This month’s reading selection focuses on the environment, legislation, and public interest that are longstanding issues in the state. Tourism is a top revenue generator for the State of New Mexico, along with resource extraction. Yet, what obscures these metrics is the impact on Native and non-Native communities. Beginning with Spanish colonialism, through US territorial occupation, and into the present, the accepted norm of taking natural resources has influenced state politics. Examining and comparing these impacts are what is presented in Environmental Justice in New Mexico: Counting Coup. Water degradation, radioactive contamination, and legal efforts to protect tribal and public lands are the background narratives of the impact of resource extraction in NM.

Valerie Rangel presently serves on the board of the New Mexico Public Health Association as the environmental health & justice representative, and works as the Fiscal Sponsorship & Outreach Coordinator at the New Mexico Foundation, as well as an environmental planning and public health research consultant. She is an alum of UNM’s Master of Community Regional Planning program, who majored in Indigenous Planning with a minor in Public Health. Her work also includes the facilitation of Earth Science, Health, and Southwest History courses as a contributing faculty member at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design.

In April 2018, she presented selections from her book, Environmental Justice in New Mexico: Counting Coup, at the National Environmental Justice conference in Washington, D.C. Her book presents stories of strife and struggle in the war to protect the integrity of natural systems, rights to religious freedom, and the continuation of traditional customs.

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