Paying Rent

Alex Zermeno's memoirs describe a community activist seeking civil rights and empowerment for Latino communities during the mid 1950s to early 2000s. Alex began as a "bird dog" during a voter registration drive in his hometown of Salinas, California. His community activism includes serving on various non-profit boards, assisting in organizing the United Farm Workers, and the various challenges involved while directing the Anti-Poverty program in the Mission District of San Francisco. Serving as Deputy Director of NCLR, a national Latino advocacy organization in Washington D.C., reinforced the idea of communities united can make a difference. Alex warmly and humorously writes of these experiences and of the family's several cross country moves in his efforts to bring about positive change for Latinos.