History Timeline

Christina is President and CEO of the Felix H. Morales Funeral Home, established in 1931 by her grandparents, Felix and Angela Morales. Located in Houston’s east end, the Felix H. Morales Funeral Home successfully established itself as the first to serve Houston’s Latino community. The Morales family paved the way for other Hispanic businesses by making shrewd business decisions, having courage and tenacity.

Christina took on the challenge of carrying on the family legacy with great pride. She began her tenure as President in 1993, having attended The Commonwealth Institute of Funeral Service, where she served as President of the Honor Society. A certified embalmer herself, Christina strives to provide caring, personalized funerals with empathy. She and her staff have continued to provide the same exceptional service to families as her grandparents did before her.

Christina continues to carry out what she considers two of her greatest achievements: leading her family business to its 85th year and initiating its annual Back to School Supplies Giveaway - the only giveaway in Houston providing free and complete packs of schools supplies as required by HISD. In the past 20 years Christina has helped supply more than 20,000 packs to Pre-K through High School students but her focus on solely educating the Latino youth of the East End has uncovered new initiatives – to promote good nutrition and physical fitness along with education. In this new effort Christina has partnered with UT Health and is excited to sustain this relationship for her community.

An avid volunteer, Christina has held numerous positions for various charities and community organizations. Christina served as advisory board chair of Ripley House where she received the volunteer of the year award. Tasked with choosing a new design for the Ripley House building, she continues to support its charitable events. She also serves as board member of the Houston Community College Foundation, the East End Foundation, and the Center for Mexican American Studies Advisory Board, Mayor's Hispanic Advisory Board, and the Committee of the Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital. She also served on Houston’s Mayor Sylvester Turner’s Transition Committee.

While Christina has long volunteered in a myriad of ways, her passion for giving back has not been overlooked. Her most recent accolades include the selection to be in the 2015 class of Women on the Move; being named one of Houston's 50 Most Influential Women of 2015 by Houston Woman Magazine; the 2016 Mayor's Hispanic Heritage Award for Education; and she was selected as 2016 Woman of the Year by the Solo Mujeres Magazine for her inspirational work in the community.

Christina resides in the East End and has two children, Anthony Krasnick who works for Tommie Vaughn Ford and Angela Krasnick who graduated from UT McCombs and now lives in New York City. She enjoys furthering her business education, having completed the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program and the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative Program. She is about to begin the Fellows Program for the American Leadership Forum. When she isn’t saving the world, Christina enjoys sharing her home cooked meals with family and friends and attending sporting events for her favorite Houston teams. You just may have seen her throwing the Astros first pitch!

Joe Morales is the General Manager and a Funeral Specialist at Felix H. Morales Funeral Home. Originally from Houston Texas, he started working at Morales Funeral Home on April 1, 2013. Joe has always worked around the family business off and on. However, a few years back he decided to fully dedicate himself to upholding the great name he was given, Morales, and learn the skills of what his family business does best. They strive to give families the best funeral service they can provide. When a family walks through the doors, He and his team want them to feel as comfortable as possible. Losing a loved one is never easy, and Joe understands this, so he focuses on making this process as seamless as possible. After studying to become a funeral director at Commonwealth, His eyes were opened to the strong traditions the Morales Funeral Home upholds. Every day he continues to apply these traditions and sculpt new ways to dignify the passing of a family’s loved one.

Coming as a surprise to many, Joe lives on the second floor of the Morales Funeral Home so he is always close by. He has always felt at home in this area and loves when he runs into a family he’s previously helped. He feels it gives a real sense of camaraderie to the family and himself. Most could never live where they work, but what Joe does requires him to be attentive to families by any means. The Morales staff agrees, and he always admires their commitment towards making a positive impact on the people they serve. Joe knows he has a great team and continues to learn so much from them every day.

Finally, Joe mentioned he is grateful of his aunt, Christina Morales, who gave him the opportunity to explore his position at the funeral home. He is proud of her success in being an influence in their community and her continued growth as a community leader. Joe is confident that being a part of her team will lead them towards helping families so much more.

Cesar Carlos Sanchez has been with Felix H. Morales Funeral Home since 1992, his career has expanded over 30 years of service and experience in every capacity of the funeral and mortuary services. Considered a member of the family Cesar holds the position of Funeral Home Administrator.

A native of Monterrey, N.L. Mexico; Cesar arrived in Houston, Texas in 1981 accompanied by his parents and siblings at the age of 8 years old. This journey is what has connected him so deeply to the values of our families and the foundation of what the Morales funeral home was built on.

His interest in art as a young man gave Cesar his meticulous eye and appreciation for perfection. This precision translated easily to his responsibilities at Morales Funeral Home. One of his greatest prides is ensuring our families loved ones look as dignified and at peace at the time of the viewing. He believes it is these small details that matter greatly in a time of grieving. His compassion and dedication to our families is what makes Cesar such an intricate part of our tradition.

Hector Xavier Beltran first joined Felix H. Morales Funeral Home in 2014 after graduating Cesar E. Chavez High School. Hector works side by side the funeral directors and associates to create a pleasant experience for every family that we serve.

Hector graduated with an Associates of Arts in Business from San Jacinto College in 2017 and a Bachelor in Business at The University of Houston-Downtown in 2021. When he is not assisting families, Hector prefers to stay busy. He will often be playing softball, bike riding through Segundo Barrio, volunteering his time or simply spending time with friends.

As an office manager, Hector provides peace, comfort and compassionate care to the many families served.

Destiny Ann Barela joined Morales Funeral Home in 2017. Destiny is originally from San Antonio but now calls Houston home. She is a 2019 graduate from Commonwealth Institute of Funeral Service where she earned her Associate of Applied Science Degree in Funeral Service. She is a licensed Funeral Director and Embalmer and a certified Crematory Operator. Her experience has taught her kind and compassionate ways to assist the bereaved during their difficult time. She aims to provide equal and honest care to every family she serves.

Victor joined Morales Funeral Home in 2018. He is originally from El Salvador, where his family ran their family-owned funeral homes for over 15 years. Although he was just a child, he developed an interest in helping others through difficult moments in life. At 8 years old, he and his family settled in Houston, Texas. He mentions that the Morales family has helped him achieve one of his goals, which is to assist grief-stricken families just like his family did.

Before joining Morales, he worked in customer relations at a hospitality company since 2015. He enjoyed assuring customer satisfaction in all branches of the business. He brings that transparency and attentiveness to Morales Funeral Home to help facilitate the affliction of each family.

Maria Ruiz-Juarez joined the Morales Funeral Home team in 2020. A native of Mexico, Maria and her family immigrated to Houston when she was a young child and has called Houston her home for a greater part of her life.

Before joining the Morales team, she amassed 14 years of experience in customer care. She comes to us from her previous line of work where she assisted the community and it’s four legged companions through her work at the Houston SPCA.

Maria serves our families with the utmost professionalism and compassion.

Wayne’s funeral service career began as a graduate from the Dallas Institute of Mortuary Science. Soon he attained his license in Missouri, Mississippi and Texas. He worked as Operations Manager for a large funeral and cemetery operation. After time, he switched to preneed sales where he led the Texas agent team as V.P. of Sales. Wayne took a sabbatical where he enjoyed real estate private placement. Soon he found himself drawn back to the fulfillment of the cemetery and funeral industry. Contract positions led him to Security National and become Market Manager over the Houston and surrounding areas.
Wayne now resides in Cypress, Texas near his three daughters and three grandson. He loves anything outdoors, from spending his weekends looking for arrowheads to blue-water fishing, and golf.