This story is part of our occasional series The Power of Moms: Stories of Intergenerational Influence and Climate Legacy.
One of the fondest memories Jacqueline Banderas has of growing up is the sound of her mother, Ana González, singing at home. “Music is in my blood,” said Banderas, recalling how her mother would sing and dance to Mexican music while doing everything from cleaning to folding the laundry.
It wasn’t until a few years ago that the pair decided to form a mother and daughter duo called Las Dos de Sinaloa and began performing their music for audiences across Nevada. Though Banderas admits she is still trying to catch up to her mother when it comes to singing—“I’m trying to get my vibrato right,” she joked—the two blend their voices seamlessly in a way that could only be bound by family connection.
But behind the whining accordions and strumming guitars of their music, the off-stage partnership between González, 52, and Banderas, 33, has expanded to include fighting for the environmental future of the state of Nevada, one of the warmest and driest states in the country. Their efforts are aimed at both Latino families such as theirs and at the broader Nevadan community.
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Lifting up Latino voices for fair electricity bills
So far they’ve focused their advocacy efforts on the rising cost of electricity in the state and on replacing school buses that run on diesel fuel with electric ones. “Each time something happens regarding the environment or something that we can do to help the community, the two of us are in that fight,” González said. “We are lifting people’s voices up so we can be heard.” Banderas agreed. “We are joined at the hip at work,” she said.
The mother and daughter pair have worked alongside groups like Make the Road Nevada and Chispa Nevada, which was backed by former Nevada Senator Harry Reid and is a program of the League of Conservation Voters. “The Latino community understands the importance of addressing climate change because it has witnessed its consequences firsthand,” said Senator Reid in 2016. “Roughly half of U.S. Latinos live in areas with high rates of pollution—in big cities or near freeways or power plants.”
Banderas and González often use their own personal experiences to shape their advocacy. “We are spokeswomen for those who can’t speak or who are afraid to speak,” said González. At EcoMadres’ 2nd Annual Summit in September, where the duo received EcoMadres’ first-ever Clean Air Champion Award, Banderas, who has five children, said she had received electricity bills for more than $1,000. When she couldn’t pay the bill, her power was shut off. The rupture in service caused her food to rot and endangered her son’s ability to access the nebulizer he needs to manage his asthma. “I live in constant fear that one day I won’t be able to afford the bill, and his health will be at risk,” Banderas said.
NV Energy, the electric utility that sent Banderas and tens of thousands of other Nevadan families extremely high bills, had been under investigation for a pattern of overcharging customers. In June, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo signed a bipartisan bill that would expedite refunds to affected families and lower overall energy costs. Just last month, NV Energy filed a proposal to issue $32.6 million in refunds to overcharged customers with the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada.
Working so all the buses are electric
Success in transitioning school bus fleets to fully electric vehicles, another priority for Banderas and González, has been a bit harder to achieve. For the past few years, environmental groups like Moms Clean Air Force and ChispaNV have made gains in replacing diesel-fueled school buses with electric buses as a way to combat air pollution especially in economically disadvantaged communities of color. These efforts were backed, in part, by EPA’s Clean School Bus Program, which distributed nearly $3 billion and 12,000 electric school buses to communities across the country between 2022 and 2024.
In 2022, EPA awarded Clark County, Nevada, home to Las Vegas, $9.9 million in funding to buy 25 electric school buses and charging stations. In 2023, the first of those buses hit the streets, marking a victory in making the air cleaner for the community. But that victory has been short lived since the Trump administration took over the EPA in 2025 and froze federal funding for environmental actions in the state, including the remaining funding for cleaner school buses. “We have a few buses already, but we don’t want just a few,” said González. “We want all of the buses to be electric.”
While some funding has since been restored via court order, Trump’s cuts to EPA could go further than the state is ready to bear. So far the administration has threatened to cut EPA budgets in half, which will severely undercut efforts at clean air and water.
Empowering and educating the community
While Nevadans—and the rest of us—wait to learn how Washington will fund EPA and how the agency will fare the current government shutdown, Banderas and González remain active on stage and in a national organization called Las Donas en Accion, or Older Women in Action. “We started with 13 ‘donas’ in three states and now there are more than 1,500 of us across 14 states,” said González. The organization is a nonprofit with the goal of “empowering and educating” women of all ages against sexism, domestic violence, and other critical issues. Recent Instagram posts for the group included classes on how to organize effectively, immigrant rights, and CPR training.
Next Banderas and González will be taking their organizing skills to the election booth with plans to help register Latinos to vote ahead of the midterm elections in 2026. The pair plan to do whatever needs to get done to help sign people up, including knocking on doors, phone banking, and sitting at information booths. “There are so many Latinos in the United States who don’t know how to vote,” said González. “So we are there to help them.”
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