Jovita Idár

Jovita Idár was born in Laredo, Texas in 1885.[2] She was one of eight children of Jovita and Nicasio Idár [3] who strove to advance the civil rights of Mexican-Americans. All eight Idar children grew up in an atmosphere where rights, and responsibilities and the underprivileged circumstances of the Chicano community were consistently discussed. In the book Marching to a Different Drummer, Robin Kadison Berson explains “Growing up Jovita was an imaginative, spirited girl; eager student, she won prizes for her poetry and enjoyed reciting before an audience.”[4]

Idár and two of her brothers, Eduardo and Bobby Brown, worked for the newspaper La Crónica [The Chronicles]. The paper, edited and published by their father Nicasio Idár, advocated for civil rights and social justice for Mexican-Americans. A strong, proud man, Nicasio turned the newspaper into a major voice for justice and Tejano rights. Jovita wrote articles under a pseudonym, exposing the poor living conditions of Mexican-American workers and supported the Mexican Revolution which began in 1910.[5][6]

According to Laura Gutierrez in volume two of Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage, the newspaper La Crónica:[7]

... including a wide variety of articles dealing with current events, news from Mexico, local and regional news, biographical and historical essays, poetry, literary essays, commentary, and, of course, lots of advertisements. More importantly, however, La Cronica gave voice to the serious social and economic disparities suffered by Mexicans in Texas and the U.S.

Idár earned her teaching certificate in 1903 from the Holding Institute in Laredo.[8] She taught in a school in Los Ojuelos, located approximately 40 miles east of Laredo.[9] The reality of her first years teaching was frustrating, “There was never enough textbooks for her pupils, nor enough paper, pens or pencils; if all her students came to class, there were not enough chairs or desk for them.”.[10] The schooling for Chicano students, much like African American students in the south at that time, was inadequate. Chicanos paid taxes to support decent schooling for their children yet, they were denied entry to schools. By this time Idar realized that her teaching efforts were making little impact on student lives due to the ill-equipped segregated schools. She decided that journalism offered more of a meaningful change that would be effective and she returned to Laredo to write for La Cronica. In 1910 La Cronica criticized the different social relations between the Hispanic communities and the Anglo people, “Featuring stories on educational and social discrimination against Mexican Americans, poor economic conditions, decreasing use of the Spanish language, the loss of Mexican culture and lynching of Hispanics.”[11] By 1911 La Cronica had shifted towards supporting revolutionary forces, “the newspaper called a convention of the Orden Caballeros de Honor, a fraternal order to discuss the troubling social issues at the time” La Cronica was destroyed by Texas Rangers after Idar stood in resistance

La Liga Femenil (League of Mexican Women)

Idár served as the first president of the League of Mexican Women (La Liga Femenil Mexicanista). It was founded in October 1911 in Laredo to offer free education to Mexican children.[12] Additional goals of the organization were to "unify the Mexican intellectuals of Texas around the issues of protection of civil rights, bilingual education, the lynching of Mexicans, labor organizing and women's concerns."[13] The women within this league worked to transform these injustices into a plan of action and focused on relieving social problems through actively making changes within their communities. Women who participated in this organization were highly influential. “Some league members were trained educators and professionals, and the education of youth remained the organization's primary focus.”[14] It developed into a social, political and charitable organization for women that, in part, provided food and clothes to those in need.[15]

Primer Congreso Mexicanista

Idar also participated in the Primer Congreso Mexicanista,[16] an organization dedicated to fighting inequality and racism.[17] These associations actively worked for the advancement of their members, “by holding studying and learning sessions, sessions where culture is acquired and talent is developed without orgies and unhealthy ambitions.”[18] Idar promoted the values of the "gente decente," self-identified decent, honest and respectable people, as the solution to the social problems faced by marginalized communities, “Idar promoted the idea that education elevated women and by extension men”[18] she reflected an ideal of feminism that was not completely against Victorian concepts, but she did challenge ideas and broke boundaries of the patriarchal society of her time.

In 1913 during the Mexican Revolution Idár and a friend entered Mexico to help care for the wounded along the border region. She later joined a medical group called the White Cross (La Cruz Blanca) which was similar to the Red Cross relief organization.[19] After returning to Laredo Idár worked for the newspaper El Progreso where she protested against the dispatch of U.S troops to border through a written editorial. This offended the U.S Army and Texas Rangers, causing the rangers to force the shutdown of El Progreso.[20] After her father's death in 1914, she eventually returned to operate La Crónica,[21] where she continued to expose the conditions that Mexican-Americans and Mexican immigrants were living under at the time.[2] She also founded the weekly paper Evolución in November 1916 which lasted four years.

In May 1917 Idár married Bartolo Juárez, who worked as a plumber and tinsmith.[22] She moved with her husband to San Antonio in 1921. There she founded a free kindergarten and also volunteered in a hospital as an interpreter.[23] In 1940 she co-edited the journal El Heraldo Cristiano.[24] She remained in this city until her death on June 15, 1946.[25] Her death was said to be caused by a pulmonary hemorrhage and that she had been suffering from advanced tuberculosis.[26]

• Clemente N. Idar Papers, 1875-1938 (bulk 1905-1934), from Texas Archival Resources Online.

• González, Gabriela (2015). "Jovita Idar: The Ideological Origins of a Transnational Advocate for La Raza". In Turner, Elizabeth Hayes; Cole, Stephanie; Sharpless, Rebecca (eds.). Texas Women: Their Histories, Their Lives. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. pp. 225–248.