Historical background         Period 1623 – 1767         Period 1859 – 1923         Year 1923         Present Day

Guadalupano Josefino College

After the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, the assets accumulated by the Society during its 144 years of history were expropriated, and a commission was created to auction them. The fate of objects such as books, furniture, and various documents, as well as the use of the buildings between the year of expulsion and 1828, remains uncertain. However, what is certain is the sale of the properties and the disappearance of more than 770 books from the library, 94 manuscripts, 45 papal bulls, jubilees, and edicts of the Holy Office, and 58 administrative records of the congregation.

After the end of the Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821), during the period known as the Federal Republic (1823–1835), the then-president Guadalupe Victoria and the governor of the state, Ildefonso Díaz de León, founded the Guadalupano Josefino College on June 2, 1826.

The main subjects taught at the college included political economy, natural and international law, constitutional public law, elementary Latin courses, advanced Latin courses, philosophy, and theology. A year after its founding, new courses were introduced, including mathematics, Spanish grammar, drawing, physics, and French. Later, additional subjects such as ethics, geography, logic, and metaphysics were added.

The first rector of this college was Dr. Manuel María Gorriño y Arduengo, from whom the University preserves an original manuscript on philosophical dissertations and an oil portrait located in the Hall of the University Council that bears his name.

The college closed its doors as a public institution in 1855 after the building and its assets were granted to the newly created Diocese of San Luis Potosí. Four years later, a new public institution of higher education was founded.