My name is Taylor Robertson, and I’m a senior at Hartford Public High School in Hartford, Connecticut. I got involved with Chispa in the Summer of 2016 through the Center for Latino Progress. When I first started working with Chispa, I had no idea what environmental justice was, but after that one summer I was hooked on trying to fight for the rights of clean air, water and energy. I felt an obligation to make sure that every person gets to live a healthy and clean life. I returned to Chispa earlier this year as Lead Promotora to the program, helping our staff train new Promotores and build relationships that will bring people together to protect our climate!

Since returning, I have done some awesome things. I was a featured speaker in the 2018 Connecticut Women’s March, and later on spoke on a climate justice and policy panel at the University of Connecticut. I am forever grateful to the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters and Chispa for not only helping me build my confidence, but also for the fact that I am able to be a part of a greater movement striving to protect the environment and health of my community.

Below is a poem I wrote:

Crying Planet

Broken bottles and charred pieces of glass

Wadded up newspapers tossed on the grass

Pouring of concrete and tearing out trees

This is the environment that surrounds me?

Poisons and insecticides sprayed on our food

Oceans filling with thick oil crude

All sea life destined to a slow awful doom

These are the things we are to consume?

Mills pumping out iron expelling yellow fumes

Airlines emitting caustic gases from fuels

Weapons of destruction tested at desolate sites

And this is the air that’s to sustain life?

There has to be something that someone can do

Like raise the awareness to those around you

That if we don’t heed the problem at hand

It’s your life that’s at stake, the destruction of man.