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C2 ★ Thursday.January 27, 2005ENTERTAINMENTJETTIESFROM Clvisit Estela’s mother. But he always found time to ask the•rhigh school teacher if she could play something. And Estela found the time.It was like an old movie starring Van Johnson and Judy Garland, Bobert said. “My father was more openly romantic and my mother was very prim and proper,Eventually, she said yes and they married. Their first child, Diana, was baptized Dec. 7, 1941.“Somebody walked into the church and said we had just been attacked/’ Robert said.The city commissioner tried to volunteer, hut was turned down because of his had heart.Instead, he found a job with the State Department.They sent the young family to Bogota. Colombia, and then to Spain.The judge was a voracious reader.“He read histories and biographies, Eideneio Jr. said. He didn’t read fiction, Tom Clancy or stuff like that.1 fe was completely fluent in English and Spanish.“Half of the books he had were in Spanish, Eideneio Jr. said.He'd perfected his Spanish during the 1930s, when he studied for two years at a university in Mexico City.In Spain, both he and my mother enrolled in the university over there, Eideneio Jr. said.The judge had a love of knowledge. In Spain orColombia, if he got off early inthe afternoon, it was off to the museums.Courtesy photoFidencio Guerra and Estela Margo were acquainted with one another while growing up in the Valley, but their romance didn’t blossom until they both studied at the University of Texas. They tied the knot in 1941.Family vacations always involved visits to museums or historical sites.Robert said his bedroom was next to his parents. Late at night, they would be reading and his father would stop to tell his mother a funny story or read her something.“He had a terrific sense of humor, Robert said.“But he was like Red Skelton: lie would tell a joke and then get so tickled he would laugh in the middle of the joke. He has that, too, Fidencio Jr. said, pointing to his brotlier.From 1946 to 1949, he served as a Hidalgo County justice of the peace. In 1949, he accepted an appointment as assistant attorney general ofthe State of Texas.Despite what might seem a lofty position, times were not always good for the family. While he was serving with the Attorney General's Office in Austin, Fidencio Jr. came down with appendicitis in McAllen.“The hospital refused to treat me until they got some money, he said.The judge, who was working on a case that would end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, had to hitchhike back from Austin with some money.And, with seven children, there was always somebody who was sick. There was another appendicitis and Judy and Robert came down with polio in 1951.In 1954, Fidencio was appointed presiding judge to the newly created 139th District Court of Hidalgo County, the first Hispanic to hold such a position in Texas. He held the position until his retirement in 1980.“He never brought his work home, Robert said.“What I remember most of all is that he always made time for us, said his daughter, Judy. “Daddy always took us to school every day and picked us up. He went to all of our school functions. He was a very loving and dedicated father.“He always helped us with our homework or helped sell Girl Scout cookies,” Fidencio Jr.“It was important to him, Judy said.The Guerras emphasized education. At one point, five of the children were in college at the same time.“All seven kids got collegedegrees — master's degrees orabove,” Fidencio Jr. said. “He ended up with two lawyers, an electrical engineer, a doctor, a teacher with a master's, a teacher/counselor with a master's and a special ed teacher with a master's.“My mom had a music and Spanish (bachelor of arts degree),” he said. “She wasn't able to get her master’s. She started having babies.”The judge was never one to put on airs. The man who was invited more than once to the LBJ Ranch never dropped names either.“He never would join the country club,” Fidencio Jr. said.His first daughter, Diana, died in 1994 and his beloved Estela passed on in 1999.The judge would always rise before dawn and go for a walk while he waited for newspapers to hit the front yard.Inside, he would read the first of several daily newspapers and make coffee. He kept that schedule until 2003. One week after his 94th birthday, he fell and broke his hip while waiting for the newspaper.In 2001, Congressman Ruben Hinojosa entered a tribute to the judge into the Congressional Record. What pleased Judge Guerra the most about it was that Hinojosa mentioned Estela and each of the children by name.Whenever he heard of an accomplishment by someonehe knew or even by a memberof his family, he would drag out his manual typewriter and send them a note.“That’s just the sort of man he was,” said Fidencio Jr. “It was always about everyone else and never about him.”
Newspaper Details
Valley Morning Star
Harlingen, Texas, US
Thu, Jan 27, 2005
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Judy A.
TX, USA 12 Oct 2021
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