REMEMBERING MARIO OBLEDO - LATINO LEADER FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE..........

On Wednesday, Mario Obledo who was one of twelve children who grew up impoverished, yet succeeded against the odds, to become the trailblazing Latino leader for Social Justice, died at age 78.  Co-founder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, as a young lawyer he not only advocated and defended his fellow Mexicans in his native San Antonio, Texas, seeking the opening of all public facilities to his fellow citizens.  .  He served as an Assistant Attorney General of Texas, and was on the faculty of Harvard University Law School for two years, when California Governor Jerry Brown appointed him to his Cabinet as Secretary of Health and Welfare in 1975,  He once described bringing thousands of minorities into government service in  that position as his greatest achievement ever.  As Secretary of Health and Welfare, he oversaw the largest of state agencies, with 11 departments, 45,000 employees, 500 programs and a $15 billion dollar budget. Mario Obledo continued his activism and advocacy after an unsuccessful run for California in 1982, including involement with the National Rainbow Coalition, the National Hispanic Bar Association, the Southwest Voter Project, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Commission, the National Coalition of Hispanic Organizations, and the oldest and largest Hispanic organization in the United States - LULAC : the League of United Latin American Citizens.  Mario Obledo will go down in the annals of Latino / Latina history as a man who was highly respected and greatly recognized as an advocate for civil and human rights, as he fought for immigrant rights and against the death penalty.  Among his outstanding honors and awards his decades of impassioned service to empowering the Latino community and serving the greater good of our society was recognized by the National Urban Coalition in 1973, the Government of the Republic of Mexico, IN 1985, for distinguished service to the Mexican community abroad, and by President William Jefferson Clinton, with the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998, our highest civilian honor.  In recent years Mario Obledo lived quietly in Sacramento, with his wife, Keda Alcala-Obledo.  He will be missed and his legacy of compassion, commitment, and conscience raising, will never be forgotten.....Viva ! Mario Obledo !!  Resusciate Amigo..........Peace Forever in Christ Jesus, Good And Faithful Servant,   Fr.  Troy