Slide 1 [photo]
Slide 2
Victor Adolfo Colotla Espinosa
Mentor and Friend
Slide 3 The beginning
I began a Licentiate in Psychology in 1976, just as Victor was returning from Canada after being away for eight years.
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In my first week of classes I had to read an article published by Dr. Colotla in a scientific journal, in English.
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I was very impressed to see his name in that article. During the semester we had learned to value scientific psychology.
At that time, I did not know Victor personally, but his name was widely mentioned among the students.
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At the end of the corresponding credits (1979) I approached Victor and asked him to be my thesis supervisor.
His answer was that he did not have space to take me on because his quota of students was already full.
Since I was very motivated to do the thesis as soon as possible, I asked him to assign me tasks while a place was vacated.
He agreed to my request and I began to gather information for a project on "Biofeedback of Myopia."
Before long he formally accepted me as his student and our friendship began during our review meetings.
Later, in addition to the thesis project, he invited me to collaborate in the organization of the archive of documents he had developed on the history of psychology in Mexico.
Finally, I graduated with a thesis on the History of Psychology in Mexico.
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In 1980, he was appointed head of the Department of Psychophysiology (undergraduate and graduate levels).
It was at this time that he invited me to work with him as a Teaching Assistant.
Shortly afterwards, Victor was appointed Head of the Graduate Studies Program and in 1982 I was appointed Technical Secretary of that same program.
In addition to the usual academic administrative work, we made time to continue working on issues of history of psychology, biofeedback, and revision and translation of books for Editorial Trillas.
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Víctor's guide and work on the history of Psychology in Mexico led us to the publication of a book whose chapters are biographies of relevant characters on the subject.
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The Mexican Psychological Society was reactivated with the work of Víctor and a group of colleagues at the III Mexican Congress of Psychology.
In this group, Victor promoted the creation of the Bulletin, The Mexican Journal of Psychology, and Society’s Award of Excellence.
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He collaborated in the drafting and publication of the First Mexican Code of Ethics of the Psychologist.
And finally, he was elected president of the Mexican Psychological Society from June 1987 to December 1989.
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At the Mexican Society of Behavior Analysis, he also participated in the creation and dissemination of the journal, and the corresponding congress. In the image he appears with Dr. Florente López.
In 1990 Victor re-emigrated to Canada.
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In Canada, as his obituary points out, Victor continued a very active and productive academic, professional and personal life.
From 1990 until the time of his death we were in sporadic contact. When he visited Mexico City there was always time to meet us, talk, have a coffee and catch up.
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My last two collaborations with Victor were:
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Victor impacted my life and that of other psychologists and people who had the opportunity to meet him.
I end by quoting a fragment of a Scottish poem:
You can cry because he is gone
or you can smile because he has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that he comes back
Or you can open them and see all that he has left.