Articles

Irma Rangel was the first Mexican American woman elected to the Texas House of Representatives. Born in Kingsville in 1931, Rangel chose education as her first career, teaching in Texas, California, and Venezuela. In 1969, she earned a law degree and embarked upon a second career in politics. Rangel ran for and won a seat in the Texas House in 1976 serving a region in deep South Texas—an office she held for the rest of her life. In 2001, Rangel helped establish the College of Pharmacy at Texas A&M–Kingsville, which was the first professional school in South Texas. Upon her death in 2003, the school was renamed in her honor. Rangel's insistence that, as she put it, you "can do great things if you focus on helping others" is a fitting summary of her decades of service. More»