From Long Beach resident Martha Cota

I am a working mother of three sons and one daughter. I’ve often had to hold down as many as three jobs at a time to raise my children. I may not have much money, but living here by the port, I’ve come to learn one thing: It doesn’t matter if a person is wealthy or low-income. In Long Beach, we all breathe the same dirty air and we all suffer.

This past Sunday on Mother’s Day, I reminded my 18-year-old who is in his first year at Cal State Long Beach how blessed he is despite having such a difficult childhood.

When José Miguel was just a year old I had a terrible scare. His lips and fingertips turned purple. I didn’t know what was happening and I will never forget the panic I felt as my ex-husband and I raced my baby from Long Beach to the hospital in Harbor City.

The ER doctors treated him with oxygen, and my son “came back to life.” We left without a diagnosis because we didn’t have health care insurance that provided us with the right care – or answers. We just knew that our son suffered from a dangerous and serious illness, one that would send us to the hospital again and again, in the middle of the night, or during the work and school day.

I began to get involved in the community and found out there were many mothers like me…too many. About 12 years ago, 15 of us met at the Long Beach Family Resource Center and formed a women’s group to talk about our concerns. I began to track down the reason behind my son’s health problems. Another one of my children began to suffer the same symptoms as José Miguel, and I developed breathing problems. Through a doctor I knew at Long Beach Memorial Hospital, I eventually learned we all had asthma, a word I had barely heard of. From then on, I understood the connection between the health of my family and the realities of air quality and port pollution in Long Beach.

It has been a long and difficult journey, but it has led me to be more than just a proud mother. I never thought I would be a community activist but I have been speaking out for over a decade because of my children and there is no turning back. I even appeared in a full page ad in the Long Beach Press Telegram. I want everyone to know that our port officials sided with the industry polluters instead of the real Clean Truck plan that had the support of environmentalist, public health and local groups, and mothers like me.

I invite mothers and other members of our community to share their story, too, because pollution touches all of us. If the mayor of Los Angeles can get it done at his port, we can get the right plan here in Long Beach. I know if mothers raise their voices, we can truly clean up the trucking industry and make our community safe for all our children.