21.09.2020
13:08
Through the newspaper La Crónica, Idár denounced the shortcomings of the community
September 21, 2020 Share on FacebookShare Share on TwitterTweet Share on WhatsAppShare
Google on Monday dedicated its doodle to the Mexican-American journalist, activist and defender of civil rights, Jovita Idár (1885-1946).
In the graphic with which he is honored, Jovita can be seen in a cartoon confronting a group of officers on the outskirts of El Progreso, a newspaper that criticized the US regime.
Jovita Idár’s ideas were clear and forceful, she saw education as a tool for social transformation. “Educate a woman and you will educate a family”, was one of his most emblematic phrases.
Born in the border city of Laredo, Texas, in 1885, Idár was a pioneer in defending the rights of Mexican-American citizenship in the early 20th century. In 1903, he was certified as a teacher at the Holding Institute of Laredo and taught at a school in Los Ojuelos, located east of Laredo.
Jovita’s experience in teaching was somewhat frustrating, as Mexican-American and African-American childhoods were full of deficiencies and inequality. The schools in that area were poorly equipped and communicated.
At the time of the Mexican Revolution, from 1910 to 1920, Idár stepped from teaching to the field of journalism, this in order to have a greater impact on people’s lives and in the public sphere.
While she was a reporter and editor, Jovita was appointed as president of the League of Mexican Women (Photo: Courtesy of the Presidency)
Through La Crónica, a newspaper founded by her father Nicasio Idár, Jovita developed as an editor and published several articles where she made visible the working conditions of Mexican Americans and their support for the revolutionary movement.
While she was a reporter and editor, Jovita was appointed president of the Liga de Mujeres Mexicanas, an organization founded in October 1911 to provide free education to Mexican infants.
In 1911, Idár participated in the First Mexicanist Congress, a space dedicated to fighting and discussing the inequality and racism that existed at that time, in addition to the lack of education and cuts in economic resources.
Two years later, when Nuevo Laredo, on the Mexican side of the border, was attacked, Idár and other women crossed the Rio Grande to volunteer to help with the wounded.
In addition to collaborating as a volunteer nurse, in 1914 she entered the newspaper El Progreso. An editorial in this medium criticizing the actions of President Woodrow Wilson regarding the intervention of the military on the border of Mexico and the United States, caused the armed forces to feel offended and the Texas Rangers went to close the newspaper.
With his articles published in El Progreso and La Crónica, he denounces the deficiencies and inequalities of Mexican-American society
On one occasion, the Rangers positioned themselves in front of El Progreso and tried to attack, but Jovita barricaded herself in the offices and prevented their access. Later, when she was not in the facilities, the armed command took the opportunity to loot and destroy the printing press, definitively closing the newspaper.
After the death of her father in 1914, she took the reins of the newspaper La Crónica and continued to denounce the working conditions of Mexican American society. In 1917, she married Bartolo Juárez, who developed as a tinsmith and plumber.
Jovita Idár died on June 15, 1946 due to pulmonary hemorrhage and advanced tuberculosis. He was 60 years old.
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