Cultural Heritage
Tecnológico de Monterrey's Cultural Heritage
The Tecnológico de Monterrey guards, preserves, keeps and promotes material goods considered primary sources of documentary and art collections with historical, aesthetic or intellectual value. These objects are relevant as products of human creativity; they represent the identity and memory of our institution and of Mexico.
Documentary Heritage
The Documentary Heritage consists of collections of books, magazines and journals, pamphlets, maps, plans, images, photographic negatives, manuscripts and objects of high cultural and identity value.
Documentary collection of the first printed works in the Americas. Given its great cultural value, this collection is included in the Regional Register of the Memory of the World, awarded by UNESCO, in conjunction with the National Library of Mexico. Tecnológico de Monterrey is the institution with the greatest number of volumes of a collection of this nature in the world.
Location: Campus Monterrey
Contact: coleccionesespeciales.mty@servicios.itesm.mx
(+52) 81 8358-2000, ext. 4066
Image: Alonso de Molina, Aquí comienza un vocabulario en la lengua castellana y mexicana, 1555. G.R.G. Conway Fund. "Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra" Special Collections Library. Memory of the World Register of Latin America and the Caribbean, UNESCO, 2002. Cultural Heritage of Tecnológico de Monterrey©
Photographic archive with the work of Mario Pani Darqui (Mexico, 1911-1993), one of the most important Mexican architects of the 20th century. Mario Pani was an ardent promotor of functionalism and international style in his works, as well as of Le Corbusier’s ideas in Mexico. His legacy encompasses 136 projects in which he approached all typologies: housing, schools, public buildings, hospitals, offices, hotels, offices, commercial buildings, airports, town plans. This collection is included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register - Mexico.
Contact: coleccionesespeciales.mty@servicios.itesm.mx
(+52) 81 8358-2000, ext. 4074
Link to Institutional Repository
Image: Guillermo Zamora, Ministry of Water Resources and Office Building: Av. Reforma and Lafragua, 1946. Mario Pani Darqui Personal Archive. "Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra" Special Collections Library. Memory of the World Registry of Mexico, UNESCO, 2015. Cultural Heritage of Tecnológico de Monterrey©
A set of rare books created during the infancy of the printing press. It contains eight printed works from between 1453 and 1500, which form part of the Ugarte, Conway, Robredo and Bernal collections.
Contact: coleccionesespeciales.mty@servicios.itesm.mx
(+52) 81 8358-2000, ext. 4066
Image: Christopher Columbus, De Insulis nuper in Mari Indico repertis (Second letter from Columbus), 1494. Salvador Ugarte Fund. "Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra" Special Collections Library. Cultural Heritage of Tecnológico de Monterrey©
Collection of 32 original documents written in a diversity of Mexican languages between 1535 and 1821: Chinantec, Nahuatl, Kickapoo , Papantla Totonac, Otomi, Coahuiltecan, Pajalate, Tarasco, Cahita, Zoque, Opata, Tzotzil, Zapotec, Matlatzinga, and one in Otomi-Nahuatl.
Contact: coleccionesespeciales.mty@servicios.itesm.mx
(+52) 81 8358-2000, ext. 4066
Image: Author unknown, Prayer book in Zoque, 17th century. Salvador Ugarte Fund. "Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra" Special Collections Library. Cultural Heritage of Tecnológico de Monterrey©
Set of photographs that portray family, social, cultural and political life in Monterrey and Mexican society from the 19th to the mid-20th century. The Tecnológico de Monterrey Photographic Library houses photographs donated to the Institution since 1953, with approximately 51,500 individual pictures, including, positives, negatives, glass plate negatives and slides from the 19th century on. The most outstanding topics are family, social, cultural, religious, industrial and political life in Monterrey and Mexican society from the end of the 19th century through the mid-20th century.
Contact: coleccionesespeciales.mty@servicios.itesm.mx
(+52) 81 8358-2000, ext. 4074
Link to Institutional Repository
Image: Jesús R. Sandoval, Obrero, 1925. Sandoval-Lagrange Fund. Photolibrary of Tecnológico de Monterrey. "Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra" Special Collections Library. Cultural Heritage of Tecnológico de Monterrey©
Archive of architectural plans by Gustavo Aguilar Beltrán, renowned architect from Hermosillo, Sonora. The collection covers housing, stores, offices, gas stations, town planning works. The plans date from 1940 to 1980.
Location: Campus Sonora Norte
Contact: patrimonio_documental@servicios.itesm.mx
Image: Gustavo Aguilar Beltrán (with the collaboration of the drawing by Héctor Rivas Bringas), Draft of the Hotel Laval Cafeteria, s/f. Gustavo Aguilar Beltrán Archive. Cultural Heritage of the Tecnológico de Monterrey.©
This is one of the principal archives in Zacatecas and houses documents related to taxes, mining and the economic activities of the viceroyalty (mainly 17th and 18th centuries). For decades, this collection was kept in the Clements Library at the University of Michigan and came back to Zacatecas in 1993.
