Pani Arteaga, Alberto J. (1878–1955)

Alberto J. Pani Arteaga (b. 12 June 1878; d. 25 August 1955), Mexican public figure and entrepreneur. He is considered to have been a critical influence on government financial policies as secretary of the treasury in the postrevolutionary era. As rector of the popular university, he contributed to expanded public education. He held the position of treasury secretary under more presidents than any other Mexican since 1920 and he was an intimate associate of President Plutarco Elías Calles, who recommended him to Congress as one of three candidates for the presidency after Pascual Ortiz Rubio resigned in 1932.

The member of a prominent family from Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, he married Esther Alba, granddaughter of President Manuel de la Peña y Peña. He is also the uncle of Mario Pani, a notable Mexican architect. Pani graduated from the National School of Engineering in 1902. In 1911, as a teacher there, he founded a student group to support Francisco I. Madero's presidential candidacy and became subsecretary of education in his administration, after which he served as director of public works for the Federal District. A supporter of Venustiano Carranza, he turned down the post of secretary of education in his cabinet but later accepted the post of secretary of industry and commerce in 1917. He also served as Carranza's minister to France (1918–1920), a position he held again from 1927 to 1931. He served as secretary of foreign relations from 1921 to 1923, and became secretary of the treasury, first under President Álvaro Obregón, (1923–1924), and again under Calles (1924–1927 and 1932–1933). He built a number of major buildings in Mexico City with his own construction firm.

See alsoCarranza, Venustiano; Mexico: Since 1910.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alberto J. Pani, Apuntes autobiográficos (1945), 2d ed. (1950).

John W. F. Dulles, Yesterday in Mexico: A Chronicle of the Revolution, 1919–1936 (1961).

Enrique Krauze, Historia de la Revolución mexicana, período 1924–1928 (1977).

Additional Bibliography

Aguirre Anaya, Carmen. Alberto Pani: evocación de un destino. Puebla, México: Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, 2004.

Aguirre, Carmen, and Alberto Carabarín Gracia, eds. Tras la huella de personajes mexicanos. Puebla, México: Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, 2002.

                                       Roderic Ai Camp