Advocacy

KSBW Action News | October 10, 2025

Paul Dudley, KSBW News Anchor | View full article and video here.

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. —

Daniel “Nane” Alejandrez, a local leader in Santa Cruz, has dedicated his life to community service after overcoming significant personal challenges, including addiction and the struggles of returning from the Vietnam War. 

Alejandrez, who was born into a farm worker family from Mexico, found hope and support at UC Santa Cruz, particularly through the community studies program. He said, “A lot of people thought I didn’t deserve to go to school, but I did go to war.”

Upon returning from Vietnam, Alejandrez faced a new battle on the streets, struggling with heroin addiction. He found hope at UC Santa Cruz. He said, “I was 27-years old, I had two children, and I was trying to look for the best for my family. I wanted an education. I wanted to do something with my life. I wanted to change the direction I had been going. It was challenging but it literally saved my life.”

Alejandrez credits his recovery to the spirit of “Ganas. “What saved me is what I call ‘Ganas,’ the spirit, that you do want to change,” he said. Now sober for over 40 years, Alejandrez has made “Ganas” the core of his life’s work. While a student, he founded the nonprofit Barrios Unidos from his dorm room at UC Santa Cruz. “Barrios Unidos was a crying call for many of us throughout the state, united neighborhoods. We wanted to call for unity. There was too much violence in the streets,” he said.

In the early years, Alejandrez faced skepticism when promoting peace and justice.

“When you are out there by yourself and you start talking peace, justice and end Barrio Warfare, a lot of people didn’t understand what we were saying, they were looking at the way we dress, looking at the way we talk, so the challenge became how do we change those naysayers,” he said.

Barrios Unidos grew over the years, eventually catching the attention of A&E, which featured Alejandrez in a documentary. His violence prevention work was also highlighted by Walter Cronkite in a series called The Hero Report. “At that time, we were doing a lot of policy change, trying to bring resources to communities to deal with the issue of violence, nationally — bringing peace summits together. In 1993 we had a national peace summit. We brought 26 cities to Kansas City to talk about peace,” Alejandrez said.

Today, the Barrios Unidos building spans most of a city block on Soquel Ave in Santa Cruz, offering various services, including a reentry program for people coming out of prison. Sam Cunningham, the program director at Barrios Unidos, shared his transformation story, saying, “I was incarcerated for a lengthy amount of time, and Nane became my mentor.” Cunningham, who was heavily involved in gangs, served 30 years in prison. “When I was getting ready to come home, I didn’t really have anywhere to go, and he told me to find my way to Santa Cruz, he would make sure I was ok in my transition back home,” Cunningham said.

With Alejandrez’s support, Cunningham now works at Barrios Unidos and visits Soledad State Prison twice weekly, offering anger management, domestic violence classes, and mentoring. He tells the men and women inside that they are not always defined by the worst moment in their life. “I try to share that message every single day I go into the institutions and talk to the men and women, their worst decision in their life doesn’t define them,” Cunningham said. 

Barrios Unidos also offers support through a food pantry, partnering with several companies to serve hundreds weekly, and a job training program with a screen-printing shop that helps local students. Joaquin Alejandrez, operations director at Barrios Unidos, said, “It builds confidence. It gives them money in their pocket. They are able to help out the family, maybe put food on the table.”

Maya Mendoza from Barrios Unidos emphasized the importance of the organization, saying, “I hear a lot from people that we work with talk about how important it is to literally just have the space.” Mendoza added, “The nonprofit world is obviously very big and diverse but to be a part of a space that has been around so long, and with a man who has done so much work, I feel like I am getting a very well-rounded version of what it means to work in community.”

At its core, Barrios Unidos is about mentorship, with Alejandrez guided by leaders like Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover, César Chávez, and Dolores Huerta. “I have put in over 50 years in this work, so now is about passing it on to the younger generation, as those who went before,” Alejandrez said. 

Guided by “Ganas” and the spirit of strength, the work lives on. In the future, Barrios Unidos hopes to expand their facility on Soquel Ave to add affordable housing so people born in Santa Cruz can stay in Santa Cruz.

