LA FACULTAD DE INGENIERIA CIVIL
THE SCHOOL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
The School of Civil Engineering (FIC) was created on October 16, 1933 by the first rector of the UANL, Dr. Pedro de Alba.
The founding professors were the engineers Manuel Martínez Carranza, Pablo Domínguez, Ernesto García Oritz, Lidio A. Torres, Lauro Martínez Carranza, Salvador Cárdenas, and Porfirio Treviño Arreola, the latter named as the first Dean of the FIC.
Among the first generation of civil engineers are José Maiz Mier, Gregorio Salazar, Carlos Curiel, Hermenegildo Veliz, Constantino Cisneros, and Jorge Laurenz.
The FIC began in the north wing of the building of the actual building known as Colegio Civil University Cultural Center, on the corner of Colegio Civil and Washington streets, remaining in that location until 1960, moving to its current location on the eastern side of the University Campus City, adjacent to the Schools of Chemical Sciences, and Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, in front of the University Stadium.
OUR SHIELD
Our shield is framed with the name of the institution engraved in an equilateral triangle, arranged like a square or a compass arrow pointing north. This square crosses through its upper part a graduated halo, also recognized in various measuring instruments used in this profession. In turn, within this shield all disciplines of civil engineering are recognized in a few representative elements:
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In the foreground is the transit or theodolite, an essential instrument in topographic measurements; On the shield is the classic theodolite, with the objective protruding and surpassing the triangular frame that identifies us.
In the background is a landscape of symbolic references; the basin of a river representing the hydraulic area, making its way into a natural space on which it will be built, in reference to the areas of soils and geotechnics and encompassing the entire context by environmental engineering.
A bridge rises over the river, an unequivocal structural element by excellence that is also a reference for land roads and traffic engineering for the vehicles that circulate on it.
In the background, concrete buildings rise, thus completing a conceptual line that uses all engineering as a process that man applies for the benefit of himself. This line runs through nature in its intact state, which is touched by man’s applied knowledge until it becomes a different, transformed and improved space, which is offered to humanity as a suitable habitat for the human species.
EL MURAL
In 1962 the School mural was completed. This is a concave frieze titled “Nezahualcóyotl and water.”
The name “Nezahualcóyotl” is of Nahuatl origin, in honor of the Tlatoani (Great Lord) of Texcoco; The word is derived from the Nahuatl voices “Ne”, a pronoun that indicates the action in the first person; “Zahualli”, fasting, and “Coyotl”, coyote, which together means: “Coyote on Fast”. He was the greatest poet of his time; He mastered the Nahuatl language with brilliance and perfection, at the same time he was a philosopher, that is, a deep thinker on essential and universal topics, such as life, death, time and space. Enacts a series of civil and criminal laws; He founded several schools for the study of astronomy, language, medicine, painting and history. He reconstructed the city, dividing it into neighborhoods that had their own industry, thereby improving the economy of its inhabitants. He built an aqueduct with a length of 16 kilometers to supply drinking water to Tenochtitlan and created gardens in his palace, for this construction he was known as the best architect of the Americas.
The author of the mural on the frontispiece of the FIC, as well as various murals found within the University City, is Mr. Federico Cantú Garza, born on March 3, 1903, son of Dr. Adolfo Cantú Jáuregui, and the writer María Luisa Garza.
In the murals of the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, Federico Cantú Garza attempts the fusion of indigenous cultures with the tradition of Western culture. The direct collaboration of Mario Ledezma, builder of some buildings in Ciudad Universitaria, allows the painter to carry out interdisciplinary work in which Ledezma himself is the main promoter. Cantú Garza decides to use the Faculty of Civil Engineering to display an image of the pre-Hispanic construction technique, and takes an elevated Nezahualcóyotl, the Texcoacan wise man, builder and poet, who carried out great works of hydraulic engineering. The sculptor Ángel Manzano collaborated on this work that was made on green canvas from Guanajuato.
The murals by Cantú Garza in the Faculty of Civil Engineering are thus a distant flowering of that ideal of Nezahualcóyotl.
In the center, the former King of Mexico is represented, in addition to being a geometer and poet, he was also consulted on many occasions as an engineer. Among the works that he built are the Texcoco copings. That is, engineering works to prevent flooding and bring water to what is now Mexico City.
