Shining light on the advocacy and sustainability work of young environmental leaders working to make their communities safer and cleaner. As part of our commitment to youth engagement and equity, we are holding an ongoing series of interviews with individuals and sharing their stories to spread awareness.
Photo credit: Greater New Haven Arts Council
Dave Cruz-Bustamante (he/him/they/them) is a self-identified queer, working-class organizer and high school junior from New Haven, Connecticut. They are the descendant of Ecuadorian workers, farmers, and a proud child of immigrants. They work at Citywide Youth Coalition as a community outreach coordinator and political education fellow.
They are fighting for a clean and dignified future for New Haven. To achieve this, they regularly plan community events, critical discussions, and provide a space for folks to express and discover themselves and the world around them in an anti-racist, liberatory way. They commit themselves to truth, abolition, reflection, and love for their community and in their efforts to transform our world, because a better world is necessary. Their self-awareness and selflessness assist them in facilitating the utter power, imagination, beauty, and passion of the collective.
Citing climate change as an emergency, Dave testified in support of New Haven’s Transportation & Climate Initiative resolution in October 2021 and had this to say in their remarks: “Today I’m testifying to urge the (New Haven) Board of Alders use their power to demand action from Gov. Ned Lamont and the Connecticut General Assembly. It’s important that TCI be passed with the purpose of directly benefiting the working class and people of color, who bear the heaviest burden of the climate crisis and inequality, especially in New Haven.”
As mentioned in our previous blog post, the New Haven Board of Alders ultimately passed its resolution on November 4, 2021.
We asked Dave about what drives them to fight for climate justice and economic justice, to which he replied with a quote from Chico Mendes : “Ecology without class struggle is just gardening”. They went on to explain how revolutionary community organizing should center co-creation, having faith in people, as well as cultural apprehension, and community building.
Our last question to Dave was around what their hopes for the future were, and they responded with: “A Green New Deal that protects of the health of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities, gives land back to Indigenous and BIPOC communities, and sets the foundation for a just, democratic, and collective future.”
You can find more information about Dave Cruz-Bustamante and the Citywide Youth Coalition at cwyc.org