The Rev. Canon Richard Estrada at Epiphany Church, Jan. 5, 2024. Photo by John Harvey Taylor
The Rev. Canon Richard Estrada – who championed the rights of immigrants and at-risk youth throughout his longtime priesthood, first as a Claretian Catholic and later as an Episcopalian – died March 31 at PIH Good Samaritan Hospital, Los Angeles, poignantly on the birthday of his late friend and fellow activist César Chávez. Estrada was 83 and had been suffering with double pneumonia.
A funeral Mass is set for 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 26, at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral, with Bishop John Harvey Taylor presiding. A parish prayer service will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 3, at Church of the Epiphany, Lincoln Heights, where Estrada was assisting priest since 2015.
“Jesus Christ, with his heart of justice and peace, has never had a fiercer or more cheerful advocate than Canon Estrada,” said Bishop John Harvey Taylor. “His legacy will blossom forever in thousands of lives he has touched and probably saved. When I saw him two weeks ago at PIC Good Samaritan Hospital, his bed was ringed by colleagues from Jovenes, the still-thriving organization for at-risk young people that he launched 35 years ago, as our region absorbed tens of thousands of refugees from war-ravaged Central America. Until recently he was actively involved in the work of the Lydia Lopez Center, which he helped inspire, and the life of Epiphany in Los Angeles, his spiritual home for many years. It is hard to imagine our diocese without his encouraging smile and relentless insistence that Christ’s work of love would be accomplished in our place and our time.”
(From left) Richard Estrada with Bishop John Harvey Taylor, Jovenes volunteers Jose and Ramon, and Grace Duyrness, at an event benefiting Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Service, held at St. Paul’s Commons
Estrada — well known during the sanctuary movement of the 1980s and ’90s as associate pastor at L.A.’s historic Roman Catholic Our Lady Queen of Angels (La Placita) — was founder and board president of Jovenes Inc., established in 1989 as L.A.’s first shelter for unhoused immigrant youth, providing safe and stable housing, supportive services, and access to education and vocational resources. Jovenes has grown to house more than 700 youth and college students each year across Los Angeles County and is now expanding to additional regions in Southern California.
“Fr. Richard Estrada was a visionary,” said Andrea Marchetti, executive director of Jovenes Inc. “His sense of humanity and his unconditional commitment and love for the most vulnerable were the guiding principles for all the actions he led, no matter the challenges he faced in his later years. Here at Jovenes Inc., we will further his mission with more motivation than ever. Fr. Richard will continue to lead us and will always be among us.”
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis, a longtime friend of Estrada, wrote on Instagram April 1 that she was heartbroken by Estrada’s passing, noting that his “life was defined by his deep compassion, selfless service, and unwavering commitment to some of our most vulnerable. His work transformed countless lives, providing safety, hope, and opportunity to those who had nowhere else to turn.”
Most recently at Epiphany, Estrada collaborated with Bishop Taylor and the Rev. John Watson, priest-in-charge, in the founding the Lydia Lopez Center for Community Empowerment, a nonprofit organization launched in 2024 with the mission of serving immigrants with supportive services, education, and cultural events. The center is named in honor of the late Canon Lydia Lopez, Estrada’s longtime friend and colleague in justice work, who died in 2023.
To be divided between the work of the Lydia Lopez Center and Jovenes Inc., Richard Estrada Memorial Fund gifts (checks payable to the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles) may be mailed in care of Watson at 840 Echo Park Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90026.
Paying tribute to Estrada as “a true giant of justice,” Watson said “whilst only knowing him for 17 months I came to honor, love and deeply admire him. Through our shared ministry together his body became more frail, yet his spirit, courage, heart and love for Christ and his people remained ever strong. His legacy will remain in the founding of the Lydia Lopez Center at Epiphany, and I am sure in many other seen and unseen ways. His memory will live on and his heart will continue to shape the ministry at Epiphany. Fr. Richard, thank you for all you have done and given to the people in this community and beyond. Presente!”
Estrada was received as a priest of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Los Angeles in May 2015 by then Bishop J. Jon Bruno. The two met as young adults in East Los Angeles where both graduated from Garfield High School.
Born in 1942 at Los Angeles County General Hospital to immigrant parents, Estrada pursued the priesthood in the order of Claretian Missionaries. United Farm Workers union founder Chávez, whom Estrada came to know during grape boycotts in East Los Angeles, attended his 1978 ordination to the priesthood.
From that time until 2014 he served as associate pastor at La Placita, providing sanctuary for Central American refugees with its late pastor, Fr. Luis Olivares, assisted by Episcopal lay leader Lopez, with whom, during her tenure as president of the United Neighborhoods Organization (UNO), Estrada also assisted in community organizing.
Estrada’s faith-based advocacy and direct action to support immigrant workers and families led him to serve on numerous boards and collaborated with organizations including CLUE (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice). He was a chaplain at Central Juvenile Hall, became a prominent voice for immigrants navigating the asylum process, and was a key figure in the New Sanctuary National Movement.
Among many honors, he received the CLUE-LA “Giant of Justice” Award in 2008 and numerous commendations from the Los Angeles City Council and Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for his outstanding contributions to the community. He was named to the Garfield High School Hall of Fame and in 2013 received KCET-TV’s Hispanic Heritage Month Local Hero Award. In 2024 he received the Echo Park Immigration Center (EPIC) 2024 Lydia Lopez Award.
At Diocesan Convention in December 2024, Bishop Taylor named Estrada an honorary canon of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.
A Los Angeles Times article tracing Estrada’s life and ministry is here.