The National College ( es, Colegio Nacional, links=no) is a Mexican honorary
academy
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...
with a strictly limited membership created by
presidential decree
A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used for ...
in 1943 in order to bring together the country's foremost artists and scientists, who are periodically invited to deliver lectures and seminars in their respective area of speciality. Membership is generally a lifelong commitment, although it could be forfeited under certain conditions. It should not be confused with ''
El Colegio de México
El Colegio de México, A.C. (commonly known as Colmex, English: The College of Mexico) is a Mexican institute of higher education, specializing in teaching and research in social sciences and humanities.
The college was founded in 1940 by the ...
'', a public institution of higher education and research.
History
The college was founded on 8 April 1943. with the purpose of promoting Mexican culture and scholarship in a number of different fields. Its motto is "Libertad por saber" (Freedom through knowing) and its emblem is an eagle taking off (symbolizing freedom of thought) above a flaming sun (representing wisdom). The college's foundation decree, signed by General
Manuel Ávila Camacho
Manuel Ávila Camacho (; 24 April 1897 – 13 October 1955) was a Mexican politician and military leader who served as the President of Mexico from 1940 to 1946. Despite participating in the Mexican Revolution and achieving a high rank, he cam ...
, limited membership to twenty Mexican-born citizens, who were supposed to deliver their lectures and or seminars in its official premises at
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
. A subsequent amendment signed by President
Luis Echeverría
Luis Echeverría Álvarez (; 17 January 1922 – 8 July 2022) was a Mexican lawyer, academic, and politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who served as the 57th president of Mexico from 1970 to 1976. Previously ...
in 1971 increased the limit to forty and members were given the choice of delivering both their lectures or seminars in places other than the capital. Those aged 70 and over were released, at their discretion, from that obligation. Naturalized Mexicans can also been appointed, provided that at least ten years had passed since they acquired citizenship.
In 1995, President
Ernesto Zedillo
Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León (; born 27 December 1951) is a Mexican economist and politician. He was 61st president of Mexico from 1 December 1994 to 30 November 2000, as the last of the uninterrupted 71-year line of Mexican presidents from t ...
amended the rules so that naturalized Mexicans could be admitted to the college irrespective of the date on which they acquired citizenship.
Building
The property on which the Colegio sits used to belong to the Convent of La Enseñanza. When the convent was closed in 1863, due to the
Reform Laws
The Reform War, or War of Reform ( es, Guerra de Reforma), also known as the Three Years' War ( es, Guerra de los Tres Años), was a civil war in Mexico lasting from January 11, 1858 to January 11, 1861, fought between liberals and conservativ ...
, this site first became the Palace of Justice. Later, the property was split to house the General Notary Archives and the Colegio. The building took on its present appearance in 1871. During the presidency of
Lázaro Cárdenas
Lázaro Cárdenas del Río (; 21 May 1895 – 19 October 1970) was a Mexican army officer and politician who served as president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940.
Born in Jiquilpan, Michoacán, to a working-class family, Cárdenas joined the Me ...
, the building was used by the Unified Socialist Youth Movement.
The main access to the building is from Luis Gonzalez Obregon Street, between Rep. de Argentina and Rep. de Brazil Streets. This used to be the back entrance to the convent. The facade of the building has three levels and is covered in tezontle, a blood-red, porous, volcanic stone. The doors, windows and balconies are framed in chiluca, a greyish-white stone. The windows and balconies have ironwork railings and window guards. The main entrance leads to an entrance hall, which leads to a central patio. The ground floor of the patio is marked with
pilaster
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...
s while the upper level has columns. The main room in the building is the assembly hall, where debates take place, new members are initiated and congresses in the college's various specialities are conducted.
The building houses a collection of nine gilded altarpieces that date from the end of the 17th century, with the largest of these dedicated to the
Our Lady of the Pillar
Our Lady of the Pillar ( es, Nuestra Señora del Pilar) is the name given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the context of the traditional belief that Mary, while living in Jerusalem, supernaturally appeared to the Apostle James the Greater in AD ...
. Among the paintings on display are "The
Assumption of Mary
The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution '' Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows:
We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by ...
" and "The Virgin of the
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of ...
Apocalypse", both done by Andres Lopez in 1779.
Members
The first date is the admission date to The National College; the second is the date of death or resignation/expulsion.
Founders
*
Alfonso Reyes
Alfonso Reyes Ochoa (17 May 1889 in Monterrey, Nuevo León – 27 December 1959 in Mexico City) was a Mexican writer, philosopher and diplomat. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times and has been acclaimed as one of t ...
, writer and diplomat
*
Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...
, painter and muralist
*
José Vasconcelos
José Vasconcelos Calderón (28 February 1882 – 30 June 1959), called the "cultural " of the Mexican Revolution, was an important Mexican writer, philosopher, and politician. He is one of the most influential and controversial personalities ...
