Dr. Rosa Rivera-Furumoto and the Call for Climate Justice: Mothers, Memory, and the Earth, by Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

Dr. Rosa Rivera-Furumoto and the Call for Climate Justice: Mothers, Memory, and the Earth

by 

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

I recently watched Cal State Northridge Chicana/o Studies professor, Dr. Rosa Rivera-Furumoto’s powerful KAN Talk on Climate Justice, and I have not stopped thinking about it. Her message—delivered with the grace of an educator and the urgency of an activist—reminds us that the fight for environmental sustainability is inseparable from the struggle for cultural survival, educational justice, and community well-being. 

She asks the hardest questions like what difference does policy make if we no longer have clean drinking water? Grounded in the lived experiences of Mexican American and Latina/o mothers, grandmothers, community members, and university students and an organization, Padres Pioneros/Parent Pioneers, that she co-founded, her work reveals how climate justice is also a story of love—for family, for culture, and for the Earth itself.

Dr. Rivera-Furumoto’s model begins with the preservation and revitalization of language, culture, values, and traditions drawn from Chicana/o, Latina/o, and Native American communities. This is not nostalgia; it is survival. The ancestral ways of knowing that she uplifts—reciprocity, gratitude, respect for the land and water—hold deep ecological wisdom that our contemporary systems have forgotten. In her hands, sustainability is not a new idea but an ancient memory calling us home, inviting us to listen again to the teachings of our elders and to the Earth.

Drawing inspiration from Freirean pedagogy, Dr. Rivera-Furumoto teaches climate literacy as liberation. Her practices invite critical reflection and collective action, connecting local challenges such as food deserts, rising heat, and air pollution to global systems of inequality and environmental racism. Through dialogue and shared inquiry, participants learn to see themselves as agents of change rather than passive recipients of environmental harm. It is a pedagogy of hope rooted in praxis—the joining of reflection and action for transformation.

None of this is easy. It is nevertheless a growing movement of educators, mothers, and students leading community-based sustainability efforts rooted in culture and compassion. Her example reminds us that even in the face of systemic inequity, grassroots efforts can plant the seeds of transformation.

Her call echoes loudly here in Texas, where the climate crisis is no longer a distant threat but a daily reality. As heat waves intensify, water grows scarce, and vulnerable communities suffer most, we must recognize that climate justice and educational justice are inseparable. The same structures that devalue public education also devalue the planet and its people. Addressing one without the other only deepens the harm.

Her approach is intergenerational, creating spaces of learning that bring together children, parents, grandparents, and extended kin, where knowledge flows in every direction. In community gardens and workshops, young people dig their hands into the soil beside elders who share stories of traditional planting cycles and herbal medicine. These gatherings transform environmental education into cultural renewal. 

If we are to confront the climate crisis with honesty and courage, we must also confront the systems that disconnect us from the land and from one another. Dr. Rivera-Furumoto shows us that resistance can bloom in gardens, in classrooms, and in every act of care that restores balance to our world. The future, she reminds us, is not something we await—it is something we grow.

Rosa RiVera Furumoto - KAN Talk

Call to action on climate change. Description of some of the strategies and practices employed by Mexican American and Latina/o mothers, grandmothers, community members, and university students to address climate change and sustainability issues in a low-income Latina/o community.  The talk will address challenges and future directions. The model is based on these key principles and practices: 1 Preservation and revitalization of the language, culture, values, and traditions of Chicana/o/Latina/o and Native American community members;
2 Involvement and engagement of multiple generations in the teaching and learning processes including children, parents, grandparents, and other kin and community members;
3 Critical pedagogical practices to promote critical thinking, reflection and action regarding climate change, sustainability, and other social justice issues and;
4 Promoting connection, love, and respect for nature and the environment via outdoors exploration and the establishment of urban gardens and forests.