Jesús Gerardo Sotomayor, corresponding academician for Mexico of the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED), has donated to the Library of the institution his work “Procesos Penales en la Independencia y la Revolución” (Criminal Processes in Independence and the Revolution) (Porrúa), where he gathers ten criminal proceedings to which national heroes were subjected and various characters who were an active part of the movement of the Mexican Independence and the Mexican Revolution. Sotomayor makes in the book a rigorous emptying of the General Archive of Mexico and the Directorate of Archives and History of the Secretariat of National Defence, where the original files of the processes that he discloses are found. The fundamental purpose expressed by the academician is to be aware of what these men and women, whose processes are outlined, suffered for defending their respective causes in favour of their ideals, of which, except for three who managed to save themselves, they paid with their life your thoughts and convictions.
A graduate of the Autonomous University of Coahuila and a doctor from the Autonomous University of Northwest Mexico, Sotomayor has a long career as a lawyer, teacher and researcher. He was director of the Faculty of Law of the Autonomous University of Coahuila and established the first postgraduate studies in Law in Coahuila and Durango. After a long career as head of various courts, he is currently a magistrate of the Superior Court of Justice of the State of Coahuila. His career has earned him several recognitions, including the Centennial Medal of the RAED. He has published numerous specialized monographs in Advocacy and Criminal and Civil Law and has brought to light the details of historical judicial processes.