, writer and philosopher
*
José Clemente Orozco
José Clemente Orozco (November 23, 1883 – September 7, 1949) was a Mexican caricaturist and painter, who specialized in political murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Si ...
, painter and muralist
*
Enrique González Martínez
Enrique González Martínez (April 13, 1871 in Guadalajara, Jalisco – February 19, 1952 in Mexico City) was a Mexican poet, diplomat, surgeon and obstetrician. His poetry is considered to be primarily Modernist in nature, with elements of Fr ...
Antonio Caso
Antonio Caso Andrade (December 19, 1883 – March 6, 1946) was a Mexican philosopher and rector of the former ''Universidad Nacional de México'', nowadays known as the National Autonomous University of Mexico from December 1921 to August ...
Carlos Chávez
Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez (13 June 1899 – 2 August 1978) was a Mexican composer, conductor, music theorist, educator, journalist, and founder and director of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra. He was influenced by nativ ...
, composer
*
Mariano Azuela
Mariano Azuela González (January 1, 1873 – March 1, 1952) was a Mexican author and physician, best known for his fictional stories of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. He wrote novels, works for theatre and literary criticism. He is the fi ...
, novelist of the
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution ( es, Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction ...
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
cosmic ray
Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...
physicist, former mentor of
Richard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist, known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superfl ...
Alfonso Caso
Alfonso Caso y Andrade (February 1, 1896 in Mexico City – November 30, 1970 in Mexico City) was an archaeologist who made important contributions to pre-Columbian studies in his native Mexico. Caso believed that the systematic study of ancient M ...
Manuel Toussaint
Manuel may refer to:
People
* Manuel (name)
* Manuel (Fawlty Towers), a fictional character from the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers''
* Charlie Manuel, manager of the Philadelphia Phillies
* Manuel I Komnenos, emperor of the Byzantine Empire
* Manu ...
(21 January 1946; † 2 December 1946) Art history and criticism
*
Silvio Zavala
Silvio Arturo Zavala Vallado (February 7, 1909 – December 4, 2014) was a Mexican historian who was considered to be a pioneer in law history studies and Mexico’s institutions.
Biography Early life
Silvio Zavala was born on February 7, 1909 i ...
(6 January 1947) History
*
Arturo Rosenblueth
Arturo Rosenblueth Stearns (October 2, 1900 – September 20, 1970) was a Mexican researcher, physician and physiologist, who is known as one of the pioneers of cybernetics.
Biography
Rosenblueth was born in 1900 in Ciudad Guerrero, Chihuahua. ...
(6 October 1947; † 20 September 1970) Physiology
* Antonio Castro Leal (9 August 1948; † 7 January 1981) Humanities
* Jesús Silva Herzog (16 November 1948; † 13 March 1985) Economics
* Gerardo Murillo "Dr. Atl" (6 November 1950; resigned 7 May 1951) Painting
*
Daniel Cosío Villegas
Daniel Cosío Villegas (July 23, 1898 – March 10, 1976) was a Mexican prominent economist, essayist, historian, and diplomat.
Cosío Villegas was born in Mexico City. After studying one year in engineering and two years of philosophy, he receiv ...
(2 April 1951; † 10 March 1976) History
*
Samuel Ramos
Samuel Ramos Magaña, PhD (1897 – June 20, 1959), was a Mexican philosopher and writer.
Ramos was born in Zitácuaro, Michoacán, and in 1909 entered the Colegio de San Nicolás Hidalgo (Michoacán's state university). He published his f ...
(8 July 1952; † 20 June 1959) Philosophy
*
Agustín Yáñez
Agustín Yáñez Delgadillo (May 4, 1904 in Guadalajara, Jalisco – January 17, 1980 in Mexico City) was a Mexican writer and politician who served as Governor of Jalisco and Secretary of Public Education during Gustavo Díaz Ordaz's preside ...
(8 July 1952; † 17 January 1980) Literature
* Guillermo Haro (6 July 1953; † 27 April 1988) Astronomy
*
Jaime Torres Bodet
Jaime Mario Torres Bodet (17 April 1902 – 13 May 1974) was a prominent Mexican politician and writer who served in the executive cabinet of three Presidents of Mexico.
Life
Torres Bodet was born in Mexico City. His mother was Emilia Bodet ...
(6 July 1953; † 15 May 1974) Poetry and literary criticism
* Manuel Martínez Báez (7 March 1955; † 19 January 1987) Preventive medicine
* Eduardo García Máynez (4 November 1957; † 2 September 1993) Philosophy of law
*
José Adem
José Adem (27 October 1921 – 14 February 1991) was a Mexican mathematician who worked in algebraic topology, and proved the Adem relations between Steenrod squares.
