Aniceto Ortega was born in Tulancingo, Hidalgo, on 17 April 1825, the second of three sons born to Francisco Ortega and MarÍa Josefa del Villar. His father was a statesman active in the Mexican independence movement and a prominent literary figure, who wrote the patriotic verse drama México libre (Free Mexico).
Both Ancieto and his older brother, Francisco, studied medicine at the Escuela Nacional de Medicina in Mexico City.
Although he had a distinguished career as a physician and surgeon, he is also remembered today for his 1871 opera Guatimotzin, one of the earliest Mexican operas to use a native subject. There he specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology and received his degree in 1845. Ortega also had a parallel career as a musician.
His first composition the Marcha (1862), was named for the Mexican patriot and general, Ignacio, and became Mexico"s second national anthem.
He composed two other marches, and and several piano pieces, most notably, first performed in 1867. In 1866, he became one of the founders of the Sociedad Filarmónica Mexicana (Mexican Philharmonic Society) which played a crucial role in the establishment of Mexico"s National Conservatory of Music.
His opera, Guatimotzin, a romanticised account of the defense of Mexico by its last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtémoc, was one of the earliest Mexican operas to use a native subject. Guatimotzin premiered on 13 September 1871 at the Gran Teatro Nacional in Mexico City, with Ángela Peralta and Enrico Tamberlik in the leading roles.
The central plaza in Pachuca, Hidalgo, bears his name.
