Pride of Laredo

IN 1914, THE TEXAS RANGERS HAD A REPUTATION for complicity in extralegal violence and property crimes against Hispanic Texans. So when they rode up to the office of El Progreso newspaper in Laredo one day with a score to settle, the wisest choice of action might have been to flee and let them have the printing press. Instead, 29-year-old Jovita Idár dared the Rangers to come and take it. Idár, a crusading journalist, guarded her paper’s press with her own body, forcing the Rangers to either assault an unarmed woman or come back at a more auspicious time. The Rangers stood down.

This Idár anecdote is one of many from a life of daring exploits, like crossing the border to join the Constitutionalist published her obituary via its “Overlooked” series, 74 years after her death. Most recently, in a socially distanced ceremony on a sunny day in October, the Laredo City Council rechristened a park in Idár’s name with a mural, plaque, and walking trail educating residents about her life and the context of her struggle for civil rights and justice on the Texas-Mexico border.