Nalleli Cobo – Uriarte

At age nine, Nalleli Cobo engaged in community activism for the first time. Her journey began when she noticed she was often ill. Her frequent headaches, stomach pains, nosebleeds, and body spasms worsened to asthma and heart palpitations. Soon after, Nalleli learned others in her community were also having similar problems.

Nalleli lived in an apartment complex in South L.A. across from AllenCo’s oil drilling operations. Terrible odors would take over her community every day. After calling regulatory agencies, Nalleli noticed the smells from the oil well only getting worse. Nalleli and her neighbors took action by creating a grassroots campaign called People Not Pozos (People not Wells). Through grassroots organizing, Nalleli uplifted her community’s voice by fighting AllenCo who has been poisoning her neighborhood for years and making them temporarily close in Nov 2013. Her community continues to fight to close the oil well permanently.

Currently, Nalleli is a co-founder of the South Los Angeles Youth Leadership Coalition. This group, along with Communities for a Better Environment Youth from Wilmington, sued the City of Los Angeles for Environmental Racism and violation of CEQA. Nalleli is also a member of STAND LA (Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling Los Angeles) who works tirelessly to establish a 2500 ft buffer between oil extraction, homes, and sensitive land. In her free time Cobo attends dance classes at Ballet Folklorico de Los Angeles, a professional Mexican folklorico group.