Bidal Aguero, also known as Billy Aguero (July 23, 1949–November 3, 2009), was the publisher of El Editor, the oldest-running Hispanic

Hispanic

Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...

 newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 in Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. He was also a leading figure in the civil rights

Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

 community in Lubbock

Lubbock, Texas

Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University...

.

Early years

Aguero was born at the Goodnight Farm in Acuff

Acuff, Texas

Acuff is an unincorporated farming community in northeastern Lubbock County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Lubbock Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Acuff area originally had its own school, but it merged with, and is currently served by, the Roosevelt Independent School District. The...

, Lubbock County, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, to migrant cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

 laborers Ignacio (1915–1980) and Eulalia Aguero (1921–1994). The Aguero family moved to Lubbock in the 1950s and resided in the neighborhood known as "El Barrio Nuevo" off North Avenue U. Prior to establishing El Editor in 1977, Aguero worked for Gus Medina, Sr., owner of La Voz newspaper. In 1972, Aguero established a Mexican American Chamber of Commerce in Lubbock. That same year, he graduated from Texas Tech University

Texas Tech University

Texas Tech University, often referred to as Texas Tech or TTU, is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and originally known as Texas Technological College, it is the leading institution of the Texas Tech University System and has the...

 with a bachelor's degree

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

 in music education

Music education

Music education is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music. It touches on all domains of learning, including the psychomotor domain , the cognitive domain , and, in particular and significant ways,the affective domain, including music appreciation and sensitivity...

. He then pursued his master's degree

Master's degree

A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...

 in music at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

The University of Wisconsin–Whitewater is part of the University of Wisconsin System, located in Whitewater, Wisconsin. It became Wisconsin's second public college on April 21, 1868 when it opened its doors to 39 students taught by nine faculty members...

. While he was away from Lubbock, the Mexican American chamber of commerce disbanded, but Aguero re-formed it in 1976. Using his music education, Aguero was a founding member of a Lubbock Tejano

Tejano

Tejano or Texano is a term used to identify a Texan of Mexican heritage.Historically, the Spanish term Tejano has been used to identify different groups of people...

 group known as "Los Premiers". He played the saxophone

Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

.

Political activism

Involved in Lubbock Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 politics, Aguero organized protests against various injustices experienced by Hispanics. He was one of the plaintiff

Plaintiff

A plaintiff , also known as a claimant or complainant, is the term used in some jurisdictions for the party who initiates a lawsuit before a court...

s in a lawsuit filed against the Lubbock Independent School District

Lubbock Independent School District

Lubbock Independent School District was established in 1907. Accredited by the Texas Education Agency, LISD is the largest school district that serves the city of Lubbock, Texas . The Lubbock Independent School District covers and contains nearly of school properties that are owned by the local...

 to change the method of electing trustees from at-large citywide to single-member districts so that persons of minority-group

Minority group

A minority is a sociological group within a demographic. The demographic could be based on many factors from ethnicity, gender, wealth, power, etc. The term extends to numerous situations, and civilizations within history, despite the misnomer of minorities associated with a numerical statistic...

 background could more easily win elections. From 1967-1962, Aguero was chairman of the Mexican American Youth Organization

Mexican American Youth Organization

The Mexican American Youth Organization is a civil rights organization formed in 1967 in San Antonio, Texas, USA to fight for Mexican-American rights. The creators of MAYO, Los Cinco, consisted of José Ángel Gutiérrez, Willie Velásquez, Mario Compean, Ignacio Pérez, and Juan Patlán...

. He also ran unsuccessfully for the Lubbock City Council, state representative

Texas House of Representatives

The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Texas Legislature. The House is composed of 150 members elected from single-member districts across the state. The average district has about 150,000 people. Representatives are elected to two-year terms with no term limits...

, and Lubbock County commissioner. In 1972, he was the Lubbock co-ordinator for the La Raza

La Raza

In the Spanish language the term Raza translates to "race". Its meaning varies amongst various Spanish-speaking peoples. For instance, in Spain, "Raza" may denote specifically Spanish and often of a something or someone of a European Christian heritage. The Francoist film Raza, from 1944, which...

 gubernatorial candidate, Ramsey Muniz, who polled more votes that year than the difference between Democratic winner Dolph Briscoe

Dolph Briscoe

Dolph Briscoe, Jr. was a Uvalde, Texas rancher and businessman who was the 41st Governor of Texas between 1973 and 1979....

 of Uvalde

Uvalde, Texas

Uvalde is a city in and the county seat of Uvalde County, Texas, United States. The population was 14,929 at the 2000 census.Uvalde was founded by Reading Wood Black in 1853 as the town of Encina. In 1856, when the county was organized, the town was renamed Uvalde for Spanish governor Juan de...

, and Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 challenger Henry Grover

Henry Grover

Henry Cushing "Hank" Grover , was a conservative politician from the U.S. state of Texas best known for his relatively narrow defeat as the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1972. Grover was born in Corpus Christi. He died in Houston of Alzheimer's disease.Grover lived as a youth in San Antonio...

 of Houston

Houston, Texas

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

. In 1974, he worked for the second La Raza candidate, Mario Compean, who was also defeated by Briscoe. Aguero was active in West Texas farm unionization efforts and once received the Lubbock award named for farm activist Cesar Chavez

César Chávez

César Estrada Chávez was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers ....

. In 2007, Aguero received the Lubbock County Democratic Party's "Unsung Hero" award. He also received numerous awards from the National Association of Hispanic Publications. In 1977, he won the "Distinguished Service Award" form the Lubbock Jaycees.

Family and legacy

On October 17, 1988, Aguero married the former Olga Riojas (born November 6, 1959) in Lubbock. Aguero died of pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

 at the age of sixty. Services were held on November 5, 2009, at St. Elizabeth's Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 Church in Lubbock. He was cremated

Cremation

Cremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....

. In addition to his wife, he was survived by a son, Joe Adam Riojas (born ca. 1978) and wife Molli, and three daughters, Zenaida Victoria Reyes (born ca. 1970) and husband Robert, Amalia Raquel Aguero (born 1970), and Marisol Aguero, all of Lubbock; two brothers, Joe S. Aguero (born 1943) and wife Diana of Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

, and Ricardo "Ricky" Aguero (born ca. 1955) of Rancho Dominguez

Rancho Dominguez, California

Rancho Dominguez is a former settlement, now an unincorporated community, in Los Angeles County, California. It was located near East Rancho Dominguez. Rancho Dominguez is located between Long Beach, California and Carson, California....

 in Los Angeles County

Los Angeles County, California

Los Angeles County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 U.S. Census, the county had a population of 9,818,605, making it the most populous county in the United States. Los Angeles County alone is more populous than 42 individual U.S. states...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

; a sister, Martha and husband Sam Rendon of Lubbock, and four grandchildren.

On his death, El Editor commented:
Aguero's papers from 1949-1988 are deposited at the Southwest Collection of Texas Tech University.