Vasquez's talk

I really enjoyed Vasquez's talk about environmental justice regarding the latinx migrant worker community and how that is represented in literature. What I found really interesting was the representation of people of color in environmental studies and literature pre-Rachel Carson's silent spring that I never learned about. I was never really interested in environmental studies but realizing that environmental activism requires intersectionality makes the movement not just more inclusive, but also that it needs to be centered on people and communities that experience environmental degradation to the greatest extent. In addition, the idea from the presentation that oppression often obscures itself definitely applies here. Although I haven't read the novel talked about in the presentation, I really liked how the metaphors in the book related to environmental justice issues, especially the simultaneously permanent and impermanent states of being represented by the tar pits. As we learn about different styles of writing in class, I was intrigued by the concept of a decentrallized narrative and how that could influence storytelling.