The construction of the University City of Nuevo León (1950-1969) and its relationship with the precedents of the Tecnológico de Monterrey and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Abstract

The initial idea arose in 1941, but it wasn’t until 1950 when the Patronato (Board of Trustees) that, to a great effort, made possible the construction of the second university city of Mexico, only behind that of the National University (UNAM). Since then, and sometimes passing through humiliating situations such as the federal decree of 1952 that yielded a military ground for this purpose but under difficult conditions to accept, the process expanded in time until 1969, the year in which the last building -planed since the original project- was finished. The University City of Nuevo León closely follows the model of the UNAM, but without the same support that the central government provided to the latter. At the local level, the private sector was advanced with the Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM), whose campus began to be built in 1945, and this influenced the fact that the support of the private sector to the public university was only partial. Therefore, it was necessary to search for other ways and in this task the effort and tenacity of figures such as Raúl Rangel Frías, first Rector and then Governor, was key to build the campus. It should be clarified that in this article the background of the CUNL and its relationship with the ITESM and UNAM campuses, immediate predecessors in Mexico, are analyzed without these being the main thread of the investigation; they are considered here as obligatory reference for the understanding of the context in which the CUNL arises.