Clemente Nicasio Idar, American Federation of Labor (AFL) organizer, writer, and orator, was born in Laredo, Texas on November 11, 1883. As the first Mexican American organizer in the mainstream labor movement, Idar fought to improve wages and working conditions for Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the United States. Idar’s father, Nicasio Idar, established railroad workers’ unions in Nuevo Laredo and San Luis Potosí, Mexico, and later edited La Crónica, a Laredo Spanish-language newspaper. Clemente Idar left school at a young age and worked in his father’s printing shop, alongside his sister, Jovita Idar, and most of his other siblings. He also became a Freemason, like his father, Nicasio. In 1911, Nicasio, Jovita, and Clemente organized El Congreso Mexicanista, a conference in Laredo that brought together delegates from across Texas to build a federation of community organizations that could work together to improve the social, economic, and cultural status of Mexican Americans. Clemente Idar married Maria Lorenza (Laura) Dávila in 1913, and worked at a variety of jobs in the next few years, from advertising salesman to Laredo Board of Trade translator, to support his growing family. He also held meetings, and probably translated literature, for the Laredo Progressive Party during this time. In 1917, Idar and a partner, Carlos Samper, opened a Laredo office of a wire service, the Spanish-American News Agency, with the intention of opening offices across Mexico that would receive American and world news. The effort was not a success; the following year, however, Idar found the work that would employ him for the rest of his life.

In 1918, Samuel Gompers, president of AFL, selected Idar to help coordinate, and translate at, the Pan American Federation of Labor Conference in Laredo. By November, Idar was working as an AFL organizer, and he moved to San Antonio with his wife, children, and mother-in-law shortly thereafter. A variety of external political factors informed Gompers’ decision to bring Mexican Americans into the AFL: World War, continued armed conflict on both sides of the border after the Mexican Revolution of 1910, competition from more radical unions, and the fear that newly arrived immigrants would take jobs away from American citizens. Idar shared Gompers’ moderate point of view on many issues, including the need to limit immigration. Although he organized some unions that were partially or primarily composed of Mexican nationals, he also assisted the Unión Colonizadora Mexicana, a group that repatriated agricultural workers. Idar supported organizations like the Order of Sons of America, and later the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), that aimed to stimulate patriotic feelings among Mexican Americans. As an AFL representative, Idar chartered already existing Mexican and Mexican American workers’ organizations, and organized workers that were not previously unionized. He worked to maintain relationships among Mexican unions, the Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana (CROM), American unions, and the Texas State Federation of Labor (TSFL). Idar served as translator for the AFL, producing Spanish-language versions of speeches, newspaper and magazine articles, and union constitutions and by-laws. He also supported local political campaigns on behalf of labor candidates. Idar worked primarily in Texas, particularly in Laredo, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande Valley, but also traveled to other states, namely Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, and California. His organizing efforts sometimes took him to Mexico, particularly border towns like Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad Juárez, and Piedras Negras. Throughout his career, Idar organized men in a great variety of trades, from builders and boilermakers to retail clerks and tailors. In 1921-1922, he traveled back and forth between Texas and Mexico establishing cooperation between the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and its Mexican counterpart, Hermandad Unida de Carpinteros y Similares de América. During the national railroad strike of 1922, he served as chairman of the executive board representing 1800 strikers in El Paso. Idar spent much of 1930 in Colorado organizing a Mexican American chapter of the Beetworkers’ Association.

Idar was a member of San Antonio chapters of the Typographical Union and the Chauffeurs’ Union. He was an accomplished public speaker and wrote articles for English and Spanish-language periodicals, primarily about organized labor.

Clemente Idar died of illness in San Antonio on January 23, 1934. He was 51 years old and was survived by his wife and six children.

Sources:

“Murió ayer un concocido lider del trabajo.” La Prensa, Jan. 24, 1934.

“Organizer C.N. Idar To Leave.” Los Angeles Citizen, March 4, 1927.

Orozco, Cynthia E. “Idar, Clemente Nicasio.” The Handbook of Texas Online, 2001. Retrieved February 28, 2007 from http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/II/fid4.html

Zamora, Emilio. The World of the Mexican Worker in Texas. College Station, TX: Texas A and M University Press, 1993.