The fight has made a difference. A local environmental group is lobbying the state to consider a landfill’s social impact when granting permits. And other colonias are catching on. In nearby Rincon, residents are organizing against a feed company’s drainage pools, which they say spread disease. In Berino, a colonia notorious for Border Patrol roundups, residents hung we know our rights banners in their windows and hosted legal-education sessions.
After Garcia took a stand in Chaparral, hundreds of volunteers papered stores with fliers and took petitions door to door. The court approved the landfill permit for a private waste company but tacked on 20 regulations to help residents monitor the site. The CCHC appealed, but lost. Now it’s heading for the state Supreme Court. Back in Chaparral, children clamber over a jungle gym, one of the residents’ first victories. Garcia’s own children have outgrown swing sets, but she keeps fighting.
