Photo: Zbynek Burival | Unsplash
Nallelli Cobo is a young person on a mission; she vows, “I will continue to fight until every youth has a guaranteed livable future. Until every human has access [to] breathe clean air and access to safe, clean drinking water. It’s basic human rights that we’re fight for…We have a lot of work to do.” She started on her path as an environmental activist after she suddenly got sick, at age 9, and then learned that her serious symptoms were the reality for most of her predominantly Latino community. The culprit was likely an oil drilling site located just 30 feet from their home in South Los Angeles, California. Cobo started attending community meetings and rallies, giving speeches, and in 2011 co-founded the grassroots campaign People, No Pozos (People, Not Oil Wells). Throwing herself into the fight paid off; the oil well near her home was fined by the Environmental Protection Agency and voluntarily suspended operations at the site. She has taken on larger and larger battles and is winning. At age 21, after facing an extremely rare form of cancer and regaining her health, she has big plans: she wants to finish college, write a children’s book and meet the Pope. She’s thinking about law school and a career as a civil rights attorney. Cobo was recently awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work to protect her South Los Angeles community and take on the fossil fuel industry.
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