Adolfo López Mateos

Adolfo López Mateos (26 May 1909 – 22 September 1969) was a Mexican politician affiliated to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) who served as President of Mexico from 1958 to 1964. As President, he nationalized electric companies, created the National Commission for Free Textbooks (1959) and promoted the creation of prominent museums; such as the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.

Life

López Mateos was born in Atizapán de Zaragoza, a small town in the state of México, though at a young age his family moved to Mexico City upon his father's death. In 1929 he graduated from the Scientific and Literary Institute of Toluca, where he was a delegate and student leader of the Socialist Labor Party. That year he supported the presidential campaign of José Vasconcelos, an opposition candidateas an orator for the presidential campaign of Pascual Ortiz Rubio and filled a number of bureaucratic positions from then until 1941, when he met Isidro Fabela. Fabela helped him into a position as the director of the Literary Institute of Toluca from after Fabela resigned the post to join the International Court of Justice. He served until 1952, when he became the Secretary of Labor under president Adolfo Ruiz Cortines. In 1958, he was elected president of Mexico, and served until 1964. Plagued with migraines during his adult life, he was diagnosed with several cerebral aneurysms and, after several years in a coma, he died in 1969.

López Mateos was the first chairman of the Organization Committee of the 1968 Summer Olympics and called the meeting that led to the creation of the World Boxing Council.

References

• Biography at Mexico Connect
• Biography at Historical Text Archive
• Biography
• Camp, Roderic A. Mexican Political Biographies. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona, 1982.