Zacatecas, Mexico

Venustiano Carranza was born in Coahuila in 1859. One of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution, Carranza served as president of Mexico from 1917-1920 after the current constitution was drafted. In November 1919, he moved his family into the home in Mexico City that was later converted to the Museo Casa de Carranza. Carranza was forced to flee Mexico City in 1920 after trying unsuccessfully to handpick his successor. He was assassinated in Puebla in May 1920.

Adolfo Villaseñor Norman was born in Zacatecas in 1888. He studied at the Instituto de Ciencias and the Escuela Nacional de Minería where he completed his degree in topographic and hydrographic engineering. Villaseñor served as a member of the Congreso Constituyente de Mexico in 1917. He was appointed the director of the Geografía Meteorología e Hidrología in Zacatecas in 1935. Villaseñor died in 1971.

A native of Mexico City, Jaime Torres Bodet was born in 1902. A poet, novelist, educator, and statesman, Bodet held various diplomatic and government posts, including minister of public education. He served in the cabinets of three Mexican presidents. Bodet also acted as the Director General of UNESCO from 1948-1952. Bodet committed suicide in 1974. The Ateneo Dr. Jaime Torres Bodet, A.C. was organized to honor the memory of Jaime Torres Bodet and of other distinguished Mexican intellectuals in science, philosophy, education, art, and the humanities.