HispanicVista Columnists
DIONICIO MORALES - THE MEXICAN AMERICAN LEGEND
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By
Sal Osio, JD - From the Publisher's Corner
- March 1, 2007
- DIONICIO MORALES - THE MEXICAN AMERICAN LEGEND
- A Biographical Tribute by Sal Osio, JD
- His legend is the pursuit for man's quest for dignity. When I good naturedly asked him how he was able to 'play' conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans, Mexican and American politicians: "Don Dionicio, how do you mange to influence so many diverse interests and mold them into your agenda?" He replied, "My dear friend, I have only one political party - The Brotherhood of Man - and one agenda - Equality and Justice for all." In essence he has been able to fuse two cultures best immortalized by two of their greatest statesmen: America's Abraham Lincoln "With malice toward none - with liberty and justice for all" and Mexico's Benito Juarez "Respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz - "Peace lies in the respect for your neighbor's rights."
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- Sal Osio, JD is the publisher of HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com). Contact at: SPosio@aol.com
Conceived in Mexico - Born in the United States. Providence bestowed on him two cultures, a fusion of which he has embraced throughout his life. A bi-cultural heritage which he has generously shared with family and friends, always enhancing and promoting the respect among the diverse American communities. His cause is well illustrated by his auto biography: "A Life in Two Cultures."
'Don Dionicio' - as he is respectfully addressed by his many friends and colleagues - is a man of destiny and a legend in his life time. In the Hispanic American urban communities he has become an inspirational leader and a beacon of hope.
A descendant of the proud Tarascan culture that inhabited the States of Guanajuato and Michoacan, and the adjacent territories in the El Bajio (lowlands) of central Mexico, seeking refuge from the ravages of the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the Morales family embarked for the promised land to the North - not unlike all immigrants, past and present, who make up the diversified citizenry of the United states. Don Dionicio's father, Severo Morales, reminiscent of pioneers before him who crossed the Great Plains to reach California, crossed the Chihuahua desert to establish a beachhead in Moorpark for his family. Subsequently, he was followed by Dionicio's mother, Narcisa Arenas, and accompanying relatives, who crossed the Sonora desert, primarily riding the rail box cars, encountering every conceivable ordeal, made their way after crossing the border, on foot, to Yuma, Arizona. Broke and starving, with Narcisa in advanced pregnancy, they were given shelter in an Indian reservation by the Quechan tribe of 1st Nation Americans.
The Quechan community embraced Narcisa and provided all the necessary comforts, shelter and nutrition, enabling her to give light to a healthy first born - born in the new country of their quest for a better life. He was named 'Dionicio' in honor of the patron saint of the community on whose name day he was born. This event was embedded in Dionicio's psyche by his mother who was eternally grateful to the Quechan and who forever remembered the community in her prayers. The moral he always has lived by since his birth - the brotherhood of man eclipses political boundaries and national agendas - was learned by the example of this selfless, loving and caring community.
Once in Moorpark, an agricultural community in Ventura County, California, Dionicio experienced the hatefulness of white supremacy - a prejudice based on pigmentation of skin and ethnicity. His setbacks were also offset by the just and equitable treatment he and his family experienced from their patrons and neighbors. In this polarized society of love and hate, Dionicio chose love and determined at a young age to defeat the forces of hate. He mused, if America is to survive based on its ideology of justice and equality for all, it must eradicate the cancer of prejudice that is a social epidemic. The cure, he concluded was enlightenment, the defeat of ignorance. Education was the equalizer.
An episode in his teenage years as a student of his local high school, defined his lifelong pursuit of justice and equality for all and to champion the rights of the less privileged members of society, particularly his brethren who were discriminated against by virtue of the color or their skin. Dionicio became an accomplished trumpet player and became the 1st trumpet of the Moorpark High School band. As a reward he was invited with the school dance band to attend a performance by Henry Busey, the famous trumpet player, who was his idol, at Ocean Park Dance Pavilion in Santa Monica, a landmark venue at the time. Upon arrival he was refused entrance because "Mexicans" were not allowed. Nonchalantly his instructor and fellow students gained entrance and he was made to wait for them at the entrance for their return. Humiliated and freezing in the cold, his anger provided him with a new strength. And he resolved, right there and then, to champion the rights of his people, and other persons of color, to prevent a similar assault and degradation to their human dignity. He did not know it at the time, but this was the birth of the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation ("MAOF") which he subsequently founded in his adulthood.
Dionicio received the formal education that his undergraduate school teachers had discouraged, because he was Mexican, and prepared himself for his life long task. However, before he completed his college education, in the 1930's, before launching his crusade, he had to overcome a life threatening illness, tuberculosis, which was a widespread disease at the time. Several of his friends and relatives had already succumbed to T.B. and his medical providers had given him a grim prognosis, a slim chance of survival. He was advised that T.B. was the disease predominantly afflicting Mexicans. He reached deep into his spiritual arsenal bestowed upon him by his mother and sought the guidance of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the brown skin virgin Mary that had appeared to a Mexican Indian in the 1500's and who had become the symbol of respect and appreciation for their ethnicity - a pride of being Mexican. He prayed to the Blessed Mother and his prayers were answered. Within two years of convalescence, following lung surgery, Dionicio conquered the disease, to which he and his mother attributed as a miracle of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
An event which provoked a young Dionicio into action took place in Moorpark at the local theatre. He was forcibly evicted, by a former class mate, no less, who was the attending usher, for daring to sit in the Anglo section. This public humiliation, reminiscent of his degradation at the Ocean Park ballroom, finally forced him into an activist strategy. Enlisting the participation of a sage man in the community, together they sought the protection of the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles. Together they ascertained that discrimination on the basis of race or national origin was prohibited in California and each offense was punishable by a substantial fine. Armed with this knowledge and institutional support they organized a protest and before it became necessary to manifest their complaint, the theatre management, advised of the movement, capitulated. From that moment on there was no discrimination in seating arrangements. Dionicio experienced the taste of victory for the first time. And the lesson learned: Strategic alliances, legal research, plan of action and collective leverage.
