Donation honors man's education priorities

David Pellerin/Caller-Times

Salvador Alvarado Jr. (left), Oralia Yaremchuk, Olga Echols and Juan Alvarado have established a donation to the Riviera Independent School District Learning Resource Center in memory of their father, Salvador Alvarado Sr.

As a young boy growing up in Mexico during the early 1900s, Salvador E. Alvarado saw the bloody toll of the Mexican Revolution and vowed then to make education a personal priority.
   Salvador may have been only a boy, but even at that age he realized that the empowerment education afforded was a far better way to transform society than through violence.
   That love of education lives on in Alvarado Sr.'s four children, who have established what they hope will be an annual donation to the Riviera Independent School District Learning Resource Center in memory of their father, who died in February.
   A recent donation of $500 will enable the Learning Resource Center to stock its shelves with 45 Spanish-language titles and two English books pertaining to the Mexican Revolution, said Josie Vela, district librarian.
   The family chose the center as recipient of the donation because all of Alvarado Sr.'s children attended school in the Riviera district.
   "Those were my dad's roots," said Alvarado's son, Juan Alvarado, 65, a retired aircraft instruments and avionics instructor.
   Alvarado Sr. was about 8 years old when his family left Mexico for Falfurrias, eventually settling in Riviera. But Alvarado Sr. never forgot what he had seen in the country of his birth, including the killing of some of his uncles.
   Although Alvarado Sr. attended school only through the eighth grade, he worked determinedly to send his children to college. Three of his children, Oralia A. Yaremchuk, Olga Echols and Salvador Alvarado Jr., became teachers.
   "Ever since I can remember, my father preached to us the importance of education," Yaremchuk said. "He wouldn't even let me work when I was attending college. He farmed during the day and took on extra jobs at night to make enough money so I wouldn't have to work and (would be able to) concentrate on my studies."
   When he wasn't farming his 106-acre ranch, Alvarado Sr. earned money working for a railroad company or building and repairing instruments for an avionics company.
   "I think this donation enables his legacy to continue in the form of these books," Vela said. "Evidently, Riviera ISD must have had a tremendous impact on his children, and this donation in memory of their father will benefit all the children of Riviera."
   The donation, made possible by South Texas Hydrocarbons Inc., which is leasing a portion of Juan Alvarado's ranch property, has allowed the family to realize a dream.
   "I wanted to find some way of showing my father respect and honoring his accomplishments," Juan Alvarado said. "By helping the Learning Resource Center buy more books, we're able to pass on what we were taught at home about education."