Community Profile

Anecdote- Faces of Imperial

            Couple years back, I was looking for a job as an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) and a friend told me about this company in Indio CA that were hiring. I had never been to Indio before. Even though it was far from home I needed a job quickly and I was willing to commute for the job. I ask my oldest brother Israel to come with me since he knew the road and the area. The next day, we started driving to Indio. We took Hwy 86 North the easiest and faster way. As we past Brawley City and Westmorland I started to notice an unusual smell. At first, I tried to ignore it, but every mile we drove. The smell was getting stronger and hard to ignore. It smelled like rotten old fish, a similar smell you would find on the beach. For a second, it thought it was a dead animal at the side of the road, or even old forgotten food inside my car. It was something unusual because all around me was just farm fields and desert. In the distance miles away into the desert, it appeared what it looked like a lake. It spread from miles long and wide. I had never seen something like that so close to the Valley. I ask my brother if he knew something about it and he told it wasn’t a lake. In fact, it was a sea, The Salton Sea. He told me is a dying sea that is polluted, drying up, and nobody is doing nothing about it. He told everything he knew about the sea, and how is affecting our ecosystem. He also explained to me how contamination overall is killing our ecosystem.

My brother has always been a person who care about the environment and is related to the Arts. He is very good painting and he expresses environmental issues through his paintings. He had held art exposition where he addresses environmental issues that affects not only our valley, but the whole world. Through him I was able to learn the importance of the environment, and prevention. Because of my brother, I had learned to recycle, and how to do my part by protecting the fauna. Today, my brother is still painting and exploring different ways to create awareness of the issues that are affecting us all. Now, every time I drove by the Salton Sea I remember my brother efforts, and that we still need to work hard for the preservation of our natural resources and environment.