Manuel Gomez Morin

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Manuel Gómez Morín (Batopilas, Chihuahua, Mexico, February 27, 1897 – Mexico City, April 19, 1972) was a Mexican politician who founded the National Action Party and He was rector of the National University of Mexico. He was part of the famous group Los Siete Sabios de México , all members of the Conference and Concert Society, founded to promote culture in the Mexican university environment, and an important legislator on political issues. monetary.

General data

He was born in the Antiguo Mineral de Batopilas, located in the remotest part of the Sierra Tarahumara, Chihuahua, Mexico, on February 27, 1897. His father, Manuel Gómez Castillo, from Bustablado in Cantabria, died at the age of 24 when His only son was not yet one year old, and his mother, Concepción Morín del Avellano —she was the daughter of a Norman immigrant named Morin and a mother from a distinguished local family—, was a native of Parral, Chihuahua.

His mother, a widow, liquidated the small patrimony and moved to Parral around 1901. They left there for the city of Chihuahua, where they lived for a short time. Later, looking for a better place to raise their little son, they migrated to León, Guanajuato, where Manuel finished his primary studies at the Colegio del Sagrado Corazón, which he had started at the "Progreso" schools in Parral., Chihuahua, and "Palmore", from the city of Chihuahua. He attended the first years of high school at the school of & # 34; María Inmaculada & # 34;, founded by the illustrious bishop of León, Guanajuato, Emeterio Valverde y Téllez.

At the end of 1913, mother and son left for Mexico City, where he entered the National Preparatory School and finished his baccalaureate.

Studies and academic career

During the years of the Mexican Revolution, he studied law at the National School of Jurisprudence of the National University of Mexico. He was a disciple of Antonio Caso and a companion and friend of Daniel Cosío Villegas, Miguel Palacios Macedo and Vicente Lombardo Toledano. As a university student, he fought for the autonomy of his alma mater . He obtained a law degree in 1918, at the age of 21, he was the head of Political Law and Constitutional Law classes, subjects that he began to teach before graduating.

He belonged to the generation known as 1915, he founded the Conference and Concert Society with Alfonso Caso, Vicente Lombardo Toledano, Antonio Castro Leal, Jesús Moreno Baca, Teófilo Olea y Leyva and Alberto Vásquez del Mercado, a group that years later would be known under the name of the Seven Sages.

During his time at the National University, he took various courses in philosophy and letters at the National School of Advanced Studies of the same institution. Advancing subjects (school credits), he completed his professional career in four years, instead of the usual five years, and was the first of the Seven Wise Men of Mexico to graduate. He was an editorial writer for El Heraldo de México .

Professional career

He began practicing his law career two years before graduating, in the office of lawyer Miguel Alessio Robles, located in the Banco de Londres y México building; already titled, he installed his office in the same building, which he kept until his death. With the exception of the few years that he worked in the Ministry of Finance and as rector of the UNAM, he always lived from his work as a lawyer, and around 1927 he was the legal representative of the Soviet embassy in various legal matters.

Between 1925 and 1928 he was a member of the Board of Directors of Banco de México, S.A., together with the directors: Graciano Guichard, Alberto Mascareñas, Ignacio Rivero, Epigmenio Ibarra, Elías de Lima, Salvador Cancino and Carlos Zetina, with whom was in charge of the proper administration of the bank, but also of approving the loans requested by the various federal government agencies, basically used to carry out public works, although in its early years Banco de México also had functions like any commercial bank, so it accepted deposits from individuals; It even had safe deposit boxes, but it also granted loans to producer organizations such as the sugar cane or the henequen, in such a way that Gómez Morín responded that the Bank of Mexico should not proceed in this way, arguing that it was not its function., when the sugarcane growers of the El Mante region, near the Huasteca of Tamaulipas, requested a new loan. All the members of the Board of Directors responded affirmatively to the credit request, but Gómez Morín strongly opposed it, and in a fit he resigned from his position. Although several councilors showed up at his house to convince him to give up his attitude, making him see that if they did not grant that credit, it would cause a severe crisis among those sugar cane growers, Gómez Morín maintained his position, for which reason his resignation was accepted. in final form.

In 1936, he formulated the legal project for the constitution of the first holding company that was organized in Mexico, called VISA, domiciled in Monterrey.

Founder of the Central Bank (now Banco de México)

Main article: Bank of Mexico

After the Mexican Revolution, the Mexican financial and banking systems were in a situation that impeded the development of the nation in the postwar period, so it was necessary to train the personnel who would be in charge of bank administration, as well as your operation.

