Pioneer in Latino Politics in Los Angeles

Edward R. Roybal, who championed the rights of the underprivileged and the elderly during 30 years in the House of Representatives and was the mentor to scores of Latino lawmakers in Los Angeles, died Monday. He was 89.

Roybal, who had a pioneering role in the city's politics, died of respiratory failure complicated by pneumonia at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, according to an announcement from the office of his daughter, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-East Los Angeles).

He began his political career in 1949 as the first Latino to sit on the Los Angeles City Council since 1881. After Roybal departed for Congress in 1962, it would be 23 years before another Latino held a seat on the City Council.

"Congressman Roybal was someone who reminded us every single day that change rests in our own hands," Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina said Tuesday. "This was a leader in our community who understood the responsibility and duty to empower."

"A champion for civil rights and social justice like him does not come around every day," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in a statement. "He wanted nothing less than what all Americans strive for -- a good job, safe neighborhoods, quality schools and a place to call home."

"He was there when others in Washington turned their backs on seniors, the disadvantaged and the poor," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday.

In 1993, Roybal told The Times that at his first City Council meeting, he was introduced as "our new Mexican councilman who also speaks Mexican."

"My mission was immediately obvious," he said later. "I'm not Mexican. I am a Mexican American. And I don't speak a word of Mexican. I speak Spanish."

It became his role, he said, to educate his fellow public officials about Latinos and to pay special attention to what he felt were the long-neglected needs of his largely Latino constituencies.

One way he did this was to harshly criticize the Los Angeles Police Department for its treatment of minorities, and he had his own story to underscore his position.

On his first date with his future wife, Lucille, in the early 1940s, a white officer came up behind the young couple -- they were sharing chili beans and crackers at a stand at 4th and Soto streets in Boyle Heights -- and went through Roybal's pockets.

The officer then dumped the couple's dinner on the sidewalk, the former congressman told The Times.