The story
Founded by Charles II of Spain in 1676.1
First era: Royal and Pontifical University of San Carlos Borromeo
The university tradition in Guatemala and Central America goes back to the 17th century, when the University of San Carlos was founded on 31 January 1676 by Royal Decree of Carlos II in the colonial capital of Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala. The Royal University of San Carlos became the third Royal College founded in Spanish America and it was consecrated by Pope Innocent XI on June 18, 1687.
Colonization by the Spaniards implied a new formation of society, with its brand new civil and ecclesiastical institutions. As time went by, residents demanded a place in the royal institutions for their descendants, in return for the heroics of their ancestors during the battles of conquest. However, there were no schools to teach youth to become public servants.
It was not until the second half of the 16th century that the first initiatives to found schools that covered more than religious indoctrination and reading and writing took place. The first bishop of Guatemala, Francisco Marroquín, requested the approval of the Spanish crown to set up a grammar class, in which Latin was to be taught, as it was the intellectual language of the time. This single fact has been the basis to perpetuate the myth that links bishop Marroquin to the early stages of the University of San Carlos.
Towards the end of his life, in 1562, Marroquin left in his will some funds to set up a school, the Santo Tomás de Aquino, where Grammar, Arts, Philosophy and Theology would be taught. The beneficiaries of this enterprise would be the children of poor Spaniards, given that they could not travel to cities (like Mexico) where the Royal Universities were. This will has been also interpreted by scholars as the origin of the University of San Carlos. However, the late priest had a clear idea of the difference between a school (i.e., a home for students, with or without classes) and a university (or General Study) where the students earned degrees. About this, historian John Tate Lanning wrote that "his will is so well known that there are some scholars that have not even seen it and have already read a lot of things that are not there at all. Nowhere in his will Marroquín talks about any university, much less talk about his intentions to establish one..." On the other hand, what is documented is that major Pedro Crespo Suárez left in his will twenty thousand pesos to set up the classes for the university that is "in the works with the authorities".
In 1598, the third bishop of Guatemala Gómez Fernández de Córdoba y Santillán, O.S.H., following ecclesiastical directions from the Council of Trent and on the basis of the royal decrees issued after that council, authorized the foundation of the "Nuestra Señora de la Asunción" School and Seminary, which was the first higher educational institution in the Kingdom of Guatemala. The Jesuits, who already had their Colegio de San Borja and wanted to run the seminary themselves, opposed its foundation, as they did not like other regular orders – Mercedarians, Franciscans and Dominicans or the leader of the secular clergy took an initiative in religious and educational matters.
The president of the Real Audiencia authorized that classes should start while they were awaiting the authorization to build the new school for the students; at the time they only had one classroom in the Dominican convent where, in theory, they gave the Arts, Theology and Religion classes. After several decades, discussions and petitions, king Carlos II on 31 January 1676, granted a license to the city of Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala to found a university. This would be third royal university in the Spanish Empire in America, and the second in New Spain, after the one in Mexico. After the disputatious process of organization, and five years after the royal decree, the university started officially its lectures of five of the nine classes, on 7 January 1681, with little more of sixty registered students and with its first president, Dr. José de Baños y Soto Mayor, who was in charge of the cathedral, Preacher of the King of Spain and Doctor from the University of Osuna. The university started under the protection of San Carlos Borromeo, with its first directive written by Francisco Saraza y Arce, who copied from those of the University of Mexico which, in turn, were adapted from the Universidad de Salamanca in Spain.
First graduates and science teaching
In 1660 the printer es:José de Pineda Ibarra arrived at Santiago de los Caballeros. Among all his works he introduced university graduation cards, where it was written what the final exam was going to be about, date and time for the exam, and the names of the university authorities and student sponsors.
On 11 July 1717, thirty years after its papal sanction, the first medicine student graduated; his name was Vicente Ferrer González. The next physician to graduate was Pedro Palacios y Cóbar, who presented his final exam seventeen years later; and forty-seven years after that, the eminent Dr. José Felipe Flores graduated.
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The Franciscan friar Juan Antonio Liendo y Goicoechea reformed university education towards the end of the 18th century by introducing science; Chemistry, Physics, Anatomy and Mathematics; and technology studies.
Second era: Science Academy
After Independence, the University of San Carlos lost its Royal status and became simply the "Pontifical University of San Carlos Borromeo" but it was in a precarious position: after the move from Santiago de los Caballeros it had to use a borrowed building to teach, and in 1821 its new one was not finished yet; besides, the political climate of the region was very unstable at the time. In 1825, Dr. Juan José de Aycinena y Piñol was elected as president of the university, and kept the religious curriculum that the institution had had for decades. However, in 1829, the conservative regime of his brother Mariano de Aycinena y Piñol was defeated by the liberal general Francisco Morazán, and the conservatives – mainly the Aycinena family – and the regular clergy were expelled from Central America and the university was suspended. In 1834, when doctor Mariano Gálvez was head of State of Guatemala, he found the Science Academy in the State, which took the position that the Pontifical University had previously occupied; the new university eliminated religious education altogether and implemented classes of Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry and Physics; besides, the institution began to offer studies in engineering. The Academy of Science was open until 1840, because in that year the conservatives regained power in Guatemala under the strong leadership of General Rafael Carrera who reopened the old "Pontifical University of San Carlos Borromeo"; Dr. Aycinena was once again named as president of the university.