On March 10, 1929, Manuel Gómez Morín, head of Banco de México, founded, together with other renowned figures of the time, the Banking School of Banco de México, which provided training to bank officials. At Banco de México he was part of the General Council, from 1925 to 1929, resigning from office for opposing the Bank granting loans to sugar cane growers from El Mante, Tamaulipas, arguing that this was not the function of the Bank; the other counselors were unable to convince him that it was necessary to avoid the bankruptcy of the sugar cane growers.[citation needed] The loan was made.

The following year, distinguished professors joined the faculty, such as Miguel Palacios Macedo, the accountants Alfredo Chavero e Híjar, Julio Poulat and Alejandro Prieto Llorente.

In 1932, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit suspended the work of the school, which led Manuel Gómez Morin, together with other professors and distinguished members of society, to rescue the original project of the school, now in a private regimen.

Manuel Gómez Morín would draft the formal deed of incorporation of the Banking and Commercial School, where they began the work of oral and correspondence teaching of the institution. Gómez Morín, along with Eduardo Suárez Aránzolo, Miguel Palacios Macedo, Enrique González Aparicio, Alfonso Caso, Francisco González de la Vega, Ponciano Guerrero, Roberto Casas Alatriste, Tomás Vilchis, Alfredo Chavero e Híjar, Alejandro Prieto Llorente, Julio R. Poulat, Mario Domínguez, Rafael B. Tello, Alejandro Carrillo and Agustín Loera y Chávez.

Manuel Gómez Morín remained linked to the Banking and Commercial School for several years as a professor of banking legislation and continually attended the school to lead ceremonies and solemn acts that linked the Institution with one of its most distinguished founders.

Rector of the UNAM

After the promulgation of the Organic Law of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, he was appointed rector by acclamation on October 23, 1933. This appointment was ratified by the 1.er Autonomous University Council, in the exercise of the new prerogative granted by law.

During his tenure, he had to face an economic crisis, which he tried to overcome through his skill and financial relationships and under the motto "Austerity and Work".

He drew up the first statute to regulate university life. His explanatory statement is one of the clearest expressions of Gómez Morin's thoughts on the university itself and on the exercise of authority. It proposes that the decision-making and functioning structure of the university be a democratic figure in which the entire university community, through its bodies and with the procedures that it itself dictates, decide on all its issues, and proposes, as a necessary condition for this principle, a government structure that guarantees a permanent link of all community bodies with the community itself.

Considering the relevance of the fact for the good of the university and given the irresolvable problems with the government, Gómez Morín presented a first resignation to the University Council that, in principle, was rejected; On October 26, 1934, a license for one month was accepted, in the same session in which his favor was ratified for the granting of the doctorate Honoris Causa; at the end of that period, the University Council accepted his final resignation and appointed a new rector.

In 1944, he was called by the President of the Republic Manuel Ávila Camacho to be part of the board of former rectors and to provisionally take over the government of the university. In 1945, he was named a member of the first UNAM Governing Board.

Political career

Sepulchre of Manuel Gómez Morín, in the Rotonda de las Personas Ilustres, in the Civil Pantheon of Dolores, in Mexico City.

As a civil servant, he held the public positions of Undersecretary of Finance, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Banco de México, member of the Organization Commission of the Banco Nacional Hipotecario Urbano y de Obras Públicas (Banobras), and collaborated in the first Commission of Studies on Social Security.

He worked on the Board of Banco de México from 1925 to 1929. In 1926, he created the first Agricultural Credit Law. Mexico), insurance institutions and the organic laws of articles 27 and 28 of the Constitution, as well as various monetary laws.

On September 15, 1939, he founded the National Action Party, together with Efraín González Luna, Roberto Cossío y Cosío, Juan Landerreche Obregón, Daniel Kuribreña, Juan José Páramo Castro, Bernardo Ponce, Francisco Fernández Cueto and Carlos Ramírez Zetina, and he was its president from 1939 to 1949. His approaches at that time came mainly from his readings of José Ortega y Gasset and Henri Bergson and, to a lesser extent, from Charles Maurras and other right-wing European authors.

Death

Manuel Gómez Morín died on April 19, 1972 in Mexico City at the age of 75. His body was transferred to the Rotunda of Illustrious Persons on February 27, 2004. In his tomb, a stone sphere was placed, honored in its center, whose symmetry symbolizes the balance of the character's democratic convictions.

In November 2013, he was presented with the Belisario Domínguez post mortem medal, the highest recognition awarded by the Mexican Senate, which was received by his daughter, Margarita Gómez Morín de Romero de Terreros.

Books and essays

From among the very large collection of writings by Manuel Gómez Morín, the following titles are suggested: