Cecilia Sánchez Hill remembers when Rita Rodriguez-Utt invited her to help document the stories of women who lived in the Worth Heights barrio known as La Fundición (The Foundation) in 2019.
During that summer, Sánchez Hill and Rodriguez-Utt would meet with numerous older women from the neighborhood, who shared stories about their lives and family history in Fort Worth.
Rodriguez-Utt “really wanted to just document the experiences of women living in that barrio, because they were important to the growth of that community by raising their children and living their lives there,” Hill said.
Documenting the history of local Hispanic people was a passion for Rodriguez-Utt, who died Feb. 25 at the age of 80 following a prolonged battle with kidney failure.
What she did for our communities will live on in Tarrant County, said Sánchez Hill.
Rodriguez-Utt was a founding member of Historians of Latino Americans Tarrant County, alongside Tarrant County College history professor Peter Martinez, journalist Richard Gonzales and Artes de la Rosa executive director William Girón. The organization aims to research, document and archive the history of Hispanic people in Tarrant County.
The organization was created in 2019 after Rodriguez-Utt gathered several community leaders to discuss projects connected to Hispanic history in Tarrant County, according to a 2021 interview with Rodriguez-Utt for the TCU AddRan College of Liberal Arts.
Some of HOLA’s notable efforts have included the Trail of the Mexican American Experience in Fort Worth exhibition at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, and the Viva Mi Historia – The Story of Fort Worth Latino Families project, conducted in partnership with the city of Fort Worth Human Relations Unit.
Rodriguez-Utt was a second-generation Latina born in Fort Worth in the 1940s, the eldest of five children, in the Worth Heights barrio known as La Fundición (The Foundation). Her family was one of more than 150 families who had immigrated from Mexico.
Both of her parents were laborers who were poor but were rich in family bonds and a religious life around a small Catholic Church, according to Rodriguez-Utt’s profile on the HOLA Tarrant County website.
“Ours was an innocent childhood unaware of the poverty or deprivation we learned about later. Our parents made sure we all attended school and Mother’s dream was that we all graduate from high school. We all did and some of us attained college degrees,” Rodriguez-Utt wrote.
After completing high school, Rodriguez-Utt earned her nursing degree and later a law degree at the University of Houston Law Center, according to her biography.
Rodriguez-Utt would later marry and relocate to Michigan, Austin and Houston, where she remained active in those area’s Hispanic communities. She returned to Fort Worth to work in the District Attorney’s office and a private practice in the late 1980s.
“Our wish was to bring the knowledge and experience to our Latino community for our betterment. We spent a lot of energy in our community work, which was both satisfying and rewarding,” Rodriguez-Utt wrote on the HOLA Tarrant County website.
Aside from her work at HOLA and the District Attorney’s office, Rodriguez-Utt served as chair of the Hispanic Women’s Network of Texas in 2009 and 2010. The organization seeks to promote the advancement of women in public, corporate and civic life and address education and economic needs, cultural efforts and personal and professional development.
“Rita provided guidance and development to the Hispanic Women’s Network of Texas, her beloved Fort Worth community, friends, and family,” the organization wrote on Facebook. “HWNT was a recipient of her wisdom and contributions. We offer our condolences to family members Jessica and Alexandria Reyes and Michael Utt.”
Fellow HOLA Tarrant County founding member Martinez credits Rodriguez-Utt with leaving behind a legacy of mentorship.
“She had a great passion for preserving Mexican-American history in Fort Worth,” he said. “Her leadership is keeping us going and motivates us to continue doing our work. I see so many Latina women taking on leading roles in Fort Worth. I think it’s because of people like Rita that we are seeing so much nowadays.”
Sánchez Hill, who now serves as the secretary of HOLA Tarrant County, said she plans to continue documenting the stories of women from the Worth Heights neighborhood. Rodriguez-Utt’s work was too important to stop, said Sánchez Hill.
“For me, seeing what Rita did in her life, not just her careers, but in the amount that she gave back to the community, it motivates me to keep pushing to make a difference in some way,” she said. “There’s so many people who were not related to her that she influenced.”
Funeral arrangements are pending.
David Moreno is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. His position is supported by a grant from Texas Health Resources. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org or @davidmreports on X.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.