Life and education
Born José Adem Chahín in Tuxpan, Veracruz, (published ...
(4 April 1960; † 14 February 1991) Mathematics
*
José Villagrán García
José Villagrán García (22 September 1901 – 10 June 1982) was a Mexican architect.
Career
He is known for having developed several theories of Modernist architecture, and for designing the master plan for the National Autonomous Unive ...
(4 April 1960; † 10 June 1982) Architecture
* Antonio Gómez Robledo (7 October 1960; † 3 October 1994) Law and philosophy
* Victor L. Urquidi (18 October 1960; resigned 1 January 1968) Economics
*
Octavio Paz
Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and ...
(1 August 1967; † 19 April 1998) Poetry and literature, recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.
*
Miguel León-Portilla
Miguel León-Portilla (22 February 1926 – 1 October 2019) was a Mexican anthropologist and historian, specializing in Aztec culture and literature of the pre-Columbian and colonial eras. Many of his works were translated to English and he was ...
(23 March 1971) Ancient Mexican history
*
Ignacio Bernal
Ignacio Bernal (February 13, 1910 in Paris - January 24, 1992 in Mexico City) was an eminent Mexican anthropologist and archaeologist.
Bernal excavated much of Monte Albán, originally starting as a student of Alfonso Caso, and later led major ar ...
(4 April 1972; † 24 January 1992) Anthropology
* Rubén Bonifaz Nuño (4 April 1972) Poetry and literature
* Antonio Carrillo Flores (4 April 1972; † 20 March 1987) Law
* Ramón de la Fuente (4 April 1972; † 31 March 2006) Psychiatrist; chaired the
National Academy of Medicine
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Eng ...
, served as vice-president of
World Psychiatric Association
The World Psychiatric Association is an international umbrella organisation of psychiatric societies.
Objectives and goals
Originally created to produce world psychiatric congresses, it has evolved to hold regional meetings, to promote profess ...
Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes Macías (; ; November 11, 1928 – May 15, 2012) was a Mexican novelist and essayist. Among his works are ''The Death of Artemio Cruz'' (1962), ''Aura'' (1962), '' Terra Nostra'' (1975), ''The Old Gringo'' (1985) and ''Christopher ...
(4 April 1972; † 15 May 2012) Novels and literature
* Alfonso García Robles (4 April 1972; † 2 September 1991) International law
* Marcos Moshinsky (4 April 1972) Theoretical physicist; winner of the
UNESCO Science Prize
The UNESCO Science Prize is a biennial scientific prize awarded by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to "a person or group of persons for an outstanding contribution they have made to the technological d ...
.
* Jesús Romo Armeria (4 April 1972; † 14 May 1977) Applied chemistry
* Emilio Rosenblueth (4 April 1972; † 11 January 1994) Seismic engineering
* Fernando Salmerón (4 April 1972) Philosophy
* Ramón Xirau (1 October 1973) Philosophy
* Julián Adem (23 October 1974) Geophysics
* Carlos Casas Campillo (23 October 1974; † 6 October 1994) Microbiology
* Héctor Fix-Zamudio (23 October 1974) Legal procedure and comparative law
* Jesús Kumate (23 October 1974) Immunology
* Jaime García Terrés (23 October 1974; † 29 April 1996) Poetry and literature
* Bernardo Sepúlveda Gutiérrez (24 October 1975; † 17 March 1985) Gastroenterology
* Leopoldo Solís (13 October 1976) Economics
* Leopoldo García-Colín (12 September 1977) Physicist; winner of the 1988 National Prize for Arts and Sciences and former chair of the Mexican Society of Physics (1972-1973).
*
Luis González y González
Luis González y González (11 October 1925 – 13 December 2003) was a Mexican historian from San José de Gracia, Michoacán, San José de Gracia, Michoacán. He was an expert on the Mexican revolution and Mexican presidentialism. He publi ...
(8 November 1978) History of Mexico
*
Luis Villoro
Luis Villoro Toranzo (3 November 1922 – 5 March 2014) was a Spanish–Mexicans, Mexican philosopher, researcher, university professor, diplomat, academic and writer. He published more than ten books between 1950 and 2007.
Villoro was bor ...
(14 November 1978) Philosophy
* Ruy Pérez Tamayo (27 November 1980) Pathology
* Salvador Elizondo (28 April 1981; † 29 March 2006) Literature and literary criticism
*
Antonio Alatorre
Antonio Alatorre Vergara (July 25, 1922 – October 21, 2010) was a Mexican writer, philologist and translator, famous due to his influential academic essays about Spanish literature, and because of his book ''Los 1001 años de la lengua espa ...
(26 June 1981) Philology
*
Guillermo Soberón Acevedo
Guillermo () is the Spanish form of the male given name William. The name is also commonly shortened to 'Guille' or, in Latin America, to nickname 'Memo'. People
*Guillermo Amor (born 1967), Spanish football manager and former player
*Guillermo Ar ...
