At a recent Los Angeles City Council meeting where longtime trail-blazing politician and environmentalist Cindy Montañez was honored for her years of public and community service, the woman of the hour was swarmed by friends and colleagues following a council presentation.
But rather than keep the focus on herself, the moment she saw her friend Mark Gold, former president of Heal the Bay, Montañez asked him about a school greening effort.
“She’s selfless,” said Gold, director of water scarcity solutions at the Natural Resources Defense Council, who has known Montañez for more than 25 years. “It’s never about Cindy. It’s always about the greater objective.”
In interviews and public testimonies this week, friends and colleagues described a woman who doesn’t seek out attention for herself but has devoted her life to championing causes such as environmental justice, education, healthcare and consumer protections.
She pursued change in every role she took on — during her time on the San Fernando City Council, as a member of the state Assembly, as an employee for the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power where she rose to assistant general manager, and in her role today as CEO of the nonprofit TreePeople, which is dedicated to planting and protecting trees.
For her work through the years, the city councils in San Fernando and Los Angeles both recently voted to rename portions of Pacoima Wash Natural Park after 49-year-old Montañez, who is battling an aggressive form of cancer. Montañez advocated for the remake of the San Fernando park, which now features walking trails, a picnic area and a stormwater capture system.
Montañez’s advocacy and leadership dates to her days at UCLA, where, as a freshman, she joined a 14-day hunger strike to demand the university start a Chicano studies department, paving the way for the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies.
Her efforts in championing for her community…
Read the full article here