Mexico City College

     Mexico City College (MCC) was a truly unique institution where Mexico became part of the school’s classroom.  Located in and later on the outskirts of Mexico City, it offered a broad liberal arts curriculum accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).  Students and faculty from across the United States and almost three dozen countries, along with a local student body, supported by a multinational faculty, provided an educational environment of extraordinary cultural diversity that could not be matched anywhere else at the time. Twenty years after its founding, it stood on the brink of foundering when “it would be re-named as the University of the Américas, then the Universidad de las Américas followed by its move to Puebla. Fifteen years later it was divided into two distinct, separate institutions, one still in Puebla, Universidad de las Américas-Puebla (UDLAP), and one back in Mexico City,  Universidad de las Américas, A.C. [‘Asociación Civil,’ designating a nonprofit corporation],(UDLA, A.C., or just UDLA)."¹² 

     To appreciate fully the evolution of MCC into UDLAP ("one of the most prestigious private universities in Mexico" ^{Note M}), the history and the politics, requires going back to the opening days of the Second World War.