Lopez Mateos - President of Mexico

López Mateos was born in Atizapán de Zaragoza to Mariano Gerardo López y Sánchez Roman as a dentist and Elena Mateos y Vega as a teacher. According to official records, a small town in the state of México, though at a young age his family moved to Mexico City upon his father's death. Nevertheless, there is a birth certificate and several testimonies archived at El Colegio de México that place his birth on September 10, 1909, in Patzicía, Guatemala. In 1929 he graduated from the Scientific and Literary Institute of Toluca, where he was a delegate and student leader of the Socialist Labor Party. That year, as a speaker he supported the presidential campaign of José Vasconcelos — an opposition candidate — against the presidential campaign of Pascual Ortiz Rubio. He filled a number of bureaucratic positions from then until 1941, when he met Isidro Fabela. Fabela helped him into a position as the director of the Literary Institute of Toluca after Fabela resigned the post to join the International Court of Justice. He served until 1952, when he became the Secretary of Labor under president Adolfo Ruiz Cortines. In 1958, he was elected president of Mexico, and served until 1964. Plagued with migraines during his adult life, he was diagnosed with several cerebral aneurysms, and, after several years in a coma, he died in 1969.

Area: Out of Area / Out of Area

Source: El Paso County Historical Society

Reference ID: 013-1983-142a

Uploaded by: El Paso Museum of History