The New York Times’ 2020 series of feature obituaries, “Overlooked,” was primarily devoted to women and “people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported” in the publication. It was an ambitious project and one that Texas itself, as a state and a society, would arguably do well to replicate. Especially since a
Journalists have the power to change the way the world views something. A powerful female journalist you might not know about is Jovita Idar, and it's time she earned a little more recognition. Jovita was born
The Mexican American woman who stood up to the Texas Rangers and fought for civil rights
Jennifer Medina
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Jovita Idar was a journalist for La Cronica, her family's Laredo newspaper. She helped establish and lead the Liga Femenil Mexicanista, one of the earliest known 20th-century organizations of Mexican American women.UTSA Special CollectionsShow MoreShow Less
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Jovita Idar, second from right, stands in the print shop of Laredo’s El Progreso with other newspaper employees.UTSA Special CollectionsShow MoreShow Less
When the Texas Rangers showed up outside the office of the newspaper El Progreso in 1914 with the intent of shutting it down, Jovita Idár, a writer and editor, was waiting at the front door to block them from entering. And she was not about to back down.