The philosopher Enrique Dussel (1934-2023), former rector and professor of the Autonomous University of Mexico City (UACM), was honored by this university within the framework of its book fair at the Del Valle campus. The event was attended by his widow, Johanna Peters Strickmann, his son Enrique Dussel Peters and his granddaughter Cristina.
The moderator, Juan Manuel Contreras Colín, an expert on the work of the academic and theologian, stated that the UACM owes its permanence to Professor Dussel: “When we were in a critical situation as an institution and we knocked on doors to see who could help us in a situation in which they gave us an ultimatum as a movement: ‘if there is not someone with a relevant academic prestige who accompanies you, the police will come in’, the only one who responded was Professor Dussel.”
José Alberto Benítez Oliva, secretary general of the UACM and student of the honoree, said that the main legacy of his teacher is “a life of observance and responsibility towards others that marked each one of us who knew him. We were not only before a powerful intellectual, owner of infinite capacities to dialogue with philosophers of the stature of Habermas and Apel, but he also showed in his own vital attitude an exemplary congruence.
When Dussel accepted the challenge of rescuing us, as Juan Manuel has just said, it left its mark on me forever. It is not just about reading and explaining, teaching is also about doing and putting all your effort into the common good.
For Abigail Sandoval, coordinator of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at UACM, Dussel was “one of the few thinkers who did not remain at the level of abstraction; his ideas were always at the service of just causes. Nor was he a thinker who was carried away by theoretical fashions. He was clear that reality is the origin of ideas and to approach it one has to be committed to it.
I knew him not only as rector and guide of the university, but fundamentally as the friend who extended his hand to hundreds of indigenous youth who wanted to appropriate the knowledge and techniques to use these tools to transform their world.
According to the researcher, a tribute to Dussel would be recover their learnings and put them into reality
so that We are thinking of bringing back their chairs to the university.
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In her speech, philosopher Silvana Rabinovich said that Enrique Dussel left an enormous teaching that deepens with time and agreed that the remembered man left an indelible mark both on the university and on his students. His interpellation has been strengthened in my memory and always accompanies me in these first searches for the promise of the word.
he noted.
On the occasion of the tribute, the UACM published Philosophy of liberation. Praxis and theoryan anthology of texts by Dussel, whose selection and introduction were in charge of Juan Manuel Contreras Colín, who highlighted the chapter Reasons
which led him to accept the responsibility of being interim rector of the UACM.
An exhibition of six votive offerings made on amate paper by Anabel Serna Montoya, originally from Aguascalientes but living in France, was also inaugurated. She came into contact with Dussel’s teachings virtually. In the paintings she recounts different episodes of the philosopher’s life and struggle.