By Jeff Barton

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ne of the towering figures of the civil rights era in Hays County has died.

Ofelia Trinidad Vasquez Philo, an advocate for poor families, a pioneer in women’s rights, and a leading advocate for Mexican-American rights and culture, died Nov. 1 in San Marcos. She was 84.

Philo went to work for the Community Action Agency of Central Texas in 1966, the year after the national program was created as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty. She ...