Book Fair Tells Story of Latinos

Dionicio Morales was quizzing students about their Mexican American heritage several years ago when he realized something drastic needed to be done.

“I would ask young students of Mexican descent, ‘Where is the biggest pyramid in the world?’ ” the 80-year-old founder of the Montebello-based Mexican American Opportunity Foundation recalled. “They said, ‘Egypt, of course.’ They didn’t know it was in Mexico.”

Determined to do something about this cultural blind spot, Morales took action: He started writing his life story. And as a result, he found himself giving a lecture Sunday at the Los Angeles Latino Book & Family Festival.

The three-day event, held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, is one of the largest Latino book fairs in the country. It drew thousands of visitors and featured writers such as Victor Villasenor, author of the epic saga “Rain of Gold”; Luis J. Rodriguez, who wrote a story of gang life in “Always Running”; and talk show host Crinstina Saralequi.

But many visitors said they came to the second annual event--produced by actor Edward James Olmos and sponsored by dozens of companies, including The Times--to find books by lesser-known authors such as Morales.

“His book is my book, it’s our book,” said Rueben Martinez, owner of Martinez Book and Art Gallery in Santa Ana. “We want this book to be at Borders, Barnes & Noble, everywhere. But I go in those stores and half these authors are not there. We go into stores to spend our hard-earned money, and this book should be there.

“The Latino population in California is growing faster than any other group. We want younger people to be proud of who they are. That’s what this festival is all about.”

Added Morales: “I have found little, if anything, that referred to the life of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in libraries and schools. A lot of it is writing by Anglos telling us who we are.”

While thousands of visitors browsed through the rows of bookstands in the cavernous exhibition hall Sunday, about 30 people gathered in a small room to hear excerpts from Morales’ book “Dionicio Morales: A Life in Two Cultures,” published last spring by Arte Publico Press at the University of Houston.

Morales said he began work on the volume five years ago, when he started scribbling notes about his childhood in Moorpark, the lessons his grandfather taught him about Mexico’s cultural contributions and the discrimination he faced as a college student in Santa Barbara.

In the early 1960s, Morales set about to create a community service organization for Mexican Americans modeled after the Jewish Federation and the Urban League. Stymied by a lack of funding, he told his skeptical colleagues that he would appeal to the U.S. president for help.

True to his word, he called the White House and asked to speak to John F. Kennedy.

“I said, ‘I want to talk to the president about economic development for Mexicans Americans,’ ” he recalled. “And they said, ‘You’ve got the wrong number. You need to call the Mexican Embassy.’ ”

Undeterred, Morales called the embassy and was told that then-Vice President Lyndon Johnson was meeting with the ambassador to discuss the same issues.

Johnson ultimately helped him secure funding from the Department of Labor to establish the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation, he said.

The community service organization Morales founded now provides a wide range of social services, including job training, child care, immigration assistance and English classes.

“I hope young people will learn nothing is impossible,” Morales said. “We, as a growing population, have to think big.”

Audience members applauded Morales’ message of diligence and his desire to share his story. Besides the visibility afforded him by the book fair, Morales has secured a grant from the Coca-Cola Foundation to distribute hundreds of copies of his book to local schools.

“I say to you, we must be proud to be of Mexican descent,” he said. “We need to fight to put a little luster on the terms Mexican and Mexican American.”

Morales’ message--never give up--was not lost on 51-year-old Richard Reyes of Pico Rivera, who lamented the fact that if not for the Latino book fair, “you can’t find books like the one he [Morales] has written.”

“We need more people like him,” Reyes said. “It’s an inspiration for all of us.”