Background
Adolfo López Mateos was born in the town of Atízapán in the state of Mexico. His father, a dentist, died when Adolfo was very young, and his mother was left to support five children on a small income.
Adolfo López Mateos was born in the town of Atízapán in the state of Mexico. His father, a dentist, died when Adolfo was very young, and his mother was left to support five children on a small income.
Young Adolfo completed his primary studies at the Colegio Francés in Mexico City on a full scholarship, and his secondary studies in Toluca. He received his law degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1934. 26 May 1910.
He described himself as “a leftist within the limits of the Constitution.”
López Mateos launched his political career in 1934 as an adviser to the National Workers Bank of Development, while employed as an attorney for the Ministry of Finance. As minister of labor during 1952-1958, he developed his public image as a friend of organized labor.
As president of Mexico during 1958-1964, López Mateos ended the costly railroad strikes of 1959 by having Demetrio Vallejo, secretary general of the Railroad Workers Union and a leader of the Communist Party, jailed on charges of sedition. In 1969, when he expropriated all foreign and domestic privately owned electric power companies, he restored his popularity among union workers. Then in 1962 he had Congress amend Article 123 of the constitution, and enact enabling legislation for the profit-sharing law, according to which a tripartite government-management-labor committee was formed in every private corporation of Mexico to determine what percentage of profits would be shared among full-time employees.
In foreign policy, López Mateos stressed verbiage and policies that seemed to make Mexico City independent of Washington, such as endorsing the early period of the Fidel Castro government in Cuba. In 1962, when the Organization of American States condemned Castro’s intervention in the domestic politics of Venezuela, Mexico alone supported Cuba. When other Latin American governments began recalling their ambassadors to Havana, López Mateos continued to praise Castro.
Thanks to understanding from Washington, López Mateos was able to take credit for transfer of the Chamizal territory in southernmost El Paso to Mexican sovereignty. The Rio Grand over the years had shifted; the United States readily admitted that fact and expedited the transfer.
As a student, he supported philosopher and educator José Vasconcelos’ unsuccessful campaign for the government party’s presidential nomination in 1929 against the hand-picked candidate of former president Plutarco Elias Calles.
