Día del Estudiante

Día del Estudiante

May 23

Honors all the students throughout the country. It is not a state holiday.

Students Day is celebrated in many countries throughout the world although they are likely on different dates. In Mexico Día del Estudiante has particularly important roots for education and freedom from political interference especially at the college and university level.

Palacio de la Autonomia

de UNAM in Mexico City

In 1929 students of the now National Autonomous University of Mexico, went on strike for University Autonomy. They were forced to do this because the politicians at the federal level were using education as a political football

for their own gains at the polls. There was a federal election that year and the university and education were being used to further the election of various candidates and political perspectives. The federal government had direct control over the university’s policies and curriculum.

The students who went on strike for autonomy were brutally beaten by police and one student, Martin del Campo, was killed by police bullets capital, precisely on May 23, 1929 at the law faculty.

In July 1929 President Emilio Portes Gil recognized the autonomy of education and declared May 23 National Student Day and Plaza de Santo Domingo in Mexico City was called Plaza 23 de Mayo or Plaza of the Student. The university rector, not the Secretary of Education, became the final authority for the university.