Politécnico station

Neighbouring stations

• 5Line 5Terminus ← Politécnico → Instituto del Petróleo

The story behind the icon

The station icon is the emblem of the National Polytechnic Institute.

In 1932 the idea arose of bringing together and structuring a system of technical education, a project in which Narciso Bassols and the engineers Luis Enrique Erro and Carlos Vallejo Márquez took part. Their ideas took shape in 1936, thanks to the will of Juan de Dios Bátiz, then senator of the Republic, and of General Lázaro Cárdenas del Río, constitutional president of the United Mexican States, who set out to carry through the educational aims of the Mexican Revolution; thus giving birth to a solid house of study: the National Polytechnic Institute.

The Polytechnic brought together schools that had existed since the nineteenth century, such as the National School of Homeopathic Medicine, the National School of Biological Sciences (today the ENCB), the Higher School of Commerce and Administration (ESCA), the Higher School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (ESIME) and the Higher School of Construction, among others. The buildings meant to house it were raised on the grounds of the former hacienda of Santo Tomás; these lands had been donated years earlier by General Álvaro Obregón to the engineer Wilfrido Massieu Pérez in order to found the Technical School for Railway Workers, which never came into operation.

For the start of its courses, the Technical Preparatory School was divided into two levels: pre-vocational and vocational, with only one higher level. In 1940, by presidential decree, graduates holding an IPN degree were authorised to practise their specific professions.