The First Decade

F2 | Sunday, September 15, 2019 | lmtonline.com | Laredo Morning Times  $QQLYHUVDU\ Editor’s note: This is Part 1 of 12 in Laredo Morning Times’ special look at Texas A&M International as it cel- ebrates its upcoming 50th anniver- sary in 2020. LMT will be counting down to that momentous occasion with a monthly look at the university’s past, present and future. By Lisa Dreher Laredo Morning Tim es A band of professors and education ad- vocates from all over came to Lar- edo in the late 60s to push for higher education, not just for the Gateway City but for the entire South Texas region. Higher institutions such as Texas $ 0 DQG WKH ÁDJVKLS 8QLYHUVLW\ of Texas at Austin educated mainly the white middle and upper classes in Central and North Texas. Yet in South Texas, and especially along the border, Hispanic lower class families yearned for better educa- tion. Nearly 20% of the state’s His- panic population were in the south, which was home to the state’s poor- est cities such as Brownsville, Lar- edo and Hebbronville. Workers in these areas took up namely agricul- tural, construction and other blue collar work. In Laredo, about 17% of the pop- ulation obtained a bachelor’s degree RU KLJKHU DQG VR 7$0,8·V SLRQHHUV wanted to bring even the poorest out of poverty through higher edu- cation. On Aug. 28, 1970, Texas A&I at Laredo opened its doors to students searching for more paths in life. Af- ter enduring name changes, historic events and political strife, the cen- ter educated more than a thousand students by 1980 and opened itself to new ways to expand and become the renowned university it is today. Humble Beginnings Laredo’s current State Sen. Judith =DIÀULQL DQ LQÁXHQWLDO GHPRFUDW was a part-time media aide for the newly-elected senator and rancher Wayne Connally in 1967. At the WLPH =DIÀULQL SXUVXHG KHU XQGHU - JUDGXDWH GHJUHH DW WKH 8QLYHUVLW\ RI Texas at Austin. +HU KXVEDQG &DUORV =DIÀULQL 6U was her boyfriend back then and worked for Connally as well as his FKLHI RI VWDII =DIÀULQL VDLG LW ZDV her mission to bring a higher edu- cation institution to Laredo, and so she and Carlos helped spread the word in the State Legislature for Conally. “We were in Austin and had lots of friends in the Legislature,” Zaf- ÀULQL VDLG ´:H PDGH PDQ\ IULHQGV in the Legislature, so I lobbied for a university.” Then in the summer of 1968, brothers Joaquin and Leonides Cigarroa, both prominent physicians in Laredo, urged the Texas Coordinating Board for Higher Education to add upper-level classes to Laredo Junior College. Joaquin Cigarroa was the ÀUVW +LVSDQLF RQ WKH 7H[DV Coordinating Board for Higher Education, and Leo Cigarroa sat on the Laredo Independent School District and Lar- edo Junior College joint board. The coordinating board denied their re- quest and said Lar- edo could not enroll enough students. Determined to bet- ter their community, the Cigarroa brothers returned to Austin and asked for an upper-level institution on their own. ´-RDTXLQ KDG D ORW RI LQÁXHQFH and people listened to him,” said KLVWRULDQ DQG 7$0,8 +LVWRU\ 5H - gents Professor Jerry Thompson. “So they got these really massive petitions of hundreds of people wanting this upper-level school in Laredo.” $ORQJ ZLWK LQÁXHQWLDO /DUHGR Mayor Pepe Martin, the Cigarroa brothers, Conally and Sen. Honoré Ligarde urged the Texas Legislature to allow some sort of upper-level institution. The Legislature, under Gov. John Connally — the brother of Wayne — decided to help. Wayne Connally and Ligarde passed the bill, signed on John Con- nally’s desk, establishing a center that was a branch of Texas A&I at Kingsville. “The Coordinating Board made a special arrangement, and they named Laredo a satellite center,” =DIÀULQL VDLG .LFNLQJ RII WKH ÀUVW \HDUV $IWHU WKDW WKH ÀUVW GHFDGH IRU Texas A&I at Laredo was not an easy one. The center opened in 1970 and only offered upper-level courses TAMIU’s 50th anniversary The First Decade Laredo physicians and brothers Leonides and Joaquin Cigarroa