One day, nine year old Nalleli Cobo was walking home with her big sister through their neighborhood in South Los Angeles. They passed street vendors selling elote. A smiling woman was pushing a cart with ice cream.

The sisters walked by tall, metal gates plastered with warning signs. Nalleli never knew what was behind those ominous gates. Could there be a parking lot? Sometimes she imagined the industrial doors bursting open to reveal an amusement park!

But that day, something else caught her attention. She scrunched up her face when she caught a whiff of a strange smell.

(sniffs) Almost like… rotten eggs, but mixed with guava and … (sniffs, sniffs) chocolate? What on Earth could smell like this?!

Nalleli and her sister planned to ask their mom when they got home. Normally, their home was bustling with five generations.

But when she opened the front door, silence. Where was everybody? Nalleli’s mom ushered the sisters into a room where they discovered the rest of her family.

“I will do everything in my power to keep us safe,” her mom said, looking at the faces of Nalleli’s loved ones all crowded in one room.

The mysterious smell swept through the neighborhood and seeped into their home, even with the windows shut tight. This was the only room with an air purifier, hard at work keeping the air clean.

Could a smell be dangerous? What was the source of the stench? And what could nine-year-old Nalleli do about it?

I’m Lauren Markham. And this is Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls.

A fairy tale podcast about the real-life rebel women who inspire us.

On this episode, Nalleli Cobo, environmental activist fighting for the health of her community.

[SEGMENT 1] Early days of activism

Soon after the smell emerged, Nalleli started to feel sick. Her body would spasm and her legs would go stiff. She would get nosebleeds so bad she had to sleep upright in a chair. She even had to wear a heart monitor because her heartbeat was out of the ordinary. Her mom and grandmother took care of her, but they struggled to breathe, too.

Other neighborhood kids started to feel the same effects.

At the time, Nalleli didn’t know what activism was. She didn’t know any activists, or at least that’s what she thought.

All she knew was she was sick. Her family was sick. Her community was sick. And it seemed to be related to the weird smelling air. Nalleli wanted to feel better, and to help everyone around her feel better, too.

So what was the source of the sickening stench?

Nalleli’s mom got to the bottom of it. She worked for a local nonprofit. They discovered that the problem was an oil well. Oil wells are tall and imposing. They look almost like a crane you’d see at a construction site, but they drill deep into the earth’s surface to bring up oil or gas.

This one was… a little too close to home. About 30 feet away to be exact. 30 feet is shorter than the length of a school bus! The facility had 21 active oil and gas wells and was surrounded by tall concrete walls.

So THAT’s what was behind the thick industrial gates Nalleli would walk by on her way home.

The oil well was ramping up drilling. This meant that the oil was releasing more and more pollution and chemicals into the air – the air that Nalleli and her neighbors were breathing!

Even though this was scary to learn, information is powerful. Now that Nalleli knew the cause of the sickness, she could take action and fight for her community.

[SEGMENT 2] Organizing & finding her voice

Nallelli and her mom started knocking on doors, talking with neighbors, and learning how the oil well was affecting their health. Nalleli was shy, but she asked her neighbors if they’d be willing to share their stories at City Hall. They were going to shut down this oil well for good.

Nallelli and her mom started a grassroots campaign named People Not Pozos, Pozos meaning “well” in Spanish. They filed complaints to safety officials, testified at city hall, and talked to government officials about what was going on in their neighborhood.

Nalleli felt powerful bringing together the whole community – A community made of people of color and immigrants from all around the world – to share their experiences with the city council.

But activism was hard work! Sometimes, when she was knocking on doors, she wished she could be at home watching Hannah Montana. Some adults would shrug her off, as if she was a silly little girl. How could she possibly know all the science of air quality? How could someone so young take on a massive oil company?

One day, she told her mom, “Maybe they’re right. Maybe I don’t know enough to make a difference.”

Her mom asked Nalleli if she knew how to add five plus five at the beginning of first grade.

Well, no, Nalleli responded.

“But at the end of first grade, you could add 20 plus 20.”

Nalleli nodded.

“That’s exactly the same with your activism. You’re learning. Take it one day at a time. Share what you know – that’s your part.”

Her mom explained that the movement was like a puzzle. Without Nalleli, this puzzle, this movement was incomplete. And they needed her unique abilities, her unique story to complete the full picture.

Nalleli felt her confidence grow brighter. She knew she couldn’t stay silent when so much was at stake.

Nalleli continued her activism, advocating for clean air whenever she could. Months after the mysterious scent appeared, Nalleli found herself preparing to make a speech at a Los Angeles City Council. She looked around. She was the only kid in a room full of adults. Their faces said they would rather be somewhere else.

Nalleli shuffled a few notecards in her hands, and looked up at her mom. She took a deep breath, and spoke clearly into the microphone.

