Pablo Gonzalez Casanova

Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura presented the 2003 José Martí International Prize to Mexican sociologist Pablo González Casanova on October 20. The event was part of the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Martí (1853-1895), the Cuban humanist, writer, translator, diplomat and teacher known as the “champion” of Cuba’s independence.

Professor and former rector of Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM), Gonzàlez Casanova is reputed for his campaign against racism, apartheid and social exclusion and in defense of the values and cultural identity of the peoples of Latin America.

He is a well-known international scholar, coordinator of the “Prospects for Latin America” project sponsored by UNAM and United Nations University, and a member of institutions such as the International Committee for Social Science Information and Documentation, the International Social Sciences Journal and the New York Academy of Sciences. He has won several prizes and has honorary doctorates from eight universities around the world.

He has published 40 books on social and political science since 1948, including the celebrated Democracy in Mexico (1965).