Pedro Ramírez Vázquez

Don
Pedro Ramírez Vázquez

Secretary of Human Settlements and Public Works of Mexico
In office
1976–1982
Preceded by Luis Enrique Bracamontes
Succeeded by Marcelo Javelly Girard

President of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games in Mexico 1968
Preceded by Adolfo López Mateos
Succeeded by Non

President of the Mexican Olympic Committee
In office
1972–1974
Preceded by Josué Saenz
Succeeded by Interim-Alejandro Ortega San Vicente
Mario Vázquez Raña

Honorary Life Member of the International Olympic Committee IOC
Personal details
Born
16 April 1919
Mexico City, Mexico
Died 16 April 2013 (aged 94)
Mexico City, Mexico
Nationality Mexico Mexican
Spouse(s) Olga Campuzano Fernández (1926–1999; her death)
Children Pedro
Olga
Javier
Gabriella
Residence Mexico City, Mexico
Alma mater National Autonomus University of Mexico
UNAM
Occupation Architect, designer, profesor, urbanist, official, plastic artist and politician
Profession Architect and Urbanist
Religion Roman Catholicism
Website Official website
Designed as a symbol of peace for the 1968 Olympic Games
Official poster for the Olympic Games in Mexico 68, with registration stamp copyright signed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez as the author.
Aztec Stadium, Mexico City
Televisa logo
National Museum of Anthropology and History, Mexico City
Olympic Museum in Switzerland, Laussana

Pedro Ramírez Vázquez (April 16, 1919 – April 16, 2013)[1] was a late twentieth century Mexican architect. He was born in Mexico City. He was persuaded to study architecture by writer and poet Carlos Pellicer.

Ramírez Vázquez earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from UNAM in 1943. He was responsible for the construction of some of Mexico's most emblematic buildings. He was a modern architect with influences from the European modern movement, Latin American modern architects and precolumbian cultures. Concrete is the material he used most often.

He developed a system to construct schools in rural areas, constructing thousands of schools in Mexico and abroad. The UNICEF has used such system. He was the president of the organizing committee of the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 and the World Cup in 1970. He was a pioneer in Mexico of modern graphic design, with the design of the Olympic image. He is a member of the International Olympic Committee.

He won several awards including the National Arts Award in 1973, Cemex Award in 2003 and IDSA's Special Award in 1969 for notable results, creative and innovative concepts and long-term benefits to the industrial design profession, its educational functions and society at large. He was minister of public infrastructure and human settlements during president's José López Portillo government. He was founder and rector of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana. He was part of the faculty of the UNAM and received various honorary degrees (doctor honoris causa) granted by several universities including the UNAM.

The Los Angeles Times wrote that "Ramirez Vazquez was known for stunningly original designs that blended a European modernist sensibility with pre-Columbia aesthetics."[2]

Most representative honours

Most relevant official awards

Humanism

Pedro Ramirez Vazquez focused his professional activity as a form of service that enrich the lives of the recipients with his architectural work, his dreams, or with his activity in other areas as organizer of the Olympic Games, as a public servant or person humanist conviction. In the Olympics created the advertising program for peace and identity link between the cultures of young people participating countries. He thought it was more important to leave a legacy of peace in which young people would identify the traits that unite them and that they meet not only to compete, but to appreciate how every aspect and resources of their time are likely to be applied to keep hope alive for peace; for this reason, among others, Ramírez Vázquez promoted and managed that the International Olympic Committee withdrew the invitation for the Olympic Committee of South Africa to participate in the games in solidarity with the marginalized minority of people who lived in that country. He included in the official movie game (produced by the organizing committee), the scene of the award of the 200 freestyle planes in which Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised his fist in protest, demanding greater equality for the human rights of the African American population in the United States (this against the wishes of the President of the International Olympic Committee, and the then Mexican members of that body). Also in the Olympics for the first time, Pedro Ramírez Vázquez wanted to give women an important place in the celebration of the games. The 1968 Olympics where the first in which a woman lit the Olympic fire in the stadium. Also, he managed that the then West Germany and East Germany, participated under one anthem, and under the same flag, In the context of a Cold War with radically opposing positions, Ramírez Vázquez managed to find common ground between them, and because of this, the Mexico 1968 Olympics where the only time during the period of the Cold War, that the two German Nations were united in their identity elements, which where, their official anthem and flag. He also managed that the Spanish Olympic Committee delegation participated in the games, when Mexico had no relations with the government of Francisco Franco and the Spanish Republican Government in exile, laid in Mexico City. This was able, thanks and through Ramírez Vázquez´s management with the Republican government in exile. Also, he organized the children's painting festival for children around the world to come together and express themselves through art. He organized the youth camp for the young people around the world so that they could come together with the purpose of enriching each other by understanding their traditions, so that they would know each other better than they did before. He also organized numerous events of coexistence, and cultural enrichment for the youth and human genetics program. The exhibition space of knowledge and exposure on the application of nuclear energy to the welfare of mankind, so that young people knew of the cultures of young people from other parts of the world, and achieved thus better understand each other. He organized the exhibition of popular atesanías, the world festival of folklore, international gathering of poets, meeting the international festival of arts, international meeting of sculptors, and exhibition of masterpieces of world art. It also organized a film festival whose theme was the "mission of youth". In 1968, he chaired in Mexico Pro Defense Committee of the Jewish minority in the Soviet Union. As president of the International Cultural Commission of the International Olympic Committee, he proposed in said organism, the rescue of the Olympic Truce, and also proposed to invite winners Nobel Peace Prize to the Olympic Games.

Honoris Causa

Some of his projects

Some relevant projects include:

Main achievements in design

References

  1. ↑ Redacción. «Falleció el arquitecto Pedro Ramírez Vázquez», El Universal, 16 de abril de 2013. Retrieved 2013-04-16.
  2. ↑ Los Angeles Times staff and wire reports. "Pedro Ramirez Vazquez dies at 94; architect changed the face of Mexico City." Los Angeles Times. April 18, 2013. Retrieved on April 5, 2014.
  3. ↑ Salvat, Juan and José Luis Rosas. Historia del arte mexicano, Volume 14. (Historia del arte mexicano, José Luis Rosas, ISBN 9683203914, 9789683203915). 2nd edition, 1986. p. 2085 "[...]En esta misma ciudad Jacinto Arenas proyecta las instalaciones para la Alianza Francesa, en 1978, mientras que en la ciudad de México el arquitecto Ordorica es autor de la Biblioteca para la Universidad Anáhuac y los arquitectos Ramírez Vázquez y Rosen Morrison del Liceo Mexicano- Japonés."
  4. ↑ "Fotografias de las instalaciones del Liceo." (Archive) Liceo Mexicano Japonés. Retrieved on March 5, 2014. "Diseñado por los arquitectos mexicanos Pedro Ramírez Vázquez y Manuel Rosen Morrison en 1976."

External links

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Sporting positions
Preceded by
Japan Ryokichi Minobe		 President of Organizing Committee for Summer Olympic Games
1968 		Succeeded by
West Germany Hans-Jochen Vogel