COYOTL MACEHUALLI
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Mission Statement
Coyotl + Macehualli is a grassroots BIPOC-led environmental justice group based out of 'Ochuunga aka Northeast Los Angeles actively bringing agency back to the land and native species. We advocate for conservation, remediation and decolonization of our relationship with natural resources and plant and animal relatives within our community.
About This Cause
Coyotl + Macehualli was founded in 2019 and incorporated in 2021. Coyotl + Macehualli (Coyote and Indigenous person in Nahuatl) takes direct action by defending land, supporting native plant species, increasing tree canopy, and providing space for intergenerational connection and learning. As it advocates for the protection of natural environments, Coyotl + Macehualli holds space to learn about native plants and their environments, as well as Indigenous practices around land stewardship and building relationships with natural environments. We do this through propagation workshops, ethical/reciprocal harvesting, guerrilla gardening and tending, species mapping, hikes, tabling, advocacy at the local government level. Some of our major accomplishments include establishing a communal native plant garden, organizing the Taakape' Waashut Northeast LA Black Walnut Day, and winning a CEQA lawsuit to stop a destructive luxury home development. In 2021 we brought the community together to activate an abandoned city space by planting a native plant garden. We planted and tended to hyper-local species including the Arroyo lupine, California poppy, California buckwheat, white sage, purple sage, apricot mallow, narrow leaf milkweed, bush monkey flower, elegant clarkia, and one mountain mahogany tree. These were grown from seed by local youth. This space served as a meeting point for cultural and educational events. We also hosted bi-weekly cafecitos where we tended to the garden and informed folks about our “Eastern/Lombardy” CEQA lawsuit. In 2022, we were the lead organizer of the first annual Taakape' Waashut Northeast LA Black Walnut Day that attracted over 500 attendees. We teamed up with various local Indigenous groups and environmental groups to provide informative hikes, art and cultural workshops, provided 100 black walnut saplings for adoption, gave away 40 native plants and served over 300 meals. This event was 100% free to all attendees. This led to our organization being awarded the "Coalition Builder" honor by local non-profit urban design organization LA Más in November 2022. In December 2022, we won our lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles and developer, TTLC for CEQA violations over approvals of a 42-luxury home development project. This project would have devastated a hillside habitat that is currently home to over 110 protected and threatened Southern California black walnut trees, raised housing costs, drastically reduced habitat for animal relatives and would have had major health and safety consequences for the community including the elementary school directly across the street. We believe that when we heal the land, we heal ourselves.