Casso, Ramiro Raul, 1922-

Dr. Ramiro Raul Casso, physician, educator, and civil rights advocate, was born August 4, 1922 in the Buenos Aires Colonia in Laredo, Texas. At the age of thirteen, Casso and his three brothers spent the summer months working as city garbage collectors in Freer, Texas. Living in a tent and cooking their own meals, Casso and his brothers made one dollar a day, and only went home to Laredo on Saturdays. The following year, Casso and his family moved to Houston, where Ramiro sold newspapers on street corners to help his parents put food on the table. It was during this period in his life that Casso became determined to go to college and become a "professional man."

In 1939, at the age of 17, Casso enrolled at Texas A&M University, in College Station, Texas, from which he graduated in 1943 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. Immediately following his graduation, Casso enlisted in the United States Army Reserve, where he served overseas during World War II as an Anti-Aircraft Artillery Captain. Casso was honorably discharged at the conclusion of the war in 1946, and returned to Laredo where he spent the next two years working as an engineer for the International Boundary and Water Commission. During this time, Casso met Emma Laurel and in 1949, they were married at the First Baptist Church of Laredo.

The following year, Casso took his wife and newborn baby to Waco, Texas, to attend Baylor University. Casso graduated from Baylor in 1952, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry. From there, Casso and his growing family moved to Dallas, where he began medical school at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Four years later, Casso graduated, became licensed as a Texas physician, and started an internship at the Robert B. Green Memorial Hospital in San Antonio.

In 1957, Casso opened his private family medical practice in McAllen, Texas. Casso practiced medicine in McAllen as a Board-Certified Family Physician until his retirement in 1994. During his thirty-seven years as a family physician, Casso delivered over two thousand babies and treated thousands of patients of all ages, ethnicities, and income levels. Casso devoted much of his time to treating the indigent and uninsured at his practice, and even operated a charity medical clinic for farm workers in a southwest McAllen barrio, for which he was awarded the Bishop Medeiros Golden Deeds Award in 1970.

After retiring from his medical practice, Casso was asked to serve as the first Division Director of the Allied Health Division at the newly organized South Texas Community College in McAllen. Casso was promoted in 1996 to Executive Director of Nursing and Allied Health Development, and in 1998, he assumed the position of Vice President for Institutional Advancement, where he remained until he retired in 2002.

In addition to his professional careers as physician and educator, Casso was a member of numerous organizations, promoting education and health care at both the local and state levels. As a member of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in 1948 Casso worked with civil rights advocates Gus Garcia, Dr. George I. Sanchez, and George V. Garza on negotiations with the State regarding the Delgado v. Bastrop Independent School District. The decision in the Delgado lawsuit resulted in the desegregation of Hispanic schoolchildren in Texas public schools. Casso was also a strong supporter of farm workers’ rights, participating in marches with civil rights activists such as César Chávez and Rebecca Harrington of United Farm Workers. In 1967, during the Starr County Strike, Casso examined the injured farm workers being held in the Starr County jail, posted bail for some, and transferred one severely beaten farm worker to the McAllen Hospital for treatment.

Casso served on the school board of the McAllen Independent School District from 1959-1965, was a member of the Health Planning Advisory Committee of the Lower Rio Grande Development Council, and was the first physician to be a member of the McAllen General Hospital Board of Directors. In the early 1960s, Casso supported the passing of Medicare legislation by serving as the only Texas physician on the Physicians Committee for Health Care for the Aged Through Social Security. Casso participated in two White House conferences on Health and Nutrition, was appointed by President Johnson to the National Advisory Board of Health Research Facilities of the National Institute of Health, and was selected to serve on the Texas Board of Health by Governor Dolph Briscoe in 1977. Governor Ann Richards later appointed Casso to a six-year term as Vice-Chairman of the Board in 1991. Governor Mark White appointed Casso to the Texas Human Rights Commission in 1983.

In 1981, Casso stirred up controversy in McAllen when he ran for mayor against incumbent Othal Brand. During the campaign, national attention was drawn to McAllen when videotapes spanning a six-year period of police brutality within the McAllen Police Department were released to the public. Casso raised allegations that Brand had not acted quickly enough to halt the mistreatment of prisoners, while Brand accused Casso of turning the election into "a racist matter." When the general election was too close to call, Brand alleged voter fraud, and had the ballots impounded. The Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project conducted a study of the election-fraud allegations and determined that no fraud had been committed. Casso and Brand were forced into a run-off election, which Brand won.

The McAllen Chamber of Commerce named Casso McAllen’s Man of the Year in 1996, for his work in leading the citizens’ volunteer effort for the establishment of the University of Texas Regional Academic Health Center in the Rio Grande Valley. Casso also founded in 1996 El Milagro, a clinic for the indigent and uninsured in McAllen, and has served on the Board of Directors as President. Casso has also served as an Adjunct faculty of the Texas A&M University School of Rural Public Health. In 2001, the South Texas Community College Board of Directors renamed their Nursing and Allied Health Center the Dr. Ramiro R. Casso Nursing and Allied Health Center.

From the guide to the Dr. Ramiro R. Casso Papers 2007-11., 1960-2007, (Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin)