LOS ANGELES— The Center for Biological Diversity has awarded the 2024 “Rose Braz Award for Bold Activism” to Cesar Aguirre.

Living in Bakersfield, the heart of California oil country, Aguirre works relentlessly to protect frontline communities from oil and gas pollution.

As the oil and gas director at the Central California Environmental Justice Network and a co-founder of California Youth vs. Big Oil, Aguirre was instrumental in getting lifesaving oil and gas policies signed into law. These include 3,200-foot setbacks between communities and oil and gas wells and speeding cleanup of idle oil and gas wells.

“Cesar’s fearlessness in fighting for his community has led to major protections for California and the climate,” said Kierán Suckling, the Center’s executive director. “He’s someone who sees injustice and springs into action. He knocks on doors, and if need be, shouts from the rafters until the people he’s fighting for get heard.”

In 2022 Aguirre helped identify, expose and alert neighbors to idle oil wells leaking methane — many at explosive levels — near homes in Bakersfield. He went door to door alerting residents and sharing safety precautions.

“Putting neighbors’ safety first, Cesar was relentless in pressuring agencies, lawmakers and the governor to make systemic changes to protect communities facing the worst of oil drilling’s many harms,” said Suckling.

“Unrestricted access, accountability and transparency of agencies should be standard,” said Aguirre. “My mission is to stand hand in hand with community to hold any person in a position of power to this standard until it becomes the norm.”

The Rose Braz award consists of a handcrafted letterpress print by Roger Peet of Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative in Portland, Ore., and a $1,000 cash prize. The print depicts brown pelicans, a recovered endangered species and Braz’s favorite animal, symbolically breaking through a barrier wall.

Rose Braz, who died of brain cancer in 2017, was the Center’s beloved founding climate campaign director. Before coming to work at the Center, Rose gained great renown as a human-liberation activist, and her legacy continues to be felt in the work of the coalitions she founded.