Southwestern Collection

In Memoriam

Dr. José Roberto (Beto) Juárez Sr. passed away on September 13, 2019. Born in Laredo, Texas, on December 18, 1934, Beto was a teacher, historian, scholar, genealogist, and passionate advocate for social justice, including civil rights, gender equality, and the rights of farmworkers. He was a devoted Roman Catholic and an active member of San Martin de Porres Church, where he served as a reader and religious educator. He and his wife, Toni, instilled in their children the importance of education and made many sacrifices to help all six of them graduate from college.

He attended St. Augustine High School in Laredo, where he met his wife. He graduated from St. Edward's University with a bachelor of arts degree and from the University of Texas at Austin with a master's degree and a Ph.D. in Latin American history. He began his teaching career as a history professor at St. Edward's and later served as a member of the university's Board of Trustees. In 1970 he began teaching at the University of California at Davis, where he became the first Mexican American chair of the history department and teaching some of the first university-level courses in Mexican American history. Beto returned to Laredo in 1975, serving first as academic dean and then as the vice president for academic affairs of Laredo Junior College (now Laredo College). Returning to his hometown allowed Beto and Toni to fulfill their desire to spend time with and care for their parents. In his later career, he taught history at Texas A&M International University (TAMIU).

Beto authored articles on Latin American and Mexican American history, and after retiring from TAMIU he completed a book on the history of the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Guadalajara. A proud descendant of early residents of Laredo and of the founders of numerous cities and towns in South Texas and northern Mexico, Beto created an extensive genealogy of his family and of Toni's family and wrote a history of the family's ranch. He helped found and was an active member and officer in the Villa San Agustín de Laredo Genealogical Society. He researched the history of the Catholic Church for the Laredo Diocese and published articles on Laredo and Catholic history in local media. He was an active member of the Webb County Heritage Foundation and was honored by that organization as president of the Republic of the Río Grande. He was also president of the Texas Catholic Historical Society and an active member of the Texas State Historical Association.

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David Robert McDonald, born August 17, 1941, in Abilene, Texas, died peacefully July 10, 2019, at home in San Antonio. David and his parents moved to a farm near McAdoo, Texas, in 1946, where he lived through high school. After a year at Clarendon College, he transferred to nearby West Texas State University (now West Texas A&M), eventually graduating with a degree in sociology. An avid musician, David played bass and lead guitar for years near Amarillo and along Interstate 40 with the Nitrons.

In the late 1960s, David studied at the University of Texas at Austin and became interested in classical guitar. Fascinated by masters like Andrés Segovia, he taught guitar while he worked on a degree in Spanish. His desire to live in Spain became possible with a project of the Texas state archeologist, whose brother was in David's band. In searching Spanish archives for shipwrecks on the Texas coast, he became adept at translating Spanish documents from as far back as the sixteenth century into English. In 1973 he began translating microfilmed documents obtained during his months in Spain at Mission San José's park headquarters. The book Documentary Sources for the Wreck of the New Spain Fleet of 1554, which David coauthored with J. Barto Arnold III and was published by the Texas Antiques Commission, resulted from his translations. During this time, he often played classical guitar in the chapel at Mission San José and other venues.

David became park manager at...