The National Autonomous University of Mexico is one of the few higher education institutions with international influence. According to INEGI, there are around 5,794 universities in the country, both public and private; of the total, only 10 have some representation in foreign territory. UNAM, of course, is the one that heads this list and the story of the first and oldest university representation outside of Mexico is fascinating.
The international context was decisive in this. By 1940, the intense migration of Mexicans to the southern United States had changed the social configuration of cities such as Los Angeles, Tucson and San Antonio.
This situation became more acute after the entry of the Americans into World War II, which forced the country to convert its economy into a war machine. This required the Mexican hand to replace the American one that was leaving for the war front, and so those cities acquired a Mexican atmosphere.
The conditions for them were not easy, since being in a country that was not their own, their opportunities were reduced by limited access to services such as health or education, despite the agreements signed between Mexico and the United States known as the Bracero Program in August 1942.
Faced with this, Colonel Manuel Pacheco Moreno, a graduate of the National School of Jurisprudence (now the Faculty of Law) and promoter of university autonomy, who was at the University of Texas in Austin as a fellow of the National University, noticed this situation and decided to found some courses in Spanish and Mexican culture there.
To this end, he thought of taking advantage of the presence of the Mexican historian Pablo Martínez del Río, who was there giving lectures at the university, and although he received enthusiastic support from the archaeologist, it was only with the help he found in San Antonio that he was able to carry out his educational and cultural project.
In this city and around 1943 he received help from the journalist Ignacio Lozano, director of The Press of San Antonio; of the former Maderista revolutionary Rómulo Munguía who had settled in the city since the 1910s and of the prominent Mexican historian Carlos Eduardo Castañeda who lived there.
Pacheco Moreno also asked the Mexican Consulate in San Antonio to collaborate in establishing the courses, an idea that was supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), which in turn directed the request to the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
The Summer School, now the Teaching Center for Foreigners (CEPE), was the entity in charge of providing the teachers who would go to San Antonio to teach the courses planned by Pacheco Moreno, in which, incidentally, he would participate in the teaching of these.
In mid-1944, the UNAM Summer School, with the support of the SRE through the Consulate, sent the philologist Raimundo Sánchez, the writer Francisco Monterde, the historians Manuel Toussaint and Arturo Arnáiz, and the literary critic Antonio Castro Leal as coordinators of the courses.
These were inaugurated on September 15, 1944 in the auditorium at San Antonio Main Technical and Vocational (now Fox Tech High School at 637 N Main Ave) with an audience of 200 people and in the presence of the Governor of Texas, the Mexican Consul and other distinguished guests.
Classes were held from September 15 to October 28, 1944. The subjects offered were Spanish, Mexican literature, Mexican history, social economy, art history, and international law, which were taught by Colonel Manuel Pacheco Moreno himself.
Since then, these courses have changed their names: Temporary Extension Courses of the UNAM (1944-1952), University Extension Courses (1952-1972), Permanent Extension School (1972-2006) and UNAM San Antonio from 2006 to date, accumulating eight decades of activities.
Since 1944, the current UNAM San Antonio has established itself as one of the most important academic and cultural institutions in the city. Today, it is a strategic partner of various universities and academic institutions, as well as others with a diplomatic, cultural or civil character with which it collaborates.
To celebrate its eightieth anniversary on September 12, 2024, UNAM San Antonio plans to host an exhibition entitled “Photographic and Documentary Retrospective, 80 Years of UNAM in Texas,” as well as a concert featuring musicians from the San Antonio Philharmonic and the unveiling of a commemorative plaque.
Likewise, recognition medals will be awarded to the headquarters staff for years of service and the book will be presented. UNAM San Antonio History 1944-2024, a book written by Miguel García Audelo and Paula de Gortari Pedroza, current director of the headquarters.