Barrios Unidos Founder and UCSC alumnus Daniel “Nane” Alejandrez is a pillar of activism and champion of nonviolence in Santa Cruz County

February 26, 2025

By Haneen Zain

Daniel “Nane” Alejandrez (Merrill ’81, community studies) has dedicated his life to justice, healing, and empowerment. As the founder of Barrios Unidos (BU) in Santa Cruz, he has worked tirelessly to uplift underrepresented communities, support incarcerated individuals, and promote violence prevention. What started as a group that met inside UCSC student housing, has become a beacon in Santa Cruz County, serving as a local hub of social justice work. 

Alejandrez was deeply influenced by renowned figures like Harry Belafonte, who acted as a close mentor and entrusted him with career-defining opportunities, and César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, who instilled in him a commitment to grassroots activism. Father Greg Boyle shaped his approach to gang intervention and reentry support, while global leaders like Hugo Chávez exposed him to international discussions on justice. 

These relationships reinforced Alejandrez’s dedication to mentorship, nonviolence, and community empowerment, driving his lifelong mission to uplift marginalized communities and provide alternatives to violence for future generations.

“Today, I sit here at Barrios Unidos trying to decide the best way to keep that legacy going, because it’s not just my legacy,” Alejandrez said. “It’s the legacy of all these people I had the privilege to be with.” 

BU runs ten programs spanning at-risk youth engagement to reintegration programs for incarcerated individuals. These programs serve Barrios Unidos’s mission to promote multicultural social justice, nonviolence, and economic equity through cultural healing, civic leadership, and community development.

Dozens of UCSC students intern with Barrios Unidos every year, gaining valuable frontline experience that sets them apart in their careers, including UCSC alumna Carmen Perez. Perez, who once sat in Alejandrez’s office as a UCSC student, led the Women’s March in DC in 2017. Other former students have made an impact globally, from Africa to Albuquerque. 

Alejandrez, who strongly credits UC Santa Cruz with helping to shape his vision and setting him on a lifelong path of preaching nonviolence, is grateful to be able to pay forward opportunities to UCSC students. 

“I always say that UC Santa Cruz saved my life,” Alejandrez said. “UC Santa Cruz gave me an opportunity, and I take that very seriously.”

A Vietnam War veteran struggling with addiction and violence in his Fresno neighborhood, Alejandrez sought an escape from the cycle of street wars and drug trafficking that surrounded him. Initially aiming for La Raza Studies at Hayward, a wrong turn led him to Santa Cruz, where he found himself in the midst of a campus protest—his first encounter with UCSC. Staff within the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) welcomed him and helped him enroll. 

Alejandrez’s time at UC Santa Cruz was transformative, giving him the structure and flexibility to channel his lived experiences into activism and community work. He had dipped into community organizing while a student at Fresno City College, so EOP staff encouraged Alejandrez to pursue the community studies major. 

Alejandrez engaged in cultural and community-based projects, started a theater group, organized lowrider car shows, and taught media production classes. He also launched Barrios Unidos, initially holding meetings in student housing and expanding outreach to surrounding communities, advocating for peace and nonviolence. 

“I knew I was going to stay in Santa Cruz and definitely wasn’t going back to Fresno or anywhere in the Central Valley at that point,” Alejandrez said. “Santa Cruz is a beautiful place.”

UCSC alumna Barbara Garcia gave him his first job with Salud Para La Gente.

“She believed in me,” Alejandrez said, who struggled to find a job post-graduation. “That’s really what I needed. I needed someone to believe in me.” 

Alejandrez found stability in Santa Cruz and built a life in the county.

Now 40 years sober, Alejandrez continues to put belief in others the way Garcia did for him through Barrios Unidos.

All of Alejandrez’s work in Santa Cruz traces back to the start he got at UCSC. 

“All these things in my life today, I wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t come to UC Santa Cruz,” Alejandrez said. “If I had stayed in Fresno, I wouldn’t be here today. So when I hug my grandkids, I always say it’s like hugging the trees at UC Santa Cruz. That’s how I feel.” 