Third era: Pontifical University
The power that the Catholic Church and the Aycinena family – to whom most of Carrera's advisors and secretaries belonged – had during the conservative regime in Guatemala was ratified the Concordat of 1854, in which Guatemala entrusted the education of its people to the regular clergy of the Catholic Church, committed itself to respect all church property -including haciendas, monasteries and sugar mills, authorized mandatory tithing and let the bishops censor all the country's publications; in return, Guatemala obtained indulgences for Army members, was allowed to keep all those properties that had been taken from the orders in 1829 – provided they were now in private hands, received a tax of the church income and had the right to prosecute any priest or bishop under Guatemalan law, if necessary. The concordat was designed by Juan José de Aycinena y Piñol, who was a cabinet member of the government – besides being the university president; then, it was first ratified by Secretary of the Interior, Justice and Ecclesiastical affairs Pedro de Aycinena and finally, approved by president Rafael Carrera, who in 1854 was appointed as Guatemala's president for life.
Fourth era: The university during the Liberal regimes
After the Liberal Revolution in 1871, the conservatives defeat resulted in a complete change of direction in the education in Guatemala: once again the regular clergy was expelled from the country, and all of their properties we confiscated. The education changed from completely religious to agnostic and kept like that until 1954.
The new Liberal regime founded the Polytechnic School -Military Academy- in 1873 to prepare military engineers, topographers and telegraphers, besides military officers. In July 1875, Justo Rufino Barrios closed the Pontifical University of San Carlos Borromeo and in its place founded the Central College of Law and the Central College of Medicine and Pharmacy which formed the National University of Guatemala. The government decreed that the teaching of Medicine had to be practical – as much as possible – and philosophical, with all the modern scientific theories. In 1877, the government found the Western College of Law in Quetzaltenango and in 1879 founded the National Library.
Finally, in 1879 president Barrios founded the Colleges of Engineering, Philosophy and Literature.
President general Manuel Lisandro Barillas Bercián (1885–1892) founded the Western College of Medicine in Quetzaltenango and granted scholarship to the best students to continue their education abroad, both from Guatemala and Quetzaltenango.
On 21 March 1893, during the government of general José María Reina Barrios, decree #193 of the National Assembly established that all the board of directors members, deans and faculty of the National University colleges would be appointed by the President of Guatemala; thus the colleges lost the autonomy to select their own authorities.
In 1897, after the failure of the Exposición Centroamericana and the deep economic crisis that ensued, Reina Barrios implemented austerity measures that included closing the schools and university colleges. At the end of that year, Salvador Mendieta came back to Guatemala to attend the university, but due to the political stability of the times after the revolts against Reina Barrios both in the Eastern and Western regions of the country once it was known that Reina Barrios had extended his presidential term, and the closing of the university, decided to move to Mexico in early 1898. However, after the assassination of president Reina Barrios on 8 February, the Guatemalan government reopened the educational institutions, claiming that they were the basis for all the Liberal institutions; Mendieta, then, registered to begin that semester in the College of Law of the National University.
Estrada Cabrera presidency
Nicaraguan citizen Salvador Mendieta, who had already been expelled once from the Central National Institute for Boys by the former president José María Reyna Barrios for attempting to form a student association aimed at criticizing the school principal, founded on 18 June 1899 along with other fellow students "El Derecho" student association. The new association had members from the colleges of Law, Engineering and Medicine and an ideology identified with the Central American union. The new society became public on 15 September 1899 when the Guatemala City mayor invited some of its members to ceremonies for the Independence of Central America celebration that took place in the College of Law.
This society had several humanistic and social goals:
gather all the Central American students around the idea of the region unity
tighten social relationships and encourage intellectual sharing
promote the formation of similar societies all across Central America
organize the fight between those who think and those who oppress.
Due to the strong accusations against his presidency, Estrada Cabrera closed "El Derecho" after only a year of its life, and they had Mendieta sent to prison after which he sent the Nicaraguan into exile for promoting rebellion against his government.
In April 1899, the National Assembly submitted Estrada Cabrera a decree declaring the autonomy of the university colleges to elect their own authorities; the president vetoed the decree indicating that "the colleges could not be autonomous given that they were dependent on the State in all senses [...]" Therefore, the different colleges remain as dependencies of the Secretary of Public Education, which submitted a yearly review of their status, and also recommended the president whom to choose as dean and faculty members. Also, by a decree published on 16 June 1900, Estrada Cabrera militarized all the male student centers, including the university colleges, who received military instruction for the six first months of their careers.
