we get people together and activate folks, that itself is a healing intervention.
🎙️La Ciudad: Where can people find more about this research that you have been doing?
Beltran: I think one thing we can do is follow Cultivando’s leadership and the data. All of the research findings belong to them.
It’s up to them to whom and what they want to share, or with whom and what they want to share. So I would say, go to them directly. Stephanie (Milan and I are also working on writing up more of the nuanced findings. So (we’re) telling more complete stories through journal articles, but we’re also simultaneously making those into infographics.
We hope to share all of those things with Cultivando, and then Cultivando, however they want to share them, that will be the hub of where you can find that information.
🎙️La Ciudad: We have seen that in these situations, either the government or other nonprofit organizations that are “green” may be trying to take advantage of the situation of the most underserved communities, and then use the data or their voices to get funding for their own causes. What are your thoughts about this?
Beltran: I am a community-based scholar, and community-engaged scholar. I care about the issues impacting this community. I don’t live there, of course, but I am Chicana. I’m mixed race. My family has experienced environmental racism and environmental injustice in various forms and social injustice for as long as they’ve been here.
And in that way, this is personal for me. This is like advocating or documenting stories of my family. Does that make sense? It’s deeply personal and I care about it. I also have a very solid belief in the fact that community by, with and for is the only way to do research. Whatever we find is a resource to them.
I know how to do social science, so I’m glad they asked me to be a part of this. But whatever I can do to help them gather the information that they need and then later help them raise funds, seek out other opportunities or create education programs, whatever it may be, that’s my job.
It’s not my job to further my own career or anybody else’s without their permission or without their explicit guidance and direction. In fact, I feel really proud of the fact that we followed their lead in this. They were the ones that said, we want it done this way. We want you to ask these kinds of questions and we want you to talk to these community members and here’s why.
So it’s very rigorous. It was very intentional.
To summarize, community-based research belongs, should belong, to the community, and should benefit the community.
I’m inspired by the work of the Promotoras. I see them as teachers and leaders, and one thing I hope that people can take away is that the air has no borders.
They have said that what impacts them impacts everybody. We all should care about each other as relatives. We all should care about the Earth as our first home, and I welcome everybody to join in this fight to improve the lives of not only the most impacted communities but everybody.