(UNISAL México, Ciudad de México) – Mexico has a demographic bonus that should be exploited to build a prosperous but more egalitarian country; open to the future but without forgetting its mestizo roots; religious and pluralistic as it has always been, but without detracting from the Catholic Christian tradition that, over time, has given it the identity, character and values that make it a great country.
However, there are many young people eligible for higher education who have no place in free public universities, and even fewer in private universities that cater exclusively to young people from wealthy and middle-class backgrounds. Young people from working-class backgrounds, i.e. those from low-income families, are the ones who, year after year, are most likely to be left without higher education.
This situation is exacerbated by two factors: global economic fluctuations that have a greater impact on the poor, and poor political decisions by the current government that have left the country in economic stagnation for seven years, with widespread violence and crime, poor quality education, unprecedented levels of corruption, and the destruction of national institutions, the autonomy of the branches of government, and constant violations of the rule of law.
In this scenario, and faced with difficulties in finding qualified personnel in the Inspectorate of “Our Lady of Guadalupe” Mr. Víctor Manuel Chávez Huitrón, a former Salesian of Don Bosco, took on the task of being RECTOR of the Salesian University (the only one in Mexico, located in the country’s capital), for the three-year period 2025-2028. The ceremony took place on 14 August 2025.
Gobierno, encabezado por el R.P. Juan Cerezo, a fin de impulsar un programa de trabajo de mediano y largo plazo, elaborado por el Lic. Chávez, sobre la Universidad Salesiana, cuyos ejes rectores son cinco:
• To recover the Salesian mystique or charism in the University, to genuinely offer our young people what is most appropriate for them, namely: “quality higher education” with a strong “Christian humanist” emphasis, in the most genuine Salesian style, which enables the formation of young professionals capable of being “good Christians and honest citizens”.
• To gradually increase student enrolment, as well as the number of degree programmes (bachelor’s degrees, specialisations and master’s degrees), within the Salesian charism deployed in new horizons.
• Improve the University’s finances and promote its growth.
• Use its research and humanistic ideological positions to stimulate public debate on issues of modern social concern in the Mexican context, offering valid references for the intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual stability of the young people served by the University, as well as the communities around it.
• To make the University a seedbed for lay collaborators of the SDB, so that the Works of the Province may grow and improve in their material, administrative, financial and social impact, to strengthen the Salesian presence in this part of the country and perhaps, in this way, contribute to the emergence of vocations to religious life, to the ministerial priesthood, and also to lay life (in its many expressions: single life, marriage and family, consecration but living in the world…), but without giving up on Don Bosco’s dream: to become saints.
Mr Chávez Huitrón, the current Rector, studied for a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy at the Salesian University in Rome, a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology at the Gregorian University in Rome, specialising in the Social Doctrine of the Church, as well as Business Administration at the Pan-American Institute of Senior Business Management in Mexico, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology at the Pontifical University of Mexico. He has held various positions and responsibilities in university settings, as well as in the formation of lay people in the Social Doctrine of the Church, for more than 30 years.
Thanks to his knowledge and experience of the Salesian charism, his closeness to the Salesians of Don Bosco in this Mexico-Mexico Province, as well as his experience and love for young people, the Salesians of Don Bosco made the decision, for the first time in more than 50 years, to appoint a faithful lay Christian, but one with a Salesian heart, as Rector
The dream he intends to realise, together with the operational team, is clear: to work for poor young people in need of higher education, applying the principles of reason, religion and love, characteristic of Don Bosco’s Preventive System, with new methods and ways of presenting Jesus Christ as the Teacher, the Saviour, the Lord of History, the way, truth and life, the only one who fills the human heart, who brings the community together, and who nourishes faith, hope and charity, following the example of Don Bosco and the great saints that the Salesian work has given us over time.
The Catholic Christian ferment, in the purest Salesian style, has a great opportunity in Mexico today, and it is hoped that this new stage of the Salesian University will achieve its goals with the favour of God, the intercession of Don Bosco and Mary Help of Christians, but without leaving out the work of the Rector and all his collaborators