Mario G. Obledo, 78, Latino civil rights pioneer, dies

"It's inevitable that Hispanics or Mexican Americans are going to control the institutions of the state of California in the not-too-distant future," he told the Los Angeles Times. "If people don't like that, they can leave."

He called for a boycott of the fast-food chain Taco Bell, because of its commercials featuring a Chihuahua speaking with an accent, and vowed to destroy a billboard that had been erected in Blythe, Calif., near the border with Arizona.

"Welcome to California, the Illegal Immigration State," the sign said. "Don't Let This Happen to Your State."

Mr. Obledo called the sign racist and promised to burn it down, a threat that gave rise to demonstrations and counter-demonstrations. Even as the issue raged in the media, many Latino activists distanced themselves from Mr. Obledo and his tactics.

He said he understood that resistance. "We're generally a law-abiding community," he said of his fellow Latinos. "But I felt that was an action that needed to be taken."

The billboard was eventually removed.

Mario Guerra Obledo was born in San Antonio on April 9, 1932. His father died when he was 5, and he and his siblings grew up on welfare with their mother.

He served in the Navy during the Korean War and then graduated in 1957 with a pharmacy degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He worked as a pharmacist to put himself through law school at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, from which he graduated in 1960.

Mr. Obledo worked for the Texas attorney general's office before he was chosen in the late 1960s to help establish the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund by a San Antonio lawyer who had secured financial support from the Ford Foundation.

One of the first issues Mr. Obledo took on was employment discrimination by local public utilities, which were known for prohibiting the hiring of anyone who had an accent or was shorter than 5-foot-10. Mr. Obledo argued that such policies unfairly targeted Latinos.

"I remember arguing the case with a manager from Southwestern Bell," Mr. Obledo recalled in a 2001 interview with the San Antonio Express-News. "I asked him, 'You mean to tell me that you wouldn't hire Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson because she has an accent?' "

Mr. Obledo taught briefly at Harvard University's law school before Brown appointed him secretary of health and welfare.

His first marriage, to the former Mary Robles, ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of 15 years, Keda Alcala-Obledo of Sacramento; three children from his first marriage, Mario Obledo Jr. and Sybil Obledo of San Antonio and Sylvie Obledo of Santa Fe, N.M.; nine sisters and brothers; and four granddaughters.