Location: Campus Zacatecas
Contact: patrimonio_documental@servicios.itesm.mx
Image: 2nd Zacatecas Lancers Corps, 1863. Historical Archive Fund of Real Caja de Zacatecas 1576-1936. Collection of the Society of Friends of Zacatecas, A.C. on loan to Tecnológico de Monterrey©. Memory of the World Registry of Mexico, UNESCO, 2021. Cultural Heritage of Tecnológico de Monterrey©
Art Heritage
The Art Heritage comprises works of art commissioned by or donated to Tecnológico de Monterrey. All visual art expressions are represented, such as paintings, sculptures, graphics, photographs, drawings, ceramics, popular art, craftwork, among others.
Most of the three-dimensional pieces are abstracts, belonging to art period in Mexico in which particular importance was placed on public spaces. There are monumental works by Jesús Mayagoitia, Sebastián, Salvador Manzano, Yvonne Domenge. The medium-sized pieces are a creation from Irma Palacios, Kyoto Ota, Juan Soriano, Josefina Temín, Ernesto Álvarez, Jorge Yazpik, Gabriel Macotela, among others. In addition, each campus’s collection often includes a sculpture of the emblem that identifies the Tec team, Borregos, usually created by Miguel Peraza and Jesús Moreno, among other artists. A total of 231 sculptures represent one of the most abundant groups of art pieces in Tecnológico de Monterrey’s art heritage.
Image: Jesús Mayagoitia, Cuatro torres, 1991. Painted steel, 45 x 50 x 35 cm. Campus Estado de México. Cultural Heritage of Tecnológico de Monterrey©
The collection includes almost 300 graphic art pieces, mostly lithographs, serigraphs, xylographs, monotypes and drypoint.
The artists whose works and careers have earned them a place in Mexico’s history of art and who are present at Tecnológico include José Guadalupe Posada, Rufino Tamayo, José Luis Cuevas, Vicente Rojo, Manuel Felguérez, Alfredo Zalce, Leonora Carrington, Carlos Mérida, Alberto Gironella, Jan Hendrix, Carmen Parra, José Castro Leñero, Boris Viskin, Santiago Rebolledo, Luis Nishizawa, Pablo O’Higgins, Vlady, among others.
Image: José Luis Cuevas, La carta, s/f. Lithography, 70 x 90 cm. Campus Estado de México. D.R© José Luis Cuevas/SOMAAP/México/2023. Cultural Heritage of Tecnológico de Monterrey©
The 100 works on paper represent an assorted group of artists, such as Arnold Belkin, Boris Viskin, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Jorge González Camarena, José Chávez Morado, José Luis Cuevas, Carla Rippey, Fernando Leal Audirac, Flor Minor, among others. Several of these pieces are drafts for murals, as is the case of the drawings of the model that appeared in several of Camarena’s murals. A particularly interesting work, given its dimensions and quality,is Coatlicue by Arnold Belkin, a drawing in wax crayons and colored pencils.
Image: David Alfaro Siqueiros, Movimiento, s/f. Lyrical drawing made with acrylic paint on paper. Campus Estado de México. D.R.© David Alfaro Siqueiros/SOMAAP/México/2023. Cultural Heritage of Tecnológico de Monterrey©
The collection includes approximately 200 photographs by authors such as Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Yolanda Andrade, Graciela Iturbide, Enrique Bostelmann, Gabriela Olmedo, Daniel Nierman, Gabriel Figueroa Flores, Ulises Castellanos are just some of the authors whose work is exhibited in the collection.
Image: Graciela Iturbide, Angelito mexicano, 1894. Gelatin silver process, 22 x 30 cm. Campus Estado de México. Cultural Heritage of Tecnológico de Monterrey©
This group of objects contains some examples of Mexico’s creative traditions, such as feather art, papel picado (tissue paper with cut-out shapes), and textiles. Of particular note is the work by popular artist Aurelio Franco, who has devoted his work to promoting the feather art technique used profusely by pre-Hispanic cultures and, inspired by the ancient codices, has created works that are rich in colors, textures and history.
Image: Aurelio Franco, Chimalli, n.d., Mosaic of natural feathers on metal, 35 cm diameter, © Tecnológico de Monterrey Cultural Heritage Collection.
Both emerging and established contemporary artists are represented, such as Carlos Orduña, Alejandra Zermeño, Violeta Islas, Miguel Ledesma, Hazael González, Hugo Lugo, Humberto Valdés, Ernesto Walker, Natalia Rodríguez, César Polack Ugarte, among others.
Image: Arnold Belkin, Two summits of America, n.d. Serigraphy, s/n, 34 x 91.5 cm. D.R.© Arnold Belkin/SOMAAP/México/2023. Cultural Heritage of Tecnológico de Monterrey.©
The total or partial reproduction of this work is prohibited by any means without previous and written consent of the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey.
Accessing and consulting the Art Heritage collections