By 1907, the colleges were:
College of Law (seventy students)
College of Medicine and Pharmacy (150 students)
Dentistry institute (5 students)
School of midwives (10 students)
School of Engineering (15 students)
Note that in 1907, the school of Engineering was part of the National University. This school, due to budget reasons, was alternatively part of the National University and the military academy; finally in 1908, the school was left as part of the university for good, after president Estrada Cabrera closed the academy following a failed assassination attempt that the cadets had plotted against him.
In 1918, the servility towards the presidents was at its peak and the university was renamed "University of Guatemala, Estrada Cabrera", by decree of the National Assembly on 2 May 1918. Francisco Galvez Portocarrero, close friend of the president, lobbied heavily for the new university given that in a recent trip to Perú], Argentina and Chile, he liked the model the universities followed in those South American countries. Upon returning to Guatemala, Galvez – who was also a National Assembly representative- brought along a complete library about universities and convinced both the president and the Assembly members to create the "University of Guatemala".
Carlos Herrera presidency (1920–1921)
University "Estrada Cabrera", was closed after the falling of the former president. However, one of the first decrees of the new president Carlos Herrera y Luna -appointed president by the National Assembly on 8 April- was to appoint new authorities and faculty for the National University, which now had the following academic departments:
College of Natural Science and Pharmacy
College of Law
College of Medicine
College of engineering
Herrera y Luna, as a token of appreciation of all the efforts of the university students during the last days of Estrada Cabrera regime, gave the different colleges their autonomy to elected their own authorities, although it did not grant them full autonomy. At this time the Student Body Association was founded and included Miguel Ángel Asturias, among a series of other Guatemalan intellectuals, and the second era of "El Derecho" Law student association, which had been closed by Estrada Cabrera in 1899.
Fifth era: the university after the 1944 Revolution
After the revolution against general Ubico's successor, general Federico Ponce Vaides, on 20 October 1944, the new government granted its complete autonomy to the university; Decree #12 on 11 November 1944 granted autonomy and renamed the institution as "Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala" ("University of San Carlos of Guatemala"). The university's new role was to be director of college education in Guatemala, and to cooperated in study and solution of the critical problems that Guatemala faced at the time.
New colleges were created that time:
College of Human Studies: created by then president Dr. Juan José Arévalo on 17 September 1945. Among its founder were Dr. Eduardo García Máynez -professor emeritus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico- as honorary faculty. The college studied: Philosophy, History, Literature, Psychology and Pedagogy.
College of Agriculture
College of Architecture
College of Economics
Likewise, access was granted to both women and to all the society members that had been excluded from the institution in the past.
After 1954 coup d'état
Following its constitutional mandate, the university became involved in the political life of the country, presenting concrete social, economic and political proposals. However, with the beginning of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union -major super powers that split world dominance after their victory in World War II, the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and the influx of students from all over the social spectrum in Guatemala, Marxism became radical in the university. Besides, then archbishop of Guatemala Mariano Rossell y Arellano found out that it was urgent to recover some of the former influence Catholic Church used to have, and that it lost during the liberal regime of Justo Rufino Barrios in 1872, and therefore decided to work with the United Fruit Company to get rid of the Revolutionary governments whom he accused of atheist and communist. On 4 April 1954, Rossell y Arellano issued an open letter in which he denounced Communism advances in the country, and begged Guatemalans to rise in arms and fight against the common enemy of God and the Land. His letter has published all over Guatemala, and even though he kept claiming that the Catholic Church was not seeking privileges in its anticommunist quest, Rossel y Arellano was able that after the 1954 coup, new president colonel Carlos Castillo Armas included the following back in the new Constitution of Guatemala, for the first time since 1872:
that the Catholic Church had the right to own real estate and other properties
that religious education was declared of public interest
that the State supported religious education
that there were independent private universities not connected with University of San Carlos.
This way, the Catholic Church recover some of the former power it held before 1871, when the Liberal Reform confiscated its properties and cancelled its privileges, in a direct attack against it as the main conservative party member of the time.
Nottebohm case and the Dean of the College of Law
Between 1951 and 1955, College of Law dean, Dr. Adolfo Molina Orantes, worked as a legal advisor for the Guatemalan delegation before the International Court of Justice of The Hague for the Nottebohm case (Liechtenstein v. Guatemala) [1955]. The case about Mr. Nottebohm, who was born 16 September 16, 1881, in Hamburg, Germany and possessed German citizenship although he lived in Guatemala from 1905 until 1943 because he never became a citizen of Guatemala. On October 9, 1939, Nottebohm applied to become a naturalized citizen of Liechtenstein. The application was approved and he became a citizen of that country. He then returned to Guatemala on his Liechtenstein passport and informed the local government of his change of nationality. When he tried to return to Guatemala once again in 1943 he was refused entry as an enemy alien since the Guatemalan authorities did not recognize his naturalization and regarded him as still German. It has been suggested that the timing of the event was due to the recent entry of the United States and Guatemala into the Second World War. He was later extradited to the United States, where he was held at an internment camp until the end of the war. All his possessions in Guatemala were confiscated. After his release, he lived out the rest of his life in Liechtenstein.
From Wikipedia’s article on Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4