“Hi, my name is Nalleli Cobo. I am ten years old and a fourth grader.” She was surprised by how the microphone amplified her voice to the back of the room.

She told them how she and her elementary school classmates were getting sick and missing school. She told them about the nosebleeds that were so bad she couldn’t sleep laying down. She told them about how asthma meant she had to sit on the sidelines when she would rather be running around with her friends. She was being robbed of her childhood.

She watched as the bored adults started paying attention to her powerful words. A shift was coming, Nalleli thought. She could feel it.

[SEGMENT 3] Making Progress

Her advocacy with public officials caught the attention of a local reporter. She sat down with the reporter and talked about how she would bug her mom to leave school early so she could talk at town hall meetings, and how she organized her neighbors to report the suspicious odors – there needed to be nine calls from nine different households within the span of one hour in order for the smell to be considered a public nuisance. Nalleli told the reporter why she loved her community so much, and why she wanted to fight for its survival.

This article caught the attention of US California Senator Barbara Boxer. The Senator reached out to the Environmental Protection Agency, and they investigated the oil well across from Nalleli’s home. The United States EPA investigators only made it a few minutes inside the facility because they were getting sick from the smells! Something was clearly wrong here.

Then, one day in November of 2013, Nalleli was sitting with her family eating Mexican potato soup for dinner. The phone rang. Her mom answered it – tears ran down her face as she hung up.

The oil well – just thirty feet from where they stood eating dinner – would be shut down!

Nalleli could not contain her excitement. “We did it, we did it, we did it!” she shouted. She ran to the window and opened it as wide as possible. A fresh November breeze blew in.

Almost immediately, her nosebleeds, headaches, and heart palpitations stopped. She wasn’t constantly reaching for her asthma inhaler. Other kids in her school started feeling better, too.

But this win wouldn’t last forever. This was only a temporary shut down. Nalleli’s grassroots campaign, People Not Pozos, celebrated, but looming over their heads was the possibility that the well could start operations again at any moment.

Nalleli wouldn’t stop until the well was shut down for good.

[SEGMENT 4]

So if this one well was making so many people sick in her neighborhood, then what about the rest of the people in Los Angeles?

When Nalleli was in fourth grade, there were about 1,000 of these oil wells in LA. Some were in other people’s backyards, just like the one so close to hers. Nearly 580,000 people lived less than a quarter mile from these sites.

The history of Los Angeles was wrapped up in the oil industry. In the 1920s, the city produced up to a quarter of the oil supply for the whole world! Even the Dodgers baseball stadium was sitting on top of an old oil field.

The majority of these oil wells were in Black, Brown, and immigrant communities – just like hers. She joined in with other teenage activists and sued the city for environmental racism. Why did policy makers think it was OK to let families like hers struggle to breathe? Nalleli wanted to hold elected officials accountable for the harm oil projects cause in low income communities.

Finally, with the support of the public, Nalleli’s group WON the lawsuit! The city unveiled stricter rules for drilling permits in 2015.

Then, after even more years of work, in 2022, she helped bring home the biggest victory. County officials voted unanimously to end oil and gas drilling throughout all of Los Angeles! The existing wells would be phased out, and there was an outright BAN on new drill sites.

This meant that 1,000 oil and gas wells would be closed within her lifetime.

And even better, this change happened because of the young people who spoke up and demanded the right to a livable future.

[SEGMENT 5] CLOSING

Now, thanks to the work of Nalleli’s grassroots organizing, oil wells are banned across Los Angeles. Existing wells are being decommissioned as we speak.

The business executives who were in charge of operating the oil wells face criminal charges for breaking environmental safety laws.

Nalleli is now in her twenties and studying public health at college.

And what’s in her future? The plans are still taking shape. She wants to make community organizing less intimidating and give kids the tools to become activists and changemakers.

She will always be looking out for her community one way or another. Former Senator Barbara Boxer told Nalleli she hoped that Nalleli would take her job as Senator one day. Nalleli has also declared her plans to run for the White House in 2036. President Nalleli Cobo has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

She still dreams of a day when urban oil extraction is a thing of the past everywhere. But for now, she is happy to open her window in South Los Angeles and feel the fresh breeze on her skin, take a deep breath in, and enjoy resting and relaxing with her family.

And this is just the beginning of what one determined young person with a vision can accomplish.

CREDITS:
This podcast is a production of Rebel Girls. It’s based on the book series Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls.

This episode was narrated by ME, Lauren Markham. It was produced by Danielle Roth and directed by Haley Dapkus. Sound design and mixing by Carter Wogahn.

The story was written and fact checked by Danielle Roth It was edited by Haley Dapkus. Our executive producers were Joy Smith, Anjelika Temple, and Jes Wolfe.

Original theme music was composed and performed by Elettra Bargiacchi [el-LET-tra bar-JOCK-ee].

A special thanks to the whole Rebel Girls team, who make this podcast possible! Until next time, staaaay rebel!