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The National School of Economics and Public Life in Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

Roderic Ai Camp
Roderic Ai Camp*
Affiliation:
Central College, Iowa
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Scholars of developing nations recognize the importance of education in the socialization process that takes place in every culture. While some students have examined the impact of education on the masses, fewer, especially for Latin America, have examined the impact of education on the political leadership. Mexico, one of the most frequently studied countries in Latin America, has never been the subject of a study that examines its university system as an institution for both socialization and recruitment of political leaders. Nevertheless, it is an ideal country for investigation because the majority of its high-level office-holders have university degrees from a single institution, the National University of Mexico.

Type
Research Reports and Notes
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , Fall 1975 , pp. 137 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 by Latin American Research Review

Footnotes

*

The author would like to thank Professor Donald Mabry, Mississippi State University, for helpful comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this article; and to recognize the financial support provided by the American Philosophical Society.

References

Notes

1. For studies of this type see: Clark Gil, Education in a Changing Mexico (Washington: GPO, 1969): Richard G. King, The Provincial Universities of Mexico (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1971); and Victor L. Urquidi and Adrián Lajous Vargas, La educación superior en México, 1966 (México: ANUIES, 1966). Other studies have examined student political leadership in Mexico, but have not examined the interrelationship between education and politics. Two exceptions to this are Valdemar Rodríguez, “The National University of Mexico: Rebirth and Role of the Universitarios, 1910-1957,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Texas, 1958) and William Tuohy and Barry Ames, “Mexican University Students in Politics: Rebels Without Allies?” Monograph Series in World Affairs (Denver: University of Colorado, 1970).

2. See Roderic Ai Camp, Mexican Political Biography (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1975).

3. Manuel Pallares Ramírez, La Escuela Nacional de Economía, esbozo histórico 1929-1952 (Mexico, 1952), p. 178. The other three universities with programs were: The University of Guadalajara, 1934; the National Polytechnical Institute, 1938; and the Monterrey Institute of Technology, 1947.

4. These are the initial findings of a broader study that the author is completing on the relationship between the university and public life in Mexico from 1910 to 1955, which includes the National University, the National Polytechnic University, the Colegio de San Nicolas, the Free Law School, and the Institute of Arts and Sciences of Oaxaca.

5. “Mexican Governors Since Cárdenas: Education and Career Contacts,” Journal of Inter-American Studies and World Affairs, November 1974, p. 458.

6. Kenneth F. Johnson, Mexican Democracy: A Critical View (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1971), p. 76.

7. Gil, Education, p. 63.

8. E. Wight Bakke, “Students on the March: The Cases of Mexico and Colombia,” Sociology of Education, Spring 1964, p. 203.

9. At the National University, only 3 percent of the instructors were full-time. See Arthur Liebman, et. al., Latin American University Students: A Six Nation Study (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972), p. 75.

10. Bakke, “Students on the March,” p. 216 and Liebman, Latin American University Students, p. 75. Rubén Gleason Galicia pointed out to the author that three of his most influential professors from 1947 to 1952, Gilberto Loyo (who was dean at the time), Ricardo Torres Gaytán (who was mayor oficial of Industry and Commerce) and Jesús Silva Herzog (who was director of Cuadernos Americanos and president of the Technical Council for the Secretariat of National Patrimony), always had time for students, knew each of them by name, and gave them considerable personal help.

11. Liebman, Latin American University Students, pp. 80-83.

12. Universidad Nacional Autónomo de México, Escuela Nacional de Economía, Anuario, 1959 (Mexico: UNAM, 1959), p. 17.

13. Ibid., p. 18.

14. Interview with Sealtiel Alatriste, member of the 1931 generation. In support of this statement, it should be noted that the founders of the economics program included Antonio Castro Leal and Narciso Bassols, Rector of the National University and Dean of the Law School, respectively; and Daniel Cosío Villegas, Jesús Silva Herzog, Fritz (Federico) Bach, Manuel Palacios Macedo, Eduardo Villaseñor, Manuel Gómez Morin, Antonio Espinosa de los Monteros, and Manuel Mesa Andraca, professors who designed the curriculum for the program. All were public men, and all, except Espinosa de los Monteros and Cosío Villegas, who studied at Harvard University, and Bach and Villaseñor who studied at the Sorbonne and London, respectively, had degrees in law, philosophy, and engineering.

15. This was in part due to the reputations of the first professors who included Jesús Silva Herzog, founder and director of the Office of Economic Studies, National Railroads of Mexico, 1931; Mario Sousa, director of the Institute of Rural Economy, Secretariat of Agriculture in the 1930s; Miguel Othón de Mendizábal, professor and first director of the Institute for Economic Research, UNAM; and Joaquín Ramírez Cabañas, distinguished professor at the National Preparatory School.

16. Interviews with Alatriste and with Alfonso Pulido Islas, also a member of the 1931 generation.

17. For example, Alatriste already had a CPA degree; Estela San Inez, the first woman economist in Mexico, also had a degree in public accounting; Hugo Rángel Couto and Juan Torres Vivanco were lawyers. All were members of the first or second class of economists.

18. Interview with Rubén Gleason Galicia, member of the 1947 generation.

19. See Jesús Silva Herzog, Una vida en la vida de México (México: Siglo XXI Editores, 1972).

20. This process was described to the author by Rubén Gleason Galicia, who became a teaching assistant to Professor Ricardo Torres Gaytán, a prominent economist and public figure; and by Jorge Tamayo, an assistant to Mario Ramón Beteta, the current subsecretary of the Treasury.

21. Notable professors were selected on the basis of two or more votes from the students listed in the Appendix. The votes ranged from two to seven.

22. Liebman, Latin American University Students, p. 75.

23. UNAM, Anuario, 1959, pp. 124—25. Most, in fact, had written two or more articles in this particular journal, La Revista de Economía.

24. The three deans, not included among our professors, are: Alfonso Pulido Islas (1942-44); Octavio Campos y Salas (1959-64); and Gustavo Romero Kolbeck (1967-69), all of whom have held or are currently holding cabinet-level positions.

25. Liebman, Latin American University Students, p. 125.

26. Ibid., p. 40.

27. Informants told the author that the best example in the current administration of a student appointing a professor to a high-level position is that of Octavio A. Hernández, who was President Echeverría's professor at the National University.

28. It is important to note that many brilliant students or student leaders started out in public careers by serving as a private secretary to a public leader of national importance. Two of the last three presidents started public careers in this manner. A private secretary in the context of public affairs in Mexico is not a clerical position, but is similar to the United States president's appointments secretary. This position is one of the most important and least studied in Mexican affairs.

29. Interview with a public official, Mexico City.

30. In addition to predominating as teachers, public men were responsible for many of the textbooks used by students at the National Economics School in 1958. Textbooks were written by the following: Public men (15), career professors (Francisco Zamora only, 5 books), and other professors (11). The majority of books were authored by North American and European writers, and a number of texts were official government publications.

31. This may surprise some readers since the Law School is thought to be the most politically active of UNAM schools. This is probably true, but no dean since Antonio Carillo Flores in 1945 has served in a high-level public position.

32. The concentration of economic school graduates in certain federal agencies has also occurred in several states. One of the important political factions in Michoacán state politics is led by former graduates of the National School of Economics. Graduates have held the positions of federal deputy, senator, and two governorships from that state in recent years.