Carlos Payán Velver (2 February 1929 – 17 March 2023) was a Mexican writer, journalist and politician. He was a senator from 1997 to 2000, elected by the proportional representation mechanism for the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). He was the founder of La Jornada.In 2018, the Senate awarded him its Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honour for his "unwavering defence of free expression and human rights".
Fidel Velázquez Sánchez (May 12, 1900 – June 21, 1997) was the preeminent Mexican union leader of the 20th century. In 1936 he was one of the original founders, along with Vicente Lombardo Toledano, of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), the national labor federation most closely associated with the ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He replaced Lombardo as the leader of the CTM in 1941, then expelled him from it in 1948. He led the CTM, which grew increasingly corrupt and conservative, until his death in 1997.
Ignacio Chávez Sánchez, M.D., F.A.C.P. (born 31 January 1897 in Zirándaro, Guerrero – d. 13 July 1979 in Mexico City) was a prominent Mexican educator, cardiologist, and founding member of El Colegio Nacional.
Heberto Castillo Martínez (August 23, 1928 – April 5, 1997) was a Mexican civil engineer and political activist.Castillo was born in Ixhuatlán de Madero, Veracruz, and received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the National Autonomous University. An accomplished engineer, he taught several courses at the UNAM and at the National Polytechnic Institute, wrote several textbooks and invented the tridilosa.
He became a political activist and got involved in several workers' rights struggles, leading to imprisonment by the federal government in the infamous Lecumberri Penitentiary. Castillo was one of the first among leading left-wing politicians to express dismay at the dictatorial nature of Soviet-bloc governments, starting a movement towards a social democracy-based left wing and away from a Moscow-based left leaning opposition in Mexico.
During his lifetime he co-founded three political parties: the Mexican Workers' Party (Partido Mexicano de los Trabajadores, PMT), the Mexican Socialist Party (Partido Mexicano Socialista, PMS) and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolución Democrática, PRD). In his last years in politics he became a staunch critic of the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas and, crucially, voluntarily withdrew from the presidential race in 1988 to support the unified candidacy of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas.
He died on April 5, 1997 at the age of 68, in Mexico City and received the Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor (postmortem) that same year.
Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán (January 20, 1908 in Tlacotalpan, Veracruz –1996 in Xalapa, Veracruz) was a Mexican anthropologist known for his studies of marginal populations. His work has focused on Afro-Mexican and indigenous populations. He was the director of the National Indigenous Institute and as Assistant Secretary for Popular Culture and Continuing Education he was responsible for forming government policy towards indigenous populations. For this reason he is important in the field of applied anthropology.
Jaime Sabines Gutiérrez (March 25, 1926 – March 19, 1999) was a Mexican contemporary poet. Known as “the sniper of Literature” as he formed part of a group that transformed literature into reality, he wrote ten volumes of poetry, and his work has been translated into more than twelve languages. His writings chronicle the experience of everyday people in places such as the street, hospital, and playground. Sabines was also a politician.