Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México

Ibero-American University

Universidad Iberoamericana
Motto	La verdad nos hará libres (Spanish)
Motto in English	The Truth shall set us free
Type	Private
Established	1943 (1943)
Affiliation	Roman Catholic (Jesuit)
President	David Fernández Dávalos, S.J.
Location	Mexico City, Mexico
Campus	Urban
Mascot	Lobos ("Wolves")
Website	ibero.mx

The Ibero-American University (in Spanish: Universidad Iberoamericana, abbreviated UIA but commonly known as Ibero) is one of the most prestigious universities in Mexico and in Latin America. The private institution of higher education is sponsored by the Society of Jesus, and it is recognized as having an international-grade level of excellence. In 2009, the UIA received the SEP-ANUIES Prize as the best private university in Mexico. The Ibero's flagship campus is located in the Santa Fe district of Mexico City, and other campuses are located in Guadalajara, León, Torreón, Puebla, and Playas de Tijuana.

Its main library, Biblioteca Francisco Xavier Clavigero, holds more than 400,000 books and journals and as of 2007 is one of the largest university libraries in the country.. It also has one of the largest law libraries in Mexico.

History

The university's main square

The university was founded in 1943 as a Jesuit institution by the Catholic hierarchy, but with significant aid of the rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Rodolfo Brito Foucher. Brito Foucher, a lawyer and head of UNAM's law faculty before becoming rector, was of the opinion that this was not counter to the Constitution of 1917's prohibition of Catholic involvement in education, since the article did not specify higher education but only primary and secondary. A key group in the founding of Ibero was former student activists from the Jesuit-directed Unión Nacional de Estudiantes Católicos (UNEC). The founding came at a time when church-state relations in Mexico had improved over the late 1920s during the Cristero War and the 1930s when the government attempted to implement education toward socialism in the Mexican universities.

Originally called Centro Cultural Universitario, after ten years the Ibero grew into a full-scale university due to the patronage of the business community which donated funds for building the campus and for guaranteeing loans as the university was being established. When the Mexican economy expanded during the 1940s to 1960s, Ibero-trained professionals who entered the private sector, many of the former leaders of the UNEC served on the university's board of trustees. Ibero had the aim of promoting Catholic culture and of training elites to take leading roles in Mexican society. Ibero has trained a number of successful businessmen and politicians, including the successful presidential candidate of the National Action Party (Mexico), Vicente Fox.

The Society of Jesus has from its start in the 16th century been a leader in humanistic education. When Jesuits reached New Spain in 1572, their religious and educational zeal led them to create renowned teaching and research centers – such as the colleges of St. Ildefonso, Vizcainas, and St. Peter and St. Paul, to mention a few of the prestigious institutions of that time. The Ibero is part of a network of 8 Jesuit universities located in various Mexican cities which, in turn, are part of 31 Jesuit universities and colleges in Latin American and some 200 worldwide.

Campus

Biblioteca Francisco Xavier Clavigero

Universidad Iberoamericana moved to its modern 48-acre (20 hectares) campus in 1988, in the Santa Fe area of Mexico City. Besides classrooms, laboratories, and workshops in physics, chemistry, photography, psychology, engineering, communications, architecture, design, and nutrition, the university houses the Francisco Xavier Clavigero library, the FM 90.9 radio station, and several auditoriums. Other facilities on campus include sports fields and related conveniences, a medical center, three cafeterias, an on-campus bookstore, a stationery shop, bank branches, and other university stores.

Departments

Today the university's Mexico City Campus is made up of 19 academic departments, which offer a total of 36 academic programs.

• Art Department
• Religious Sciences Department
• Social & Political Sciences Department
• Economics Department
• Philosophy Department
• History Department
• Literature Department
• Management & Public Accountancy Department  
• Architecture Department

• Communications Department
• Law Department
• Design Department
• International Studies Department
• Physics and Math Department
• Engineering Department
• Chemical Engineering & Sciences Department
• Psychology Department
• Health Department

Faculty

• Luis E. Miramontes – Chemist, inventor of the first oral contraceptive.
• Guillermo Arriaga – Screenwriter of Amores perros, Babel, 21 Grams and other films. Oscar Nominee.
• José Miguel Insulza – Chilean politician and Secretary General of the Organization of American States.
• Jorge González Torres – Founder of the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico
• Demetrio Sodi – Former congressman and senator.
• Rosario Green – Former Foreign Affairs Minister.
• Loretta Ortíz Ahlf; researcher and the only Mexican invited as a lecturer to The Hague Academy of International Law
• Augusto H. Álvarez – Architect (Torre Latinoamericana and Mexico City International Airport).
• Rodolfo Barragán Schwarz – Architect
• Isaac Broid Zajman – Architect (Telcel Building).
• Enrique Carral Icaza – Architect (Mexico City International Airport).
• Juan José Díaz Infante Núñez – Architect.
• Carlos Mijares Bracho – Architect.
• J. Francisco Serrano Cacho – Architect
• Sylvia Schmelkes – Sociologist and education researcher
• Leonardo Javier Torres Nafarrate; Sociologist researcher, specialized on Niklas Luhmann's theories
• Arturo Zaldívar Lelo de Larrea, former Justice of the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation

Alumni

Athletics

• Gerardo Torrado – Notable Mexican footballer
• El Hijo del Santo – professional wrestler

