"Environmentalists are tree huggers and people concerned with the extinction of birds. We are not trees or birds." Mary Gonzales, a Mexican-American Chicago native, says this statement might be heard from people of color, poor or working class people, young people or immigrants, yet their immediate life experience and issues they're confronting have everything to do with the environment: transportation, housing, jobs, and education, to name a few. How do we connect? Mary is a legendary community organizer and California Director for Gamaliel Foundation, an international institute building faith-based organizing (and which trained Barack Obama as a community organizer).

This speech was given at the 2010 Bioneers National Conference.

Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges.

To experience talks like this, please join us at the Bioneers National Conference each October, and regional Bioneers Resilient Community Network gatherings held nationwide throughout the year.

For more information on Bioneers Everywoman's Leadership program, please visit http://www.bioneers.org/programs/ever... and stay in touch via Facebook (bit.ly/everywomansFB) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/Bioneerswomen).