Efraín González Luna | |
|---|---|
 González Luna in 1951 | |
| National Action Party positions | |
| 1940–1951 | President of the Jalisco Regional Committee |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1898-10-18)18 October 1898 |
| Died | 10 September 1964(1964-09-10) (aged 65) Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico |
| Political party | National Action Party |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 8, includingEfraín |
| Relatives | Luis Barragán (brother-in-law) |
| Alma mater | University of Guadalajara |
Efraín González Luna (18 September 1898 – 10 September 1964) was a Mexican politician and lawyer who was one of the founders and leaders of theNational Action Party (PAN). He unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1952 presidential election, making him the party's first presidential candidate. A devoutCatholic and aChristian democrat, he played an important role in establishing the party's ideology and its connections to the Catholic Church.
Born inJalisco to a wealthy family, González Luna studied law at theUniversity of Guadalajara. He became involved in Catholic activism, and in 1939, withManuel Gómez Morín and others, he co-founded the PAN, a conservative party committed to Christian humanism and liberalism. He served as the president of party's Jalisco branch from 1940 until 1951. The party did not run presidential candidates in the elections of1940 and1946, finally making González Luna their first presidential nominee in the 1952 election. He competed againstAdolfo Ruiz Cortines of the incumbentInstitutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and two other candidates,Miguel Henríquez Guzmán andVicente Lombardo Toledano. Ruiz Cortines won in a landslide, with González Luna coming in a distant third.
Following his loss, he continued to promote the PAN's candidates in Jalisco until his death. InGuadalajara, there is a street named after him anda statue bearing his likeness. The party that he co-founded remained in opposition until rising to prominence in the 1980s and finally winning the presidencyin 2000. González Luna's son,Efraín González Morfín, was the PAN's presidential candidatein 1970.
Efraín González Luna was born on 18 October 1898 in Autlán de la Grana (nowAutlán de Navarro),Jalisco.[1][2][3][4] His parents were Mauro Heliodoro González Álvarez and María del Rosario Luna Michel.[2][3] González Luna was the fifth of eleven children. The family was one of the wealthiest in the region.[3]
González Luna conducted his elementary studies at theJesuit Colegio del Sagrado Corazón in Autlán from 1906 to 1908.[1][2][3] His secondary schooling took place at the Instituto San José from 1908 to 1911.[1] In 1911, the family moved toGuadalajara.[2][3] González Álvarez served as the mayor of the city from 1913 to 1914.[1] González Luna studied at Morelos University from 1911 to 1914.[1] From 1916 to 1920, he studied law at the Escuela Libre de Jurisprudencia at theUniversity of Guadalajara.[3][4] He received his degree on 29 October 1920.[1][3]
From 1925 to 1935, he was a professor of law at the University of Guadalajara, retiring from the position in 1935 after new administrators were appointed that he did not agree with.[3] He ran a private law practice in Guadalajara from 1920 to 1964.[1] During the presidency ofPlutarco Elías Calles, González Luna served on the National League for Religious Freedom (Spanish:Liga Nacional de la Libertad Religiosa), which sought to end the conflict between church and state known as theCristero War through armed means.[2] He joined theAsociación Católica de la Juventud Mexicana [es] (ACJM) in 1921,[4] and served as its president in the early 1930s.[1][4]
In 1939, González Luna metManuel Gómez Morín, who invited González Luna to form a new party.[3] Gómez Morín was formerly an economic policymaker.[5] At the time, the ruling party was theInstitutional Revolutionary Party (Spanish:Partido Revolucionario Institucional), or PRI. The PRI, founded in 1929 by Calles, ruled Mexicohegemonically until the end of the century.[6] The same year as their meeting, Gómez Morín and González Luna, with others, founded theNational Action Party (Spanish:Partido Acción Nacional), or PAN.[7] The PAN wasconservative,[5][8] being committed toCatholic humanism andliberalism, and representing a generation dissatisfied with the aftermath of theMexican Revolution and the "extremism" ofCardenismo,[9] theleft-wing populist policies of PresidentLázaro Cárdenas.[5][8]
On 30 October 1940, the PAN held a constituent assembly to protocolize and register the party in Jalisco. González Luna became the first[3] president of the PAN's Jalisco Regional Committee, serving from 1940 to 1951.[4] González Luna wrote the PAN's Party Doctrine.[10] He also contributed toLa Nación (transl. 'The Nation'), the PAN's official magazine.[4]
The PAN was formed shortly before the1940 elections. The party debated whether to present a presidential candidate. They ultimately did not, instead endorsing the opposition candidateJuan Andreu Almazán,[11] who lost toManuel Ávila Camacho of the incumbent PRI.[12] In 1943, the PAN ran their own candidates for the first time. They presented 21 candidates forfederal deputies, with them garnering 25,000 votes across the country.[13] González Luna was the PAN's candidate forJalisco's third electoral district.[2]
