Stewards of the Land: Race and Reclaiming Environmental Labor in the American West with Stevie Ruiz (UNC Press, 2026)

Oct 29, 2026

Stevie Ruiz, a Chicana/o studies professor and environmental justice historian, uncovers the multiracial labor behind the American West’s parks and environmental movement. He explores Indigenous dispossession, Chinese and Mexican workers, Japanese American incarceration, Chicano conservation crews, farmworker pesticide exposure, and the overlooked knowledge of cooks, cleaners, and landscapers. The conversation reframes stewardship, citizenship, and environmental justice.

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INSIGHT

Environmental Justice Began Before The 1970s

Environmental justice did not suddenly emerge in the 1960s; its deeper history includes land dispossession, racialized labor, and unequal resource access.
Ruiz extends the timeline to explain why pollution burdens became urgent political issues.

INSIGHT

Who Built The Parks Environmentalists Celebrate

National parks and recreation infrastructure developed on Indigenous land through the labor of Chinese, Mexican, and other marginalized workers.
Studying who built trails, roads, and tourist spaces reveals environmentalism’s material foundations.

ANECDOTE

How Anti-Chinese Laws Shaped Mexican Labor

Laws first targeting Chinese immigrants were later reapplied against Mexicans, linking seemingly separate racialized labor histories.
Ruiz also examines Chicano CCC workers whose citizenship did not guarantee equal access to its benefits.

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The history of the environmental movement-from environmentalism of the nineteenth century to the environmental justice struggles of the late twentieth century-has often been portrayed as a series of efforts led by white environmentalists. In Stewards of the Land, Stevie Ruiz reassesses the movement and reveals that it has always been a multiracial endeavor. From Southern California berry fields to Japanese American concentration camps, from Chinese cooks in national parks to Chicano Civilian Conservation Corps workers, Ruiz traces how the racialized labor and environmental knowledge of Asian migrants and Chicana/o communities built the material foundations of modern environmentalism.

Stewards of the Land: Race and Reclaiming Environmental Labor in the American West (UNC Press, 2026) argues that environmental justice was never just a reaction to pollution in the 1970s but has a much longer history tied to land theft, labor exploitation, and the everyday struggles of frontline communities to live and work with dignity. Drawing from comparative ethnic studies and archival research and with a commitment to decolonial praxis, Ruiz recovers the stories of those who labored-often invisibly-to build, maintain, and reimagine environmental spaces in the American West.

Stevie Ruiz is a Professor of Chicana and Chicano studies at California State University, Northridge and a historian, author, and environmental justice scholar.  His research focuses on the intersection of labor, immigration, and the American environmental movement — the work of building, maintaining, and stewarding the land that is so often left out of the story. For more information about his work, see his website.

Kalani Foster is a PhD candidate at the University of Manchester whose research focuses on the intersection between biodiversity conservation, data and technology, and coloniality. For more information, and ways to contact him, see his research profile.

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