Dionicio Morales, an early giant of Eastside activism who came out of the agricultural fields of Moorpark to create the nation's largest Latino human services provider, has died. He was 89.
Morales died of natural causes Sept. 24 at Beverly Hospital in Montebello, said his daughter, Magdalena Morales.
In 1963, Morales created the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation to provide social services, such as job training and child care. Along the way, he also became a mentor to many future community leaders and an eloquent crusader for social justice.
In the 1970s, at a time when Mexican American men overwhelmingly held the reins of neighborhood activism, Morales also opened doors for female leaders.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina recalled being a young activist at East Los Angeles College, demonstrating over issues such as the Vietnam War, when she first met Morales.
"We were so anti-establishment. We didn't trust people. But he was really a man all about empowering the community," Molina said. "He really believed that every person should have a job, and that once you had a job, you could do anything."
Molina said that many years later, when she was an up-and-coming politician, Morales would turn to her for help with his projects. He was hard to turn down.
"He would lay out what he wanted to do, and it was one of those things you couldn't say no to. He would say, 'I have all these trailers for child care, but I need county land,' " Molina recalled. "I'm there thinking, 'I don't know if I could do that, but geez, it would be a good thing.' "
Over the years, Morales was honored many times for his work as a leader who -- along with others such as United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez, U.S. Rep. Edward Roybal and Los Angeles Times journalist Ruben Salazar -- was an early player in Eastside affairs.
Morales was born Oct. 9, 1918, in Yuma, Ariz. He traced his social consciousness to the 1930s, when Mexican Americans were largely segregated. He grew up sleeping in a tent near Moorpark with other Mexican Americans who worked in apricot and walnut groves.
He experienced firsthand the need for healthcare in his community after a tuberculosis outbreak killed several family members and friends who were too poor to go to a doctor. By 1959, Morales was a union organizer in the garment industry.
