Mary Gonzales is a legendary community organizer and California Director for Gamaliel Foundation, an international institute building faith-based organizing (a young Barack Obama was one of their as community organizer trainees). According to Mary, a Mexican-American Chicago native,”Environmentalists are tree huggers and people concerned with the extinction of birds. We are not trees or birds” is a statement that 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. In this essential talk, Mary Gonzales addresses how we can connect the dots.

This speech was given at the 2010 Bioneers National Conference.