Nalleli's commitment

At the age of nine, Nalleli Cobo began to suffer from asthma, headaches and nosebleeds. They are strong, so much so that she often has to sleep sitting up to avoid being suffocated in her sleep. Cobo lives in a neighborhood of Los Angeles, she is part of the Latin American community and her symptoms are common to many children in her area: often, they are rushed to the emergency room, without, however, any disease being diagnosed.

About her Her story is known today because she clearly linked the polluting activities of man to damage to health. A few steps from Nalleli's house, in fact, there is a well of a large oil company. "Often the air stank of rotten eggs, or of a smell that recalled the scent of chocolate - Nalleli says today in various interviews - My mother and grandmother suffered from asthma". The link between oil extraction and population diseases is confirmed by a group of toxicologists. Thus, Nalleli, his mother and the other inhabitants of the area start a campaign, People not pozos, to ask for the closure of the oil well. Victory comes in 2013: the well was dismantled. Nalleli has been defined as the little one who won against the big ones and for this reason in November 2022 she received the "Goldman Prize", considered a sort of Nobel Prize for the environment.

She Today she is cured, but in recent years she has also had to deal with cancer. "I dream of a world - the activist told the Guardian - in which people can open the window and breathe without getting sick, turn on the tap and drink clean water". Her campaigns have garnered the interest and participation of several communities residing in Los Angeles who complain about the excessive proximity of oil wells to homes. Now they work together to change that.
On her social networks, Cobo writes that she feels lucky because next to her she sees "many young people who are committed to their lives"


Chiara Vitali
NP February 2023