“It Is as If They Were Killing the Land”: Community Resistance in Dona Juana and Their Struggle Against Environmental Injustice

This text is a critical essay that presents a constant comparison between the postulates of an academic theory (environmental justice) and a real-life case of a community in Bogotá facing the struggles of living next to the city’s only waste disposal landfill (Doña Juana). The objective of the text is to demonstrate that environmental justice theory is not comprised solely of abstract concepts, but that its ideas can be clearly proven in a daily and situated case, such as the one of the low-income agricultural communities living next to the landfill in Bogotá. To develop the argument, an extensive literature review, both in environmental justice theory and the Doña Juana tragedy, was conducted. The conclusions include that the Doña Juana situation is definitely an environmental injustice case, as the inhabitants close to the landfill have had to suffer disproportionate environmental damages due to their belonging to certain social categories.