Week 1 Irma Rangel (1931-2003) Irma Rangel had three careers over the course of her life: she was a teacher first, then a lawyer, and then a state legislator. In each one of those roles, Rangel was dedicated to helping the poor and marginalized, bettering the Hispanic community, and fighting for justice and equality. Rangel was born in Kingsville, Texas in 1931. Her father was a cotton picker who learned to read and write on his own and later owned two barber shops, a bar and several stores. Rangel graduated with a degree in business from Texas A&M University in 1951 and became a schoolteacher. She taught in the South Texas area, as well as in California and Venezuela. After working as a teacher and principal for 14 years, Rangel decided to go to law school at the age of 35. She graduated from St Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio in 1969 and went on to clerk for U.S. District Judge Adrian Spears, who at the time was the chief justice for the Western District of Texas. After finishing her clerkship, she became one of the first female Hispanic district attorneys in Texas, but only after insisting on a salary that was equivalent to that of men in the same position. In 1973 she returned to her hometown, where she became a partner in a Kingsville law firm, Garcia and Rangel. She was the only Mexican-American female attorney in town, and continued to practice until 1993. In 1976, while she was working as an attorney, Rangel was elected to the Texas House of Representatives. It was another first: she was the first Mexican-American woman to be elected to the Texas House. "I didn't know I was going to be the first one," she said in an interview years later, "I felt like I was really going to have to deliver. If I didn't, they were going to say, 'All Mexican-American women are failures.'" During her first legislative session, Rangel passed House Bill 1755, which provided employment and educational programs for mothers with dependent children. Over the next 26 years she spent in office, she continued to fight to improve education and resources for the poor and minorities. She was instrumental in shepherding the South Texas Border Initiative in 1993, legislation that pumped a half-billion dollars into educational institutions in South Texas and the border region over 10 years. In 1997 she passed landmark legislation that created an opportunity for all students who want to go to college. House Bill 588 required the state's colleges and universities to admit automatically those students who graduate in the top ten percent of their high school graduating class. In 1999, Rangel jointly authored and passed a bill that created the TEXAS Grant Program. The $100 million program provided financial support for 11,000 low-income students from across the state to go to college. In 2001, Rangel authored a bill that created and provided funding for a new school of pharmacy at the Texas A&M University campus in her old hometown, Kingsville. It was the first professional school in South Texas. Rangel knew that her legislative efforts had an impact. She said in 2001, "When I was at [Texas] A&M, you could count the Hispanic students on two hands. Now, I look at the campus and I see great expansion in the enrollment of Hispanics and I am pleased. As a Mexican American, I feel very good about the efforts we have been making." Rangel's achievements were recognized by dozens of organizations. She received the Garcia Public Service Award from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund in 1993 for her strong commitment and activism in public service; she was awarded the Latina Lawyer of the Year Award in 1998 by the Hispanic National Bar Association; and she received the American Bar Association's Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award in 1998. Rangel battled cancer for several years, and wore a different hat each day after undergoing chemotherapy. She died on March 18, 2003 at the age of 71. Photo Usage: Photo courtesy of Tusk (Texas A&M University—Kingsville), source: Kingsville Record Hispanic Heritage Month 2003 | Links