Breathe
By Julia de la Fuente*
Yesterday, the Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado Library was inaugurated in the Old School of Jurisprudence of the UNAM, his alma mater. The collection of the private library of a man of readings and books was gathered in one place.
I say gathered because for the first time it is in one place. De la Madrid's private office, with books on subjects he wanted and needed to have at hand: Law, most of his father's books, Economics and Political Science. Other subjects were located in the different workplaces he worked in throughout his life.
For example, the dictionaries, encyclopedias, literature and history collections were moved to the official residence of Los Pinos.
In the library on Parras Street, the subjects related to Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Linguistics, Science and Geography were kept.
For 30 years I worked as his librarian in the Parras and Los Pinos offices. Years later, at the Fondo de Cultura Económica where Mr. De la Madrid supported the project I presented to create an unpublished library: that of a publishing house that preserves the entire publishing history of this canonical institution since its foundation, as well as the publications of its subsidiaries abroad.
I realized the historical value of this donation, since only three libraries of Presidents of Mexico are open for public consultation in the Miguel Alemán Foundation, the Fox Center, and now the library of Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado.
It is commendable the attitude of the De la Madrid family for giving the library to the UNAM; and admirable that the UNAM opens the doors of this library to students and researchers, to know our country better.
How proud to work for three decades alongside a man who loved books, who presided over a country, who directed the great publishing house of the Mexican State, and who formed an indispensable library for the Mexican memory!
*Julia de la Fuente, editor and librarian. For thirty years she worked in the private library of the president of Mexico from 1982-1988, Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado; she designed the collection of the Fondo de Cultura Económica and the large historical catalog of that institution. He founded with Sofía Urrutia the publishing project Cálamo Currente, and later de la Fuente Ediciones. He currently directs Ediciones Raya en el Agua.
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