Jovita Idar’s fight for the rights of women and Mexican immigrants

John Yang:

Finally tonight, we bring you the story of a journalist and activist who spent her life improving the lives of women and Mexican immigrants at the turn of the 20th century. Ali Rogin is back with our series hidden histories.

Ali Rogin:

Jovita Idar believed education was the way forward, and she seldom backed down in the face of a fight. She lived by her own mantra, educate a woman, and you educate a family. Born in Laredo, Texas, in 1885, she fought for women's rights and was a pioneer in the modern Mexican American civil rights movement.

Idar started her career as a teacher in 1903, working hard to ensure poorer children received an education. She also pushed for bilingual instruction in public schools. Her teaching career was short lived. Inspired by her father Nicasio, and his work running a newspaper, she joined the family business.

La Cronica, The Chronicle was a source of news and activism around the rights of Mexican Americans. Idar wrote articles challenging racism at a time when so called Juan Crow laws were being used to suppress Mexican American rights. At the time, it wasn't uncommon to see signs outside businesses across the south that read no dogs, no Negroes, no Mexicans.

After the lynching of 14-year-old Antonio Gomez outside Austin in 1911, Idar and her family organized a gathering that became the catalyst for the modern Mexican American civil rights movement. Idar also took on issues outside her home state of Texas.

In 1914, she wrote an editorial criticizing President Woodrow Wilson's order to send troops to the U.S. border during the Mexican Revolution, which lasted from 1910 to 1920. Idar later joined a White Cross nursing unit on the side of the Revolutionary Army to help injured soldiers.

But eventually she returned to journalism, writing for La Cronica after her father's death, as well as a number of other Spanish language newspapers. Idar continued to spotlight the injustices facing Mexican Americans until her death in 1946 at the age of 60. She is quoted as saying Women recognize their rights proudly, raise their chin and face the struggle. The times of humiliation have passed. Women are no longer men's servants, but their equals, their partners.

Earlier this year, she was honored by the U.S. mint with her own coin, a quarter inscribed with the words teacher, evolution, and Mexican American rights. For PBS News Weekend, I'm Ali Rogin.