Antonio Castro Leal

Antonio Castro Leal ( born March 2, 1896 in the state of San Luis Potosí; † January 7, 1981 in Mexico City) was a Mexican legal and literary scholar, diplomat and Rector of the Universidad Nacional de México ( UNAM), then still Universidad de México.

Biography

Castro, who belonged to the generation of 1915, graduated from the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria and habilitated after his studies in law at the Escuela Nacional de Jurisprudencia UNAM. Then followed a postgraduate course at Georgetown University in Washington DC with Ph. D. degree. He taught at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria, at the Escuela Nacional de Jurisprudencia and at the Escuela Nacional de Altos Estudios and was on 9 December 1928 at the last rector of the Universidad de México before they gained their Autonomitätsstatus what he was on 21 June 1929 this left office. In 1934 he inaugurated as director of the Department of Fine Arts in Distrito Federal de México Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. From 1949 to 1954 he lived in Paris, where he was a member of the UNESCO Executive Council until 1952 and the UNESCO ambassador. After his return from France he lived until his death in Coyoacan district of Mexico City and from 1958 a member of the Mexican Congress.

Castro has written numerous books and received in 1952 the honorary doctorate from the UNAM. Castro Leal translated Maurice Dobb's Introduction to Economics for Mexico's Fondo de Cultura Económica.