L.A. Activist Among 6 to Be Feted

Aurora Castillo, 81, a founder of the Mothers of East Los Angeles, is the first person from Los Angeles to win a prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for grass-roots activism. Along with five other winners, one from each of the world’s continental regions, she will be honored today at a ceremony in San Francisco.

Each winner will receive a no-strings-attached prize of $75,000. The award program, founded six years ago by Richard and Rhoda Goldman of San Francisco, is the world’s largest prize program for grass-roots environmentalists.

Formed in the early 1980s, the Mothers of East Los Angeles has successfully blocked the construction of a prison, an above-ground pipeline and an incinerator in poor minority communities. Current projects include voter registration and community beautification.

The other winners are:

* Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian writer who has been imprisoned for leading a peaceful movement against multinational oil companies.

* Emma Must of London, who organized demonstrations to reverse plans for a road that would have destroyed a valuable natural and archeological habitat.

* Yul Choi of Seoul, who has created a strong national anti-nuclear movement in South Korea.

* Noah Idechongof Palau, who has reintroduced a 2,000-year-old marine-conservation tradition to protect coral reefs and fisheries from commercial exploitation.

* Richard Navarro of El Salvador, who founded the Center for Appropriate Technology to help repair damaged villages and has coordinated the planting of more than 10,000 trees in an area devastated by the civil war.

Said Rhoda Goldman: “The recipients’ ages span more than 50 years, and their work deals with urban and rural issues. Their differences are vast. Nevertheless they are motivated by a common goal--to protect the Earth’s natural resources regardless of the personal sacrifices involved.”