Through his mouth he emits one of the imprints of covimeibto, and in his hand he has another sign of movement, a square. Quetzalcóatl Topitzin (Zeacatl) is represented on the belt, and the signs of the planet Venus are engraved on a piece of parchment or phylactery.
To the left sits a geometer tracing, by means of a snail and a string, a perfect spiral or Ionic volute. The geometric bodies are a Greek motif that represent the four elements (earth, air, water and fire), further to the left, another geometer is represented using a compass and above a calmecac or engineering school where the students attend a conference. tlacuilcos or teachers, who are establishing conclusions.
The use of the winch is also shown, which was already used in pre-Cortesian Mexico: it was used with an ixtle rope.
On the far left is represented the bringing of water to Mexico which, as already mentioned, was the work of Nezahualcóyotl.
The stairs were used in the mural to give an idea of depth (it had never been done in bas-relief); the author tells us that it is an invasion of painting.
Tláloc, god of rain, is represented on the bridge, and the tigers (on a mask) are only plastic motifs included because they are the sports emblem of the UANL.
To the right of Nezahualcóyotl is represented the fertilization of Xilone, goddess of young corn, by Tláloc. This is Xilone within the jaws of Tláloc; The author of the mural took this motif from a figure from the Sierra de Tenancingo, which is little known, and is carved into the mountain; It is a small shrine in which there is a waterfall.
On the far right, the author, Don Federico Cantú Garza, is represented in the clothing of a Toltec artist, observing a stele being carved by two masters and stonemasons. A group is also seen moving the feet of an Atlantean with ropes.
WHY DO THEY CALL US BEAVERS?
Beavers constitute the castoridae family, within the order of semi-aquatic mammalian rodents, very well known for their ability to build complex burrows and dams.
The beaver usually measures around 76 centimeters long and 30 cm high. Thanks to its teeth, this mammal is capable of felling large trees. It is long-lived, can live more than 20 years and is monogamous; It has two to four breeds litter, which are born in spring and remain with their parents for about a year.
These social animals live next to rivers and lakes surrounded by forested areas. The burrows that they build with unique structures, existing of different types, depending on the place where they are located.
By building dams on rivers, they can create lagoons with constant water levels, where they occasionally build their burrows.
These nests consist of a type of construction made up of sticks, branches, grasses and woven moss and have a central chamber that is accessed underwater. This chamber has the floor above the water level and has two entrances: the beaver uses the first to enter with wood and has a straight and inclined path; The second is used to enter and exit, and descends towards the water in a more abrupt and direct way. The inner room can measure 2.4 meters wide and up to one meter high. The ground is covered with tree bark, grass and pieces of wood. Additionally, there may be an additional chamber to store these materials.
The beaver repairs the burrow continually, increasing its size as it lives in it. The dams it builds have two effects: raising the water level, and increasing the flooded area around the burrow. The dams are built with sticks and logs, and the more solid ones are made of mud, brush and stones.
The floating material drags the water that is retained in the dam along with the roots of the vegetation that grows on it, and in this way, helps to consolidate the entire structure.
The beaver often builds another smaller dam downstream, allowing the water to slow down and reduce pressure in the part of the burrow exposed to the current. Beaver dams are typically 1.5 meters high and more than 3 meters long at the base, narrowing toward the top.
Although levees can cause local overflows, they help reduce flow and flooding downstream. In addition, the lagoons created attract fish, birds and other aquatic animals. Finally, with the passage of time, the lagoons become filled with sediment and are colonized by herbs, grasses and bushes. When this point is reached, the beaver moves to a new location and the abandoned areas will become fertile grasslands.
The beaver is an excellent and clumsy swimmer on the ground; It is quite difficult for it to drag the trunks and branches that it needs for food and for the construction of its burrow. As a consequence, it is easy to find built canals in beaver colonies that directly connect the lagoon with the nearest trees. These passageways can measure one meter high, one meter wide, and up to one hundred meters long.
From the above, it can be assured that beavers are a unique animal species. Because of their planning instinct and their constructions, which impress not only because of how they are built, but because of the function they play in their natural environment, since these animals play a key role in the balance of the environment where they live.
This is why civil engineers are called beavers, since as human beings, within our society, we play an indispensable role in the construction and maintenance of its infrastructure, we have a close relationship with nature – which we must know widely to be able to interact with it – and thus have a better quality of life, but always in balance with our environment.