MarÍa Morales leaves legacy of empowerment

By Diego Sorbara
Adelante Staff Writer

LUCY BETZ/Special to Adelante A farewell party for María Morales on Jan. 23 drew dozens of well-wishers.

Alejandra Mendoza received an ironic pink slip one day at her factory job: The Mexican assembly line worker had been laid off because the company had decided to relocate the plant operations in Mexico.
Making matters worse, her unemployment benefits were denied. Her difficulties with English made the situation seem hopeless —and it probably would have been, were it not for the help of María Sánchez de Morales.
“She went to court with me and translated everything for me,” Mendoza said. “In the end, she helped me get my money.”
Morales, a bilingual social worker with the Columbia/Boone County Health Department working at Centro Latino, has been the link between many immigrants and the resources they need. However, she now plans to return to her hometown of Laredo, Texas, to start a notary public business. Aside from being able to help people without being confined to an office, Morales is also making the move because her husband, an airbrush artist who specializes in Mexican-style art, will have more opportunities there.
This move is just one more step Morales is taking towards her goal for her fellow Latinos.
“Most of all, I want to help people empower themselves,” Morales said.
And empowerment, with her own creative twist, has been her specialty in Columbia. Once she was running into difficulties teaching English to a group of 15 women, and she had an idea. Knowing the love these women had for soap operas, she started telling them about “Days of Our Lives.” Through watching the show, they became more fluent in English and gained the skills and confidence they needed to get their citizenship paperwork done.
Even as Morales prepares to leave, she finds that people still need her help here.
“It seems that people always have one more thing for me to do,” Morales said.
Morales says one of her most memorable clients was a pregnant woman who needed to make an appointment with Planned Parent-hood, but they didn’t have any Spanish translators.
“I took this girl to Planned Parenthood and had her make her own appointment since she had been taking ESL,” Morales said. “I was ready to help her, but in the end she tried hard, did well and made her own appointment.”
Morales’ Rolodex has been the salvation of hundreds of area Latinos.
“She has connections in the community to get people what they need,” said Bill Monroe, a nurse at the health department and treasurer at Centro Latino.
Aside from helping people get the services they need, Morales has also created a bond with the community.
“She helped build a rapport with the Latino community,” Eduardo Crespi, director of Centro Latino, said. “She helped make people more comfortable coming to Centro Latino.”
Morales built that rapport by becoming more involved with the people that came to her for help. Her role became more than just a translator or a social worker; she became an advocate for the people.
“Because I had to go through the same process, I knew how easy it was,” Morales said. “I don’t want people to be afraid of the law.”
As such a key person in the health department and at Centro Latino, she will be sorely missed by her co-workers and the people she helped.
“It pains us that she’s leaving,” social worker Roxana Huamán said. “We’re losing someone valiant who was a friend, a co-worker and a part of the Latino community.”
After an extensive search for Morales’ replacement, Huamán, who has worked with the Puertas a la Salud (Doors to Health) program for pregnant women, was chosen to take Morales’ place.