Business

• Germán Ahumada Russek – President and CEO of Consorcio ARA.
• Carlos Alazraki – President and CEO of the award-winning Alazraki & Asociados Publicidad agency.
• Joaquin Avila – Managing Partner at EMX Capital, Former Fund Head at Carlyle Group Mexico, Former Managing Director and Head of Latin America at Lehman Brothers.
• Emilio Azcárraga Jean – President and Owner of Televisa the most important media network in Latin America.
• Genaro Borrego – Vice President of FEMSA.
• Gerardo Castaneda - Vice President IT McKesson.
• Fernando Chico Pardo – President of ASUR.
• Justino Compeán Palacios – President of Femexfut.
• Jaime Costa Lavín – President of SCA Latinoamérica.
• Javier de la Calle Pardo- CEO of Nacional Monte de Piedad
• Valentín Diez Morodo – Member of the Board Grupo Modelo.
• Carlos Manuel Flores Nuñez – CEO of Grupo Editorial Nomutsa.
• Carlos González Zabalegui – President of Comercial Mexicana.
• Carlos Guzmán Bofill – CEO of Hewlett-Packard México.
• Roberto Hernández Ramírez – President of Banamex and Member of the Board of Citibank.
• Leon Kraig Eskenazi – Partner and Managing Director of IGNIA Partners L.L.C. and Former President of Mars Inc. in Latin America.
• Fernando Landeros Verdugo – CEO of Fundación Teletón.
• Marcos Martínez Gavica – CEO of Grupo Santander.
• Manuel Medina Mora Escalante – CEO of Grupo Financiero Banamex and Citi Latinamerica.
• Bruno José Newman Flores – CEO of Grupo Zimat.
• Luis Orvañanos Lascurain – president and CEO of Grupo GEO.
• Luis Peña Kegel – President and CEO of HSBC México.
• Roberto Ricossa – CMO of Avaya
• Daniel Servitje – President and CEO of Bimbo.
• Alejandro Soberón Kuri – President and CEO of CIE.
• Olegario Vázquez Aldir – CEO of Grupo Empresarial Ángeles and son of Olegario Vázquez Raña

Film

• Miguel Rico Tavera – Film screenwriter, producer and director (Padre Pro, Espiritu de Triunfo and more than 2,500 TV commercials and documentaries).
• Guillermo Arriaga – Film screenwriter, Novelist, and Director (Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel).
• Daniel Birman Ripstein – Film Producer (El Crimen del Padre Amaro, El callejón de los milagros and other films).
• Alejandro González Iñárritu – Filmmaker (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel, Birdman, and The Revenant).
• Salma Hayek – Mexican actress.
• Alejandro Lozano – Film Director (Matando Cabos).
• Arturo Ripstein – Film Director and Producer (El callejón de los milagros and Directing Principio y Fin).
• Antonio Serrano – Film director/screenwriter (Sexo, Pudor y Lágrimas).

History, philosophy, literature, art and architecture

• Graciela Abascal – Painter.
• Angélica Argüelles Kubli – Artist
• Mauricio Beuchot – Philosopher, poet and Dominican friar.
• Isaac Broid Zajman – Mexican Architect.
• Clara de Buen Richkarday – Mexican Architect.
• Pedro Friedeberg – Mexican Painter.
• David Miklos – Novelist.
• Enrique Norten – Mexican Architect.
• Aurelio Nuño Morales – Mexican Architect.
• Silvia Pardo – Painter.
• Isabel Rico De Garcia – Curator/Art Historian (Instituto Cultural De Mexico).
• Michel Rojkind – Mexican Architect and former musician of Russian descent.
• Fernando Romero – Architect.
• J. Francisco Serrano Cacho – Architect.
• Ignacio Padilla – Writer

Politics

• José Guillermo Anaya Llamas – Senator
• Diego Fernández de Cevallos – 1994 Presidential candidate and Politician
• Emilio Gamboa Patrón – Former Secretary of State and now Parliamentary Coordinator for the Partido Revolucionario Institucional.
• Vicente Fox Quesada – Former President of Mexico (2000–2006).
• Cecilia Landerreche – Director of the DIF
• Gustavo Madero Muñoz – Senator
• Juan Carlos Natale – Congressist
• Demetrio Sodi – Politician
• Josefina Vázquez Mota – 2012 Presidential candidate and Congressist

Television and mass media

• Javier Aceves (Baxter) – Radio DJ.
• Brooke Baldwin – CNN anchor.
• Rosy Ocampo – Television producer.
• Jaime Smeke Balas – Entrepreneur
• Jorge Ceballos Castelo – Pionero Social Media México.
• Erick Hernández Villar – Motion Graphics Developer.
• Héctor Aguilar Camín – Mexican writer, journalist and historian.
• Gabriela Hill – Host of Poker After Dark (Full Tilt Poker en la noche) in Spanish-speaking Latin America.
• Jorge Ramos – Journalist
• Juan Ruiz Healy – Anchorman, Television Producer, Political Columnist and Documentalist.

Science and Engineering

• Rodrigo Cárdenas Domínguez — Engineer Physicist, CEO and owner of Infinity Technologies

See also

• Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities
• List of alumni of Jesuit educational institutions
• List of universities in Mexico
• Iberoamerican University Torreón
• Western Institute of Technology and Higher Education

Bibliography

• Espinosa, David. Jesuit Student Groups, the Universidad Iberoamericana, and Political Resistance in Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press 2014.
• Meneses Morales, Ernesto. La Universidad Iberoamericana en el Contexto de la Educación Superior Contemporanea. Mexico City: UIA 1979.

External links

• Official website