To Raúl Padilla López, former rector of the University of Guadalajaraa controversial man with leadership in the entity and at a national level, he is owed the Red University, the International Book Festival, the International Film Festival and various other works.
Controversial man, who had confrontations with the President of the Republic Andrés Manuel López Obrador and with Governor Enrique Alfaro. He was the forty-third Rector – April 1, 1989-March 31, 1995.
He was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, on May 3, 1954. His parents were the lawyer and politician Raúl Padilla Gutiérrez and the teacher and writer Abigail López de Padilla. He completed his studies at the Cervantes College, at the “Licenciado José Parres Arias” Preparatory School for Workers and at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Guadalajara, earning his bachelor’s degree in history in 1977.
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He was president of the Guadalajara Student Federation, director of the Department of Academic Exchange, director of the Department of Scientific Research and Academic Improvement, and coordinator of the International Book Fair.
During his administration, a broad university reform was promoted that placed the institution at the height of its times, which meant the end of ideological dogmatism and a plural and democratic opening that privileges the academic as a fundamental factor of all university actions: the Institutional Development Plan, adaptations to the Organic Law of the University (which dated from 1952) and the validity of new legal provisions.
The work of decentralization and the integration of dependencies through the University Centers and the University Network of Jalisco became a priority. University activity was linked to production processes through agreements entered into with different companies.
On the web portal of the University of Guadalajara, he gives an account of his biography and career.
He attended elementary school at the Cervantes Colonias College from 1960 to 1965, and from 1965 to 1969 he studied high school at the Cervantes Costa Rica College.
Regarding his early years, he expressed: “It was a normal childhood, with economic scarcity, we had many limitations. I consider myself that I was a normal child, with concerns, very fond of sports and an outstanding student, if not the best, then one of the three or four best. It’s wrong for me to say it, but I was a diligent child.”
From 1970 to 1973 he completed his baccalaureate at the Licenciado José Parres Arias Preparatory School for Workers of the University of Guadalajara. He continued his professional studies at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, with a degree in History.
Cultural political activities carried out
The political-cultural activities that he carried out during his student life were: from 1973 to 1975, director of the Cine-Club de Arte; in 1973 he held the position of press and dissemination secretary of the directive committee of the Student Society of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters; in 1974 he was elected president of the Student Society of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, for the period 1974-1975, during which he promoted the magazines A and Omeyotl; in 1975 he was appointed director of press and dissemination of the campaign of the candidate for the presidency of the feg, Félix Flores Gómez; from 1975 to 1977 he was secretary of the press and diffusion of the feg, in which capacity he published the newspaper of said Federation, and the Cuadernos de Difusión Política; He was also a commentator for Radio Universidad in the program “Horizontes Críticos”.
He was also deputy director of the Jaime Torres Bodet Municipal Gallery of Art and Culture, and from 1976 he was deputy director of the Cine-Club of the University.
From 1977 to 1979 he was president of the feg; in 1977 he received his professional bachelor’s degree in history.
In 1978 he participated in the World Festival of Youth and Students, held in Havana, Cuba, and from 1978 to 1980 he was president of the Confederation of Young Mexicans.
In 1979 he was appointed director of the Department of Academic Exchange at the University of Guadalajara. He was also a professor of Sociology, World Politics, Community Development, and History of Political Ideas classes at various colleges.
In the General University Council, from 1980 to 1982 he integrated the Education Commission, and from 1983 the Finance Commission. From 1984 to 1989 he was director of the Department of Scientific Research and Academic Improvement.
In January 1987 he was appointed coordinator of the regional section of the Committee of the United Mexican States, before the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
In that same year he founded the Guadalajara fil, in collaboration with the government of the state of Jalisco; he coordinated the 1987 and 1988 editions.
He has been a member of the Jalisco Society for Research, Planning and Planning; of the Advisory Commission of the National Council for the Planning of Higher Education sep-anuies, and substitute of the board of directors of the José María Luis Mora Research Institute.
Works by Raúl Padlla
He published The Student Agent of Social Change (1977); Speech for the tenth anniversary of the assassination of Mr. Carlos Ramírez Ladewig (1985); prologue to the book Salvador Allende: a life for democracy and socialism (1988); Speech by Mr. Raúl Padilla López upon assuming the rectory of the University of Guadalajara (1989); University and modernity (1990), 200 years (1992); and the six rectory reports of him.
On March 8, 1989, he led the list of candidates for the rectory that the General University Council sent to the governor of the state of Jalisco Guillermo Cosío Vidaurri, who appointed him rector. He took office as the forty-third rector of the University of Guadalajara on April 1.
Life after the rectory
At the end of his rectoral period, he was a candidate for the candidacy for the government of the state of Jalisco. He later formed part of the San Ángel political group, and in 1997 he was a candidate for multi-member deputy for the Democratic Revolution Party. As a deputy of the lv Legislature of the Jalisco State Congress, he was coordinator of the deputies of his party, and in January 2001 he was president of the Chamber. On April 26, 2006, he became a member of the Mexican Academy of Political Sciences.
At the University of Guadalajara he continued as president of the FIL and also presides over the bodies linked to the same University, such as the Board of Directors of the Fundación Universidad de Guadalajara AC, the Board of Trustees of the Guadalajara International Film Festival, AC (ficg ) and from of 2008 the Foundation of the University of Guadalajara in the United States of America. In 1995 he attended the Cannes Film Festival, France, and from May 12, 2014 to July 2015, he was president of the Black Lions Club of the University of Guadalajara.
Other positions he holds at the University of Guadalajara are: professor-researcher at the University Center for Social Sciences and Humanities (cucsh); President of the Advisory Council of the Center for Strategic Studies of the same cucsh, President of the Board of Directors of the University Business Corporation of the University Center for Economic-Administrative Sciences (cucea), President of the Cultural Advisory Council of the University Center for Art, Architecture and Design (cuaad), president of the patron of Performing Arts, president of the Board of Directors of the Papirolas Creative Festival, coordinator of the Julio Cortázar Latin American Chair, president of the Administration Council of the University System of Radio and Television, president of the International Music Fair, president of the Spanish Book Fair of Los Angeles, California, (LéaLA); and president of the Guadalajara Mexican Film Festival in Los Angeles.
Distinctions and recognitions
The distinctions that have recognized his cultural trajectory are: in 2006 he was awarded the Cross of Saint Jordi, by the Generalitat of Catalonia; On January 16, 2008, he received recognition from the Guadalajara City Council as a cultural promoter; on June 18, 2008, he was awarded the Elías Sarquís Prize; In March 2009, the King of Spain Juan Carlos I awarded him the Isabel la Católica decoration; On March 19, 2010, he received recognition for his cultural work by the Jalisco State Congress; On June 28, 2012, the government of the French Republic decorated him as a Knight of the Legion of Honor.
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In June 2013, he was appointed patron of the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library; in September 2015 he was honored by the University Book Fair in Pachuca, Hidalgo; and in March 2016 he received the medal for educational and cultural merit from the North American Mexican Cultural Institute of Jalisco AC and the appointment of Tequila ambassador of the National Chamber of the Tequila Industry. Raúl Padilla López, former rector of the University of Guadalajara, controversial man and leader in the entity and at the national level is due to the University Network, the International Book Festival, the International Film Festival and several other works.
Note published in the western
