Voices of Mexico no. 116

Our Voice

The shared history of Mexico and the United States, commemorated in this issue to begin the celebration of the bicentennial of diplomatic relations, has also traversed the modern history of the National University. In the early twentieth century, on the eve of another centennial, that of Mexico’s independence, Don Justo Sierra asked legal scholar Ezequiel A. Chávez to travel to the United States to observe how its universities were constituted and how they functioned. From his observations would be born the Law to Establish the National University of Mexico, today the UNAM. This is why it is no exaggeration to say that the United States was also present in the foundation of our university. From then on, and due to that country’s preeminence on the world stage, its importance for our nation because of its geographical proximity, and the intense economic, migratory, and cultural exchange between the two, our university has given the former an outstanding place among all the countries it studies and with which it has developed academic exchanges. In the sphere of research, in 1988, the University Program for Research on the United States of America was created, the direct predecessor of the Center for Resear