For the1946 elections, the PAN again contemplated running a presidential candidate. At the party's convention, González Luna proposedLuis Cabrera as a "unity candidate" who could appeal to more than just PAN members. Cabrera, who did not have strong support from the party, declined. The PAN then abandoned presidential ambitions for that year,[11] again endorsing an opposition candidate,Ezequiel Padilla Peñaloza.[14] The PAN did run candidates for theChamber of Deputies and theSenate. They received 51,312 votes, or 2.18% of the total vote.[11] González Luna ran for the same seat that he had sought three years earlier. This time, he attracted a larger vote, but the government did not recognize his victory.[2] The PRI'sMiguel Alemán Valdés defeated Padilla.[15]
The PAN held its tenth national convention in 1951.[2] It lasted three days and was attended by 5,000 delegates. On 20 November,[16] The delegates unanimously selected González Luna as the party's presidential candidate for the1952 election.[11] This made him the PAN's first presidential candidate.[11][17] His campaign was directed by Jaime Robles León, a fellow PAN co-founder.[18] The other candidates were the PRI'sAdolfo Ruiz Cortines,Miguel Henríquez Guzmán of theFPP, andVicente Lombardo Toledano of thePPS.[19]
From December 1951 until July 1952, González Luna toured most of the country for an intense campaign.[2] In 1951,Rodolfo Sánchez Taboada, thepresident of the PRI, staged several church visits to promote the party as friendly to Catholics.[20] This was intended to weaken conservative support for González Luna and the PAN.[21] González Luna was endorsed by theNational Synarchist Union (UNS), a small far-right party.[22][23]
González Luna received 285,555 votes,[2][24][25][26] representing 7.82% of the total vote.[11][13] Ruiz Cortines won with 2,173,419 votes,[2][25] while Henríquez came in second with 579,745 votes,[2][26] and Lombardo came in a more distant fourth, with 72,482 votes.[2][25][26] The PAN regarded the number of votes González Luna received as a show of strength.[24] He performed best inMexico City with 51,175 votes, and worst in the territory ofBaja California Sur, with 52 votes. In his home state of Jalisco, González Luna placed second with 37,250 votes. He did not get the most votes in any state or territory.[26] Meanwhile, the PAN won five deputies.[27]
In 1953, Ruiz Cortines' government passed a law granting women the right to vote in federal elections. González Luna voiced support for the law.[28]José González Torres' term as president of the PAN ended in 1962, and González Luna endorsedAdolfo Christlieb Ibarrola as his successor, who was ultimately successful.[29] In his final years, González Luna focused on directing the PAN in Jalisco, and supported the party's presidential candidates in1958 and1964.[2]
Ideologically, González Luna was aChristian democrat.[30] Political scientist Judith Gentleman described González Luna as a "militant Catholic".[31] He was convinced of the need for an explicitly Christian political party, and argued that such a group could appeal to the masses, asMexico had a large Catholic majority.[32] Although González Luna sympathized with the demands of the Catholic militants during theCristero War, he personally opposed violence, instead supporting nonviolence to protect the rights of Catholics.[2][31] González Luna being from Guadalajara helped cement the city as a stronghold for Mexico'sright-wing, also helped by the city's strong Catholic presence.[33]
González Luna married Amparo Morfín González on 12 January 1923.[3] They had eight children.[17]Efraín González Luna Morfín,[34] or simply Efraín González Morfín,[17] like his father, was a presidential candidate for the PAN, unsuccessfully runningin 1970.[34] Gómez Morín was González Morfín's godfather.[35] Through González Morfín, González Luna had four grandchildren.[17] González Morfín's son Ignacio, like his grandfather, was a PAN candidate in Jalisco in 1964 and 1967, and the president of the PAN in Jalisco from 1965 to 1967.[35]
The house that the family lived in was designed by the famous architectLuis Barragán,[3] who was González Luna's brother-in-law, being married to González Luna's wife's sister. González Luna's brother, Ramiro González Luna, was a federal deputy for PAN from 1967 to 1970, but left the party in 1968.[1]
González Luna died on 10 September 1964 in a hospital in Guadalajara, after suffering from a cerebral hemorrhage several days earlier.[3][24] He was buried in thePanteón de Mezquitán.[2] Upon learning of González Luna's death, Gómez Morín reportedly said, "What am I going to do? My brain of the [National Action] Party has died" (Spanish:¿Qué voy hacer? Se me murió el cerebro del Partido [Acción Nacional]). A street in Guadalajara is named after González Luna.[2] There isa statue of González Luna in theRotonda de los Jaliscienses Ilustres in Guadalajara, which was finished in 2006.[36]
González Luna's son Efraín González Morfín was the PAN's candidate for the 1970 presidential election. He received 13.98% of the vote,[34] the highest for the party up to that point.[17] González Morfín became president of the PAN in 1975, but resigned the position the same year, and in 1978 he resigned from the party altogether.[17][34] The party that González Luna co-founded would remain in opposition for much of the 21st century. The PAN finally began seeing larger success in the 1980s after winning several mayorships and finally governorships. They finally obtained the presidency in the2000 and2006 presidential elections, governing the country from 2000 to 2012 under PresidentsVicente Fox andFelipe Calderón. They lost the2012 presidential election, having been in opposition since.[8]
