With a documentary, the UAM-Cuajimalpa celebrates 20 years of difficult opening

Carolina Gomez Mena

La Jornada Newspaper
Wednesday, November 20, 2024, p. 10

To commemorate its first 20 years of existence, the Cuajimalpa unit of the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM), a documentary will be made that collects the voices and experiences of the founders, as well as students, academics and workers.

In a press conference, Octavio Mercado González, rector of the UAM-Cuajimalpa, mentioned the various vicissitudes that occurred in the birth of this unit, since in its beginnings it had to operate in classrooms provided by other universities, which gives it a particular character, which the other campuses do not have.

We are in an area where there are no public universities; We are still the only one of this type in the westand another peculiarity is that it settles in an area with very high commercial value, where each square meter has an enormous cost monetary.

The high capital gain of the place and property disputes surrounding one of the two properties donated by the capital government to the UAM are some of the reasons that complicated the start-up, he explained.

Diego Salgado Bautista, producer and director of the documentary, explained that filming begins this month and will conclude in March 2025, and will be ready for exhibition in April, when the UAM’s fourth academic unit has completed two decades of operation. It will be held in 10 locations and will be based on 50 interviews. In addition to the film, a multimedia installation will be established in Cuajimalpa.

The graduate of the school explained that This unit was planned from the beginning of our institution, but was completed 30 years later; It is one of the units that has taken the most work to create..

He recalled that those who have studied and worked at the UAM-Cuajimalpa are aware that went through all kinds of difficulties in the development of the project; To start operations it was necessary to use borrowed facilities. It started in different locations, and spaces were won and negotiated. He highlighted that 20 years after its foundation, It is a dream built with the effort and perseverance of academics, administrators and studentsas well as the authorities who believed in the project.