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EDITORS NOTE: On March 10, the Desert Sun, a newspaper serving Californias desert communities of Coachella Valley, published a report headlined, "Officials Encounter Raw Sewage, Nauseating Odors in East Valley Tour." Students in a youth-journalism project called Coachella Unincorporated, sponsored by New America Media with support from The California Endowment, reacted strongly. After Coachella Unincorporated shared the students responses with the Desert Sun, the paper published selections of their writings along with the following commentary, a shorter version of which appeared in the April 2 edition of the Desert Sun.

“You all see it as outsiders,” Elisa Guevara told the group. The Hernandez, Calif., mobile home–park resident added, “I live it from day to day.”

Those words, appearing at the end of an article in the Desert Sun about the health and environmental hazards in dozens of shoddy mobile-home parks around Thermal, Calif., especially struck the students of Coachella Unincorporated, a youth media startup in the unincorporated eastern region of the valley.

The article sparked a thoughtful discussion among the 11 aspiring journalists.

How can these third-world conditions still exist in the same Coachella Valley adorned with lush golf courses and glistening swimming pools? Why do hundreds continue to go without healthy drinking water? When will something finally be done?

More than just words on paper for these students, the article mirrored their lives. This pollution was happening in their backyard, to their friends and family. No longer did these young people merely want to read these articles. They wanted to share their unique perspective and bring about change in their community.

Coachella Unincorporated, where the authors of this article are co-coordinators, includes nearly a dozen young people attending Coachella Valley High School, Desert Mirage High, Xavier College Preparatory High and College of the Desert. They were chosen from among dozens of applicants for their commitment to journalism.

Participating youth are paid stipends and treated as emerging journalists, as they undergo a journalism curriculum. The goal of Coachella Unincorporated is to bring about change through reporting on health issues in the eastern section of the valley.

As part of their first assignment, the project leaders asked the students to read the Desert Sun article and write their thoughts about it.

“The focus must shift to these people, we must talk to these people like people, treat these people like people, and give them the right to live like people, not a spectacle, not a day visit, not a dream that lingers in the edges of the imagination beyond Highway 86,” wrote Jesus E. Valenzuela Felix, a student at College of the Desert.

The students were happy the article raised awareness about pollution and risks to the mobile-park residents, but they wanted to hear more from Elisa Guevara and others who live the areas harsh reality.

However, the articles headline focused more on the officials taking the tour than on afflicted residents such as Guevara: “Officials Encounter Raw Sewage, Nauseating Odors in East Valley Tour.”

The students wondered, if the officials never set foot in the eastern Coachella Valley again, would the plight of their neighbors ever be considered newsworthy again?

Such concerns are why these young reporters committed themselves to ensuring that the voices Guevara and others like her are not forgotten. The students named themselves Coachella Unincorporated to refer to the city of Coachella and the unincorporated communities east of the valley. The students feel the region is not only unincorporated geographically, but socially. They want to incorporate the issues plaguing the eastern valley into our mainstream Coachella Valley mindset.

In a class exercise, the students wrote, “The ability to be objective and removed from a story is a privilege not held by us. We as community journalists share in the responsibility of promoting the change in the communities we cover and write about. A community journalist is a journalist dedicated to covering the Coachella Valley as well as engaging in the movement of progress. We are journalists the community can count on to call when they need us and refuse to be seen as only journalists but as part of their community and their plight for change and progress.”

Marcel Honores follow-up article on March 27 was a reminder that journalism can be a catalyst for change. The article (“Families Sick of Fouled Air”) led with the health and lifestyle consequences that the Carillo family of Mecca, Calif., face as a result of the unidentified gas-like odor. Although it can not be done by journalists alone, dogged reporting of issues, such as this, can lead to the awareness necessary to instigate action.

The students articulated insightful and intelligent responses wise beyond their years. We have compiled excerpts from these responses that best capture their genuine concern for the community.


Excerpts of reactions from Coachella Unincorporated youth reporters:

    “To come and go is a privilege not held by most of these people. Poverty lingers in their eyes and lives in their bellies; mobility is not an option and so one must wonder what they wonder when busloads of officials unload into their area, an area forgotten for so long that even the residents forget that they themselves exist, that they themselves have a voice.”
    —Jesus E. Valenzuela Felix, College of the Desert
     

    “This hardly lives up to the perception of the ideal lifestyle of the valleys country club dwellers. It is hard for a resident of Thermal or Mecca to share the same image of an idyllic lifestyle in the Coachella Valley. For those living past Highway 86, the perception of home might be that of the putrid smell of sewage and run-down trailer parks.”
    —Aurora Saldivar, Xavier College Preparatory High School


    “The Eastern Coachella Valley is socially and economically composed of farm workers, a large fraction of the working class, who are understated, unincorporated and lacking equal opportunity, a major economic divide, which leaves the East End of the valley out of the equation.”
    —Omar Ramirez, Desert Mirage High School
     

    “The officials faced this "travesty" for a few minutes, while residents live with these obstacles day-to-day. Children go to school, even though it does not necessarily serve as a refuge because the nauseating odors can be smelled from schools in the Thermal area.”
    —Noely Resendiz, Coachella Valley High School


    “Many of the Coachella Valleys more affluent residents (many of whom no doubt read The Desert Sun) are blissfully, completely unaware of these enormous health issues right in their backyard.”
    —Jesus A. Vargas, College of the Desert


    “Reading this article on the mass sewage crisis made me think… Since this problem has been going on for more than 30 years, why has there not been anything done? We as a community should take matters into our own hands and help out the beat-up trailer park communities. We need to realize that families and schools are being affected by this.”
    —Santos Reyes, Coachella Valley High School
     

    “The article written by Marcel Honore ended with a quote from a resident who has to live with the nauseating odor that the presence of raw sewage nearby emits. The voice of this woman is the one that matters when it comes to discussing the topic.”
    —Diana Sanchez, Desert Mirage High School
     

    “My question is: Will the departure of the residents from their homes, stop the environmental hazards, such as the nauseating odors, in the East Valley? No. The people that inhabit the area are not the issue. The issue is the current environmental hazards the valley is being exposed to.”
    —Maricruz Cabrera


    “Although the horrible stench may not pose any real danger to those who do not reside nearby, those who do ought to have a better explanation as to why many of them are becoming ill. Unfortunately, what seems to be the only enlightenment they come across is a slight chance of hope that they can be listened to and their families taken care of.”
    —Gloria Guzman, Coachella Valley High School