Ruben Jaime Rivera, age 67, departed peacefully surrounded by his family and into the presence of our Heavenly Father on Wednesday, October 25, 2017. He was born on March 16, 1950, in Sinton, TX. He graduated from Taft High School and later attended Texas A & I in Kingsville, University of Houston, University of Michigan, and Boston College. In the early 1970s, and as an undergraduate at UH, he was a member of the UH Chapter of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) where he lobbied for a line-item from the Texas State Legislature to help fund a new program which was established in 1973. The lobby efforts were initiated in the spring of 1973. Jaime Rivera was also a member of the Raza Unida Club on campus, a student organization that campaigned on behalf of Mexican American political candidates running for office under the Raza Unida Party. He also hosted a radio program on the UH radio station along with a couple of other individuals. They felt that the station should include Mexican American music and this is what they did; they played the best of the Mexican American bands of the time.
Jaime loved to debate issues important to the Mexican American community. He had the ability to use the knowledge he learned from his parents and community in South Texas and combined it with the information he learned in his classes to form strong positions in support of the Mexican American community. He also documented an endless number of community Mexican American events through photos and video which would reveal the rich culture life of the Houston Mexican American community.
In his later days, he worked at the University of Houston, Chicano Family Center, and for the Houston Independent School District. He was a long time member of the music ministry at St. Joseph’s Church. Jaime is predeceased in death by his parents Francisco and Estela Rivera and brother Ricardo Rivera. He is survived by sisters Alicia Galindo and Elia Garza, and husband Gilbert Garza; brother Jose Francisco Rivera; daughters, Melisa and Ada Rivera; sons Ruven, and wife Isela Rivera, and Javier Rivera; grandsons R. Jaime Rivera III, Ezekiel Soto, Nathaniel Soto, Richard Rodriguez, Esai Soto, Gabriel Rivera, and Isaac Rivera; granddaughters Olivia Lopez, Alysa Cortez, and husband Michael Cortez, Leah Rodriguez,; great-grandchildren Michael Cortez, Ariah Cortez, and Mateo Cortez.
The family will receive loved ones from 2:00 PM - 7:00 PM in the Chapel of the Angels on Sunday, October 29, 2017, at Forest Park Lawndale Funeral Home located at 6900 Lawndale Street. Funeral service will be held at 10:00 AM, October 30, 2017, at St. Joseph-St. Stephen Catholic Church, located 1505 Kane St., with Father Edward Salazar, SJ officiating.
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