Efraín González Luna

Efraín González Luna (18 September 1898 – 10 September 1964) was a Mexican politician and lawyer who was one of the founders and leaders of the National Action Party (PAN). He unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1952 presidential election, making him the party's first presidential candidate. A