Remembering Dr. Ricardo Álvarez-Pimentel, 1990 - 2026
The Department of History is mourning the loss of Dr. Ricardo Álvarez-Pimentel. Dr. Álvarez, a historian of Mexico, was a beloved colleague, dedicated teacher and mentor, brilliant scholar, and active member of campus organizations (especially LFSA), community initiatives, and St. Louis Catholic Church. Dr. Álvarez taught courses ranging from HIS 1300: The United States in Global Perspective to HIS 4352: Waco’s Mexican American Experience and worked closely with several of our graduate students. His first book, Counterrevolutionary Women: Race, Gender, and Mexico’s Unfinished Religious Restoration, 1917–1946, will be published this year by University of Nebraska Press. He was especially significant as a convener of scholars in the U.S. and Mexico interested in the history of Mexico and Catholicism.
Eulogy by Dr. Felipe Hinojosa
How blessed we are to have known Dr. Ricardo Álvarez-Pimentel, to have loved him, to have shared a meal with him, studied with him, and learned from him. Everything about him was grand: his laugh, his energy, his teaching, his writing, the way he made each of us feel seen. All of us in the history department will especially miss the brief, but often extraordinary hallway or office conversations with him in Tidwell, where he shared about an archival find, an incredible book he was reading, an idea that he could not shake, or—and this was most often the case—just to simply ask you about your day and how you’re doing.
He loved his family. He loved his students. He loved this place (Baylor). And he loved the work he did every single day: teaching, writing, and serving his community. His was an incredible life. Born in Mexico City, an immigrant to the U.S. at 8 years old, first in his family to go to college in the U.S., husband, father, and the best, most generous colleague. Today, we gather as his colleagues and students, as his friends and family, with broken hearts. To the Álvarez family, Daniela, and little Ricardo, nuestro más sincero pésame; we are so grateful that you shared him with us; may God’s grace and peace hold you tight. May the hope of the Resurrection bring you comfort as we honor his brilliant mind and the beautiful family he loved.
Ricardo was a historian of Mexico—México lindo y querido—where he explored revolutions, gender, religion, and nationalism in the context of broader Latin American and hemispheric politics. He was part of a new generation of Latin American scholars that traced how U.S. political interventions and colonialism in Latin America propelled migration north to places across the U.S., but especially here to Texas. His class, “Waco’s Mexican American Experience,” made visible the place and politics of Mexican Americans in Waco. And his students—his beloved students—joined him in bringing this often overlooked history to life.
He was bright, and graceful, and full of ideas. Smart ideas. And always interested in hearing others’ ideas, and when you’d share an idea with him—about anything— you’d better get ready. He’d play with it, think about it, pop into your office to ask you more questions about it, and throw that idea back at you, in much better shape. Generosity was a way of life for Ricardo.
As historians we work, research, and publish as a way to fulfill professional requirements. This often leads to complacency, to a certain type of retreat from the world, where climbing the academic ladder means more than producing knowledge for the common good. In every way, Ricardo’s work, teaching, and service defied this complacency. His scholarship and the way he carried himself, reflected the radically democratic ideals that grounded him, and that always pushed him to ask the big picture questions; questions that move us to recognize the power and relevance of history. Ricardo believed in his craft—in his work as a historian—not simply as a vehicle for creating knowledge for its own sake, but in creating knowledge that can change the world.
God bless Dr. Ricardo Álvarez-Pimentel. Thank you for the joy you brought to the classroom every day, for the love you shared with your family and community, and for your relentless search for the truth in history. We will miss you always, Ricardo.
Dr. Álvarez loved working at Baylor, he loved the work he did as a historian, and he loved his students. We will miss him dearly, and we grieve with his wife, Daniela, and son, Ricardo.