Barrios Unidos’ Impact on Peace and Justice

By Joshua Patstone | October 7, 2023 (view article at Santa Cruz Vibes Magazine)

It’s been almost two decades since Frank de Jesus Acosta and the legendary Harry Belafonte shared these sentiments about Barrios Unidos in the book, “The History of Barrios Unidos: Healing Community Violence.” Much has changed since then. While Barrios Unidos continues its community work, many of its movement leaders, partners, and loved ones have passed away, including Harry Belafonte.

The political and social landscape has also changed, with rising violence and social unrest at home and around the world. However, by adhering to its guiding principle of “La Cultura Cura” (Culture Cures), Barrios Unidos has persevered and made substantial progress toward its ultimate goal: social justice and equity.

“The story of the Barrios Unidos Community peace movement now spans about 30 years. It’s a tale of individual struggle and redemption by its early pioneers who found a way out of street gang warfare, addiction, and poverty gripping America’s barrios. It’s also the narrative of an evolving grassroots mobilization rooted in the Mexican American (or Chicano) civil rights and antiwar movements of the 60s and 70s. Over a quarter-century, BU’s work has expanded, engaging thousands, saving countless lives, nurturing leaders, and sowing transformative hope across the nation.”Frank de Jesus Acosta“The History of Barrios Unidos: Healing Community Violence,” 2007

To grasp Barrios Unidos, one must understand the Chicano movement. We often get bombarded with images of lowriders, tattoos, and the all-too-familiar gang and prison culture. While many of these images are undeniably part of Chicano culture, they don’t provide a comprehensive representation. Media depictions often ignore the rich history of community organizing, intellectual contributions, art, and resistance that define the movement. Chicano history should be understood as emerging from specific materials and historical circumstances, like colonization, class relations, religious and political ideologies, organization, policies, migration, and more.

The Chicano movement traces its roots back to struggle, starting from the time of violent European colonization of the Americas, through the Mexican American War, and up to the present day. It’s a culture and ideology born out of resistance against the genocide and state violence faced by Indigenous populations in the Americas. 

Chicanismo, or the identification and practice of being Chicano, involves reclaiming a culture that has been attacked, misused, and nearly wiped out due to Western colonization. Chicanismo simultaneously holds a political stance, a cultural and racial identity, and a way of life that keeps changing and evolving to fit the current historical context. It’s the fight for independence, sovereignty, and dignity in the midst of ongoing racialized violence and white supremacy.

Corky Gonzales beautifully explains chicanismo in his famous poem “I am Joaquin” when he says, “And now! I must choose between the paradox of victory of the spirit, despite physical hunger, or to exist in the grasp of American social neurosis, sterilization of the soul and a full stomach.”

Barrios Unidos is a vital aspect of the Chicano movement, carrying the responsibility of its continuation. The organization’s history is extensive, and capturing its entirety in one document is impractical. Recognized globally for advocating incarcerated individuals, nonviolence, peace among gangs, mentoring youth and leaders, and policy transformation, Barrios Unidos remains dedicated to creating peace and justice, not only in Santa Cruz but around the world.

“Barrios Unidos follows in the positive spiritual traditions of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, and Malcolm X after his pilgrimage to Mecca. The story and example of Barrios Unidos inspire everyone in the movement.Harry Belafonte

Founded by Daniel “Nane” Alejandrez, a child of Fresno’s Westside farmworker community, Barrios Unidos emerged from a commitment to make a difference. His journey, marked by personal struggles and an encounter with Cesar Chavez’s teachings, fueled the organization’s inception. The collaboration of individuals like Henry Dominguez, Walter Guzman, Otilio “OT” Quintero, Mary Lou Alejandrez, Danny Glover, and more solidified Barrios Unidos’ impact on countless lives.

Barrios Unidos’ history is profound, touching communities worldwide, facilitating peace treaties between gangs, advocating for incarcerated individuals, and mentoring individuals who have achieved historic milestones for peace and justice. Now, Barrios Unidos aims to pass its knowledge to the next generation, ensuring the actualization of peace and justice.