WE ARE HERE/ESTAMOS AQUI is a two year community engaged art project that addresses the environmental justice issues of air quality & water pollution and the health risks associated with breathing in chemicals from wildfires, pesticides, and emissions from oil and gas development in California’s Central Valley, a 200 mile area that encompasses the most disenfranchised and toxicity laden communities in the state. The ravages of climate inaction and dirty fossil fuel production are endangering Central California’s people, water and wildlife pushing us even further toward climate catastrophe. Gas drilling and fracking is a serious threat to our health and environment. Approximately 850,000 people across the state live within 2,500 feet of an oil or gas well. In California fracking happens at unusually shallow depths, dangerously close to underground drinking water supplies. Currently California does not have health and safety zones for sensitive receptors or set back limits. The project shines a spotlight on the invisible reproductive labor of care, healing, and relationship building that maintains internal community strength, respond to climate justice issues and confront the foundational disconnection and dehumanization that racial capitalism and colonialism produce.
The WE ARE HERE/ESTAMOS AQUI 2500 foot story cloth represents a safe setback area and will carry the stories of the people in the Central Valley, their lived experience of being exposed to toxic air and water, and dreams for a healthier community. The workshops will bring together community members from Kern County that have been disproportionately impacted by exposure to air contamination to build an understanding of the causes and impacts of air pollution, how they can protect themselves immediately, and fight for longer-term solutions. Establishing a safety zone is essential to the health of residents living on the fence line of oil and gas production.