The Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara (Spanish: [uniβeɾsiˈðað awˈtonoma ðe ɣwaðalaˈxaɾa] (
listen), Autonomous University of Guadalajara), commonly abbreviated to UAG or Autónoma, is a coeducational, independent, private university based in the Mexican city of Guadalajara. Established in 1935, it was the first private university and medical school in Mexico.[6][7][8] The creation of the university was a conservative response to a more-left wing direction being taken in Mexico in public higher education at the time. It was first conceived with the name Universidad del Occidente (University of the West), but would later be styled to Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara (UAG).[9]
Established University in the Community (UNICO) was the first community college in Mexico. It also operates an elementary school, two middle schools, and three high schools and postgraduate studies. The university has become one of the most important educational institutions in Latin America,[10][11] attracting students from 25 different countries.[12][13][14]
. . . Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara . . .
After the triumph of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) the governments that followed focused on making systemic changes to promote the goals of the revolution. On July 20th 1934, general Plutarco Elias Calles, a politician, revolutionary leader and former president, pronounced the speech known as “Grito de Guadalajara”:[15]
“Eternal enemies stalk her and try to make her triumphs nugatory. It is necessary that we enter the new period of the Revolution, which I call the psychological revolutionary period; we must seize the consciences of childhood, the consciences of youth because they are and must belong to the Revolution. It is absolutely necessary to get the enemy out of that trench where the clergy are, where the conservatives are; I mean school. It would be a very serious blunder, it would be criminal for the men of the Revolution, if we did not wrest the youth from the clutches of the clergy and from the clutches of the conservatives; and unfortunately the school in many states of the republic and in the capital itself is run by clerical and reactionary elements.”
Articles 3 and 24 of the Constitution of Mexico enshrined respectively secular education and freedom of belief. [16] They seriously restricted the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Mexican education.[17] In 1934, article 3 was amended to mandate a “socialist education” in public school.[18][19][20][21]
In 1933, Marxist and traditionalist factions in the National University were in conflict to determine the ideology of the university.[22] On the conservative side, Antonio Caso, former university rector, argued under the banner of “academic freedom” that this freedom was essential to academic life and to the advancement of science and national leadership as stipulated in the Constitution of 1917.[22] While Vicente Lombardo Toledano argued for a university of Marxist orientation. [22]
The conflict culminated with the 1st Congress of Mexican Universities voting in 1933 for instituting a socialist orientation in the National University. The proponents of that model proceeded with efforts to implement it in other public universities throughout the nation, but were met with strikes in the University of Guadalajara.[23][24] That led to multiple arrests and deaths and the closure of the school.[24][25] The public university was reopened in 1935. The strikes ended when the governor of Jalisco, Everardo Topete, gave permission for the creation of the first private university in Mexico: Universidad Autonoma de Occidentes (University of the West), later renamed Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara.[25][26]
Nuñez building 28, was the first seat of the University. The founders started dividing the foundational tasks such as renting houses for schools and colleges, set curricula, organizing the team of teachers and initiate enrollment, while incorporating studies of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).[citation needed]
. . . Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara . . .