"Por La Raza y Para La Raza"
t was a tumultuous time for Mexicans in Texas when Jovita Idar became a forever to be remembered "Heroine of La Raza." This was a period in our history when the Mexican Revolution was raging and the Texas Rangers, or "los rinches", were routinely lynching Mexican-Americans and Mexican children, women and men who were crossing the border to seek refuge from the revolution.
Jovita Idar was born in Laredo, Texas in 1885 to Nicasio Clemente and Jovita Vivero and was one of eight children. In 1903 at the age of 18 years she earned a teaching certificate from the Holding Institute in Laredo and taught in a small school but the conditions in which she had to teach Mexican children so frustrated her that she decided to join her two brothers as a writer for her father's newspaper "La Cronica." She believed that by becoming a journalist and an activist she would be more effective in changing the deplorable conditions that existed in the public schools for Mexican children. During this time, Mexican school children were completely segregated and, in many occasions, totally excluded.
Throughout 1910 and 1911 she wrote weekly articles that called for equal educational treatment and exposed the extreme discrimination against Mexican children in the public schools. In addition, Jovita Idar started writing about the atrocities being committed by the Texas Rangers against Mexicans. She wrote about the lynching and hanging of a Mexican child in Thorndale, Texas by the Texas Ranchers and the brutal burning at the stake of 20 year old Antonio Rodriguez in Rocksprings, Texas. Of Antonio Rodriguez, she wrote, "The crowd cheered when the flames engulfed his contorted body. They did not even turn away at the smell of his burning flesh and I wondered if they even knew his name. There are so many dead that sometimes I can't remember all their names."
The intolerable racism and brutality against Mexicans in South Texas made Jovita Idar to take bolder actions. In 1911 her newspaper, La Cronica, called for the formation of "La Gran Liga Mexicanista de Beneficencia y Proteccion" in order for the community to work together "en virtud de los lazos de sangre que nos unen." In the same year "La Liga" sponsored the "Primer Congreso Mexicanista" and adopted the motto "Por La Raza y Para La Raza" and its primary mission was the protection of Mexican-Americans against the racist and brutal actions of "los rinches" and Anglos. Her actions were both courageous and extremely dangerous.
From the "Primer Congreso Mexicanista" also came the formation of the first feminist organization called "Liga Femenil Mexicanista." Jovita Idar and other women formed their own schools and allowed poor Mexican children to attend for free. The organization also provided free food and clothing for the needy in the community. The organization met at Jovita Idar's parents home and La Cronica published the organization's news and fund raising activities.
As the Mexican revolutionary class struggle across the border grew increasingly more turbulent, the repression of the Texas Rangers and Anglos against Mexican-Americans and Mexican refugees became increasingly more violent. The Anglos feared that the revolutionary fervor in Mexico would spread to Texas. In 1913 Jovita Idar started writing articles in favor of the revolutionary forces of Francisco Villa and crossed the border to serve as a nurse in the Cruz Blanca on the side of General Villa. This attracted the attention of the federal government and the Texas Rangers.
When she returned to Laredo in 1914 and wrote an article critical of Woodrow Wilson's deployment of troops to the border, the infamous Texas Rangers came to Laredo to destroy Jovita Idar's printing presses. Texas Rangers Hicks, Ramsey, Chamberlain and another, who's name is not known, came up to the door and found Jovita Idar blocking the entrance with her hands firmly grasping the frame and feet planted on the threshold.
"Los rinches" asked her to move out of the way but Jovita Idar stood her ground. A crowd gathered to witness the spectacle. In one of the greatest moments of bravery by a Mexican-American woman, "los rinches" backed down and left town. The newspaper, the voice of La Raza, was safe for a while, but only for a short while because the cowardly Texas Rangers came back in the stealth of night and with sledgehammers broke open the doors and with heavy blows smashed the presses, the linotype machines, the ink containers and the wooden table with the the lines of types. The destruction of the "little newspaper" as they called it was complete. They had silenced a strong and effective voice for political and social justice for Mexican-Americans in South Texas.
In 1917 at the age of 32 years Jovita Idar married Bartolo Juarez and both moved to safer territory in San Antonio, Texas. Mrs. Jovita Idar-Juarez did not stop her activism in married life but went on to organize "El Club Democrata" within the Democratic Party to politically empower the Mexican-American community. In 1920 she founded a free bilingual kindergarten school and continued her work as a writer and educator until her death in 1946 at the age of 61 years. She and her husband had no children.
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"Hay que trabajar juntos en virtud de los lazos de sangre que nos unen."
Jovita Idar
1911
"There is a time when the operation of the machine
becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart,
that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part,
and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels,
upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop.
And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it,
that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!"
Mario Savio
Sproul Hall Steps
University of California, Berkeley
December 3, 1964
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The image above is from the latest cover of the talented L.A. music group, "Rage Against the Machine." Please visit their web site at http://www.ratm.com
The creative group of four musicians contribute greatly in making positive changes in society by
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National Convention 2000 at the L.A. Staples Center.
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