Carlos Guerra

Carlos Guerra, a former columnist for the San Antonio Express-News who began his career as a civil rights activist, grants writer and fundraiser, was found dead Monday inside a Port Aransas condominium.

After Guerra had failed to check out on time from the one-bedroom condo he had been renting on Mustang Island, a housekeeper found his body about 1 p.m. in the bedroom, said Lt. Darryl Johnson of the Port Aransas Police Department. There were no obvious signs of trauma or foul play.

He had been staying at the fourth-floor residence at the Casa Condominiums while on a fishing getaway. He had reportedly been feeling ill and had seen a doctor last week, a friend said.

His cause of death was not immediately known, and police said his body was taken to the Nueces County medical examiner's office.

Guerra, 63, who retired last year, was an outspoken advocate for increased access to higher education, environmental issues and Latino participation in government and politics. A journalist for many years, he joined the San Antonio Light in 1991 as a columnist. When the paper folded two years later, he was hired by the Express-News, and his face and prose quickly became a staple of the Metro section. His last column was published Sept. 12, 2009.

In San Antonio, news of his death quickly spread on Facebook and among his former colleagues, who remembered his spirit.

"Carlos was a pioneer - a high-profile Latino columnist when there were very, very few to be found in U.S. newspapers, someone who lacked formal journalism training but compensated with a passion for the underdog and a determination to be a voice for the voiceless," said Express-News Editor Robert Rivard, who was a senior editor at the Light, where Guerra was first hired.

"He was a fierce advocate for better education opportunities for Mexican Americans," Rivard continued, "and other underserved communities long before such system reforms became a common cause."

At the time of his death, Guerra was in the midst of reinventing himself in the public relations field, several friends said.

This fall, he was front and center at an event in which he was roasted and toasted in the name of a scholarship fund named for him, to be endowed at his alma mater, Texas A&M University-Kingsville. More than $10,000 has been raised for scholarships that will benefit first-generation South Texas college students, a cause close to him.

"One of the last messages I got from him," said friend and business associate Pancho Velasquez, "was that he went to a doc in the box and that he had some upper respiratory problems."

His last Facebook posting was Saturday, and his final commentaries on NewsTaco.com, were about the need for immigration reform and about students at the University of Texas at San Antonio on a hunger strike for the DREAM Act, which would offer illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children a path to citizenship.

A youth leader in the early days of the Chicano civil rights movement, Guerra was born in Robstown.

His father was an educator. His mother was believed to be one of the first Hispanic graduates of Texas A&I University, now A&M-Kingsville.

"We always looked at Carlos as a role model," Velasquez said. "From the days at A&I, he always had an interest in the history of Tejanos. He knew our history,"

His parents owned a Mexican restaurant in Robstown, said longtime friend and former teacher Charles Cotrell, president of St. Mary's University. Guerra learned culinary skills there as well as sign language from one of its cooks, who was deaf.

Described as an exceptional student, Guerra became involved in two key political organizations, the Mexican American Youth Organization and the Raza Unida Party.

As national chairman of MAYO, he led a delegation to the 1970 Los Angeles Moratorium Riots against the Vietnam War and the disproportionate number of Chicano soldiers put on the front lines.

"He was in the thick of it," said Mario Compean, a Raza Unida founder who now teaches citizenship to immigrants.

"There wasn't a civil rights issue in Texas that didn't get Carlos' imprint," said Velasquez, with whom he was working in a public relations venture called En Contacto Communications.

In his work for MAYO, whose leaders chartered public service organizations such as the Mexican American Unity Council, he became a grants writer and became acquainted with national foundations.

"He was a major fundraiser," said friend and artist Cesar Martinez, who worked with Guerra at the Texas Institute for Educational Development, which raised money for Hispanic-serving programs in San Antonio.

In 1972, Guerra worked on the Democratic gubernatorial campaign of Sissy Farenthold, who lost to Dolph Briscoe.

Two years later, he served as campaign manager for Ramsey Muñiz's second race for governor on the Raza Unida ticket.

It all began in college.

"He was a very outspoken leader on campus," said Compean, and he was regarded as controversial for speaking publicly about racism, segregation and housing discrimination in Kingsville and on campus.

That gained him a distinction: "He was burned in effigy."

"He was a public intellectual," Cotrell said. "He understood the urban system well and the political underpinnings of San Antonio and South Texas."

"He spoke to urban issues that effected minorities," Velasquez said, adding that Guerra also had "a story for everything. I'm going to miss him so much."

Late Monday, four cars were in the parking lot of the Casa Condominiums. Among them was Guerra's red and gray mini-wagon.

Since retiring, he often spent time on the coast, detailing on Facebook his fishing expeditions and gourmet meals he would cook from scratch.

Luke Gonzalez, 25, the night desk clerk at the condominiums, said Guerra would often share stories of his fishing excursions, sometimes going on for hours. He also would talk about his work and his writing, which he continued to do while on the coast.

Survivors include a daughter, Alexa, who lives in California. Funeral arrangements were pending.