Idar, Jovita << ee DAHR, hoh VEE tah >> (1885-1946), was a Mexican American educator and journalist. She was also a strong supporter of civil rights for Mexican Americans and women. Idar founded the League of Mexican Women in 1911 to educate poor Tejano children. Tejanos are Texans of Mexican descent. 
Idar was born on Sept. 7, 1885, in Laredo, Texas. She earned a teaching certificate at Holding Institute, a Methodist school in Laredo. In 1903, Idar began teaching in Los Ojuelos, Texas. But she became dissatisfied with the school’s poor conditions and resigned. She soon joined two of her brothers at their father’s Spanish-language weekly newspaper, La Crónica (The Chronicle). The Idars wrote articles that condemned unfair treatment of Mexican Americans.
In 1911, Idar attended the First Mexican Congress in Laredo. Participants discussed criminal justice, racial segregation, lynching, women’s rights, and bilingual education. Bilingual education involves the teaching of courses in two languages—in this case, Spanish and English. The congress led Idar to establish the League of Mexican Women later that year. She became the organization’s first president.
In 1913, Idar began writing for the Spanish-language newspaper El Progreso (Progress). She later returned to work for La Crónica. She took over the newspaper upon her father’s death in 1914. In 1916, she founded the weekly paper Evolución (Evolution).
In 1917, Idar married Bartolo Juárez, and the couple moved to San Antonio. In 1920, Idar opened that city’s first free kindergarten. In 1940, she became coeditor of the journal El Heraldo Cristiano (The Christian Herald). She died on June 13, 1946.