(5 November 1981) Biochemistry and higher education
* Gustavo Cabrera (19 November 1981) demographer; winner of the 1981 National Prize for Demography.
* Marcos Mazari Menzer (11 November 1982) Nuclear physics
* Eduardo Mata (9 August 1984; † 4 January 1995) Music
* Gabriel Zaid (26 September 1984) Poetry and literature
* Beatriz de la Fuente (7 May 1985) Art history
* Adolfo Martínez Palomo (6 June 1985) Pathology and cellular biology
* José Emilio Pacheco (9 October 1986) Novels and literature
*
Rufino Tamayo
Rufino del Carmen Arellanes Tamayo (August 25, 1899 – June 24, 1991) was a Mexican painter of Zapotec heritage, born in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico.Sullivan, 170-171Ades, 357 Tamayo was active in the mid-20th century in Mexico and New York, ...
(21 May 1991; † 24 June 1991) Painting
* Pablo Rudomín (25 February 1993) Physiology
* Manuel Peimbert (24 May 1993) Astronomy
*
Eduardo Matos Moctezuma
Eduardo Matos Moctezuma (born December 11, 1940) is a Mexican archaeologist. From 1978 to 1982 he directed excavations at the Templo Mayor, the remains of a major Aztec pyramid in central Mexico City.
Matos Moctezuma graduated with a ma ...
(24 June 1993) Archaeology
* Donato Alarcón Segovia (9 November 1994) Medicine
* Vicente Rojo (16 November 1994) artist; recipient of the National Prize for Arts and Sciences.
* Francisco Bolívar Zapata (8 December 1994) Biotechnology
* Octavio Novaro (27 October 1995) theoretical physicist; winner of the 1993
UNESCO Science Prize
The UNESCO Science Prize is a biennial scientific prize awarded by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to "a person or group of persons for an outstanding contribution they have made to the technological d ...
.
* Fernando del Paso (12 February 1996) Literature
* Alejandro Rossi (22 February 1996) Philosophy
* Mario Lavista (14 October 1998) Music
* Luis Felipe Rodríguez Jorge (24 February 2000), radioastronomer, discoverer of double-sided radio jets from the galactic sources 1E1740.7-2942 and GRS 1758-258 and superluminal motion of radio knots in the galactic source
GRS 1915+105
GRS 1915+105 or V1487 Aquilae is an X-ray binary star system which features a regular star and a black hole. It was discovered on August 15, 1992 by the WATCH all-sky monitor aboard Granat. "GRS" stands for "GRANAT source", "1915" is the ...
. Winner of the 1996
Bruno Rossi Prize
The Bruno Rossi Prize is awarded annually by the High Energy Astrophysics division of the American Astronomical Society "for a significant contribution to High Energy Astrophysics, with particular emphasis on recent, original work". Named after as ...
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...
for elucidating the threat to the Earth's ozone layer by
chlorofluorocarbon
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are fully or partly halogenated hydrocarbons that contain carbon (C), hydrogen (H), chlorine (Cl), and fluorine (F), produced as volatile derivatives of methane, ethane, and pro ...
gases (CFCs).
*
Enrique Krauze
Enrique Krauze (Mexico City, September 16, 1947) is a Mexican historian, essayist, editor, and entrepreneur. He has written more than twenty books, some of which are: ''Mexico: Biography of Power'', ''Redeemers'', and ''El pueblo soy yo'' (''I a ...
(27 April 2005), historian and cultural promoter, member of the board of
Instituto Cervantes
Instituto Cervantes (the Cervantes Institute) is a worldwide nonprofit organization created by the Spanish government in 1991. It is named after Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616), the author of ''Don Quixote'' and perhaps the most important figur ...
and the Mexican Academy of History.
* Eusebio Juaristi (13 February 2006), researcher on Physical chemistry, winner of the 1998 National Prize of Arts and Sciences.
* María Elena Medina-Mora Icaza (6 April 2006), researcher at the National Institute of Psychiatry, winner of the 1986 Gerardo Varela National Prize of Public Health.
*
Diego Valadés
Diego is a Spanish masculine given name. The Portuguese equivalent is Diogo. The name also has several patronymic derivations, listed below. The etymology of Diego is disputed, with two major origin hypotheses: ''Tiago'' and ''Didacus''.
E ...
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
Leonardo López Luján
Leonardo Náuhmitl López Luján (born 31 March 1964 in Mexico City) is an archaeologist and one of the leading researchers of pre-Hispanic Central Mexican societies and the history of archaeology in Mexico. He is director of the Templo Mayor Pro ...
(15 March 2019), archaeologist and director of the Templo Mayor Project (INAH).