Wonder Woman of the Week: Jovita Idar

This week's Wonder Woman was a civil rights activist for women and Mexican Americans in Texas. From an early age, Jovita Idar wowed audiences with her stage presence as an accomplished writer and poet. Learning from a family of social activists including both parents and all seven siblings, Idar developed a strong sense of public speaking and a passion for progressing the rights of Tejanos, Chicanos, and women in Texas.

On the eve of the First World War, a revolution sparked in Mexico- leading many Mexican Americans to support the revolution there- including Idar. Jovita has recently finished college and began managing a MExican American social activist newspaper. Capitalizing on the movement south of the US, Idar used her newspaper to spread the revolutionary ideas to Texas where Mexican Americans were Americans staunchly segregated Chicanos and Tejanos. During her time as a journalist, Idar launched two social activist groups- La Liga Femenil and Primer Congreso Mexicanista. She also traveled south of the border to act as a medic in the revolutionary militias in Mexico. In 1917, Idar married and moved to San Antonio where she founded a free kindergarten and lived until her death in 1946.