Member Representative
My name is Antonia Zavala, I am a struggling tenant, I am a mother of two and married. My family is from Mexican soil, specifically we are from Tlaxcala, Mexico. Where I was raised and got my certification in shorthand typing. I arrived in North Long Beach in 1996. Immediately the natural beauty of Long Beach was incomparable and is what helped us all find our way. In 2006 I accepted to be manager of the buildings that we now know as ‘La Resistencia de la 64’ (540 and 550 E 64th St). We gained this recognition because in 2019 the building was sold with our families inside and the new billionaire owner gave us all eviction notices. All this happened on the same day and changed our lives. Three local organizers (Maria, Norberto and Andrew) helped us organize and prepared us for the fight. We won a moratorium on evictions until January 1st when state law AB 1482 (Tenant Protections Act) began. They taught us our rights and created plans with the goal of keeping us in our homes and community. Long Beach means more to me than just a city where I live, it’s my community that makes living in Long Beach more manageable. It is the place where I started my family, where I learned about other immigrant cultures, and where I learned to fight with my neighbors to create power to fight for laws that impact the entire city.