Armed with a post graduate education, Dionicio engaged in several causes designed to protect his fellow Mexican Americans. Among these was the protection of immigrant contract workers from Mexico, known as Braceros, who were grossly abused and existed in deplorable conditions, in violation of the bracero program rules and regulations. As an enforcement officer working for the government's compliance unit, Dionicio would infiltrate bracero camps and communities and report violations. He accepted a post in San Antonio, Texas, effectively as a barrio ombudsman. Nothing had prepared him for the extreme degradation of human dignity, rampant prejudice and discrimination, and reckless disregard for the basic safety and well being of the Mexican American residents. The barrios may as well have been located in the impoverished areas of India, he concluded. "And, if you think San Antonio is bad, you should go to the rural areas. There they have been victims of undesirable and subhuman treatment," a close confidant advised him. Dionicio learned to organize the neighborhoods, like action cells, in order to counter the violation of human rights. The Catholic Church became a strategic ally. This was a long range program which eventually succeeded.
Upon his return to California Dionicio honed his skills in protecting the rights of workers. He was employed as an organizer and recruiter of Mexican workers by labor unions. These organization skills and collective bargaining strategies set the stage for his lifetime legacy: The organization in 1963 of a non-profit community based service organization - The Mexican American Opportunity Foundation ("MAOF").
In its early years MAOF survived through the efforts and subsistence of Dionicio and his wife, Maria. Ever the partner and inspiration at his side, always sharing his ideals and altruism, were it not for her, MAOF would have remained nothing more than a dream ... far from a reality. Dionicio sought the help of other community service organizations, such as the Urban League and the Jewish Federation conglomerate of human service agencies. Several close friends and community leaders joined Dionicio in the early days of survival. And finally, through perseverance and sacrifice, the big brake came through, in the person of Vice President Lyndon Johnson, the author of the Great Society.
As a direct result of the White House meeting with Lyndon Johnson, MAOF was funded by the government to pursue equal opportunity employment opportunities. As significant, at Dionicio's invitation, the Vice President attended a conference in Los Angeles, wherein he addressed over one thousand of the Mexican American leaders and opened the door to the recognition of affirmative action programs to elevate the opportunities for the Mexican American community to climb up the corporate ladder. Corporate America took notice and found in Americans of Mexican heritage equal partners in the quest for economic growth and global competitiveness.
Thereafter, MAOF became the vanguard in social programs to improve the quality of education of its young, the civic education of its community, the participation of its senior citizenry, in the continued contribution to its welfare, in the reformation of its imprisoned population, in the enhancement of women's rights and, in general, in the active participation and contribution of Americans of Mexican heritage in the general welfare of their country, the United States of America. Last, but not least, Dionicio became the ambassador of goodwill, de facto, between the two of the great nations of the North American Hemisphere - Mexico and the Unites States.
In recognition of his many achievements, Don Dionicio has been accorded numerous well deserved accolades: The County of Los Angeles renamed Belvedere Park in East Los Angeles after him; he was accorded honorary citizen status by the two Mexican states that host the Tarascan cultural heritage, Guanajuato and Michoacan; he was awarded the Life Achievement award by Hispanic Business, the leading media in the Hispanic business community; and, in addition to the previous, he has received 121 tributes, including three Life-Time Achievement Awards from the University of California at Santa Barbara (his alma mater) and his own MAOF Board of Directors - all in the year 2006. He is a legend in his own time. But, the accolades never get to his head. His wife, Maria, always makes sure of that by reminding him that his duty is to take out the trash weekly on pick up day.
Today, MAOF is the largest American Hispanic community service organization with a budget of $60 +/- million. The preschool program is nationally recognized by preparing bicultural children with self esteem and a pride of their heritage in the awareness of their privileged status as Americans. MAOF educates its preschool children to enter the school system as English language participants with a significant advantage over their predecessors to graduate from high school and enter post graduate education institutions of learning. In Southern California, where Mexican Americans comprise over 50% of the population, his contribution is the hallmark of America's future well being.
And yet, his biggest reward is the offspring and successors who carry his baton forward. His daughter, Margarita, an educator, is an eloquent and philosophical messenger of his legacy. His son, Tim, is a community activist. His other daughter, Magdalena, is the safe keeper and oversight of his legacy. Her twin brother, the light of his life, Dionicio, Jr., was born with Down's syndrome and lives at home. His wife, Maria, continues as his inspiration and lifetime partner in the quest for a better society. His extended family includes Martin Castro, his protégé, who is the competent administrator who, after Dionicio's retirement, took over the reigns as the President of MAOF, supported by a loyal cadre of board members who unselfishly dedicate their time and resources to the well being of the organization.