On March 6, 2025, the Young Initiative co-sponsored, Dr. Michael Méndez's lecture about Sonoma County wildfires and the effect on migrant workers.
As policymakers and residents alike grapple with the aftermath of California’s recent devastating wildfires, Dr. Michael Méndez’s March 6 lecture couldn’t have been more timely. His presentation “Tainted Grapes, Tainted Lungs” focused on his extensive research into Sonoma County wildfires and revealed how migrant workers bear the brunt of climate disasters.
The lecture, co-sponsored by the Young Initiative, was organized by Professor Karla Peña for her course on environmental law and policy. Dr. Michael Méndez, Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy & Urban Planning at UC Irvine, has over a decade of senior level experience in the policy making process. He authored an award-winning book titled "Climate Change from the Streets,” which emphasizes the need for local environmental justice to inform global climate change policy.
Dr. Méndez began his lecture with a recognition of the recent wildfires that have plagued Los Angeles. He then offered a note of hope: “While we have crises throughout the world—politically, environmentally, or even socially—we maintain hope, see the joy in one another, and lean on one another as a community as a collective to imagine other types of societies, other types of worlds that are more inhabitable and more equitable.”
Dr. Méndez presented startling findings from Sonoma County—home to approximately 12,000 Indigenous Mexican farmworkers. "Undocumented migrants are the invisible workforce living behind the bougainvillea curtain," he explained, describing how evacuation plans and disaster relief systematically exclude this population. His interviews revealed workers forced to labor through toxic smoke: "We all got sick. Our throats closed... We had to buy masks, medicine, goggles—just to keep working."
The long-standing inequity of the system became visceral when Méndez contrasted two dates: March 12, 1928 and March 12, 2023. In 1928, the Red Cross refused shelter to Mexican farmworkers after the St. Francis Dam collapse and La Cruza Azul traveled from San Fernando to provide necessary disaster relief. In 2023 the migrant community of Pajaro, California faced identical neglect after flooding. "Disasters aren’t natural," he stressed. "They’re political."
Following the lecture, the Q&A session turned to contemporary resistance against equity-focused policies. Méndez noted how Elon Musk has publicly criticized inclusive disaster planning and wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, ‘Saving American lives should be priority #1.’ Yet Méndez’s research trajectory also uncovered paths to progress: unexpected alliances between labor and environmental groups, migrant-led advocacy winning hazard pay, and community knowledge shaping better policy. "Change happens when we center lived experience," Méndez stressed.
Méndez’s work exemplifies the Young Initiative’s mission to confront hidden inequalities in global systems. His blend of archival rigor, and community-driven research models how scholarship can fuel change—a call to action for Oxy’s own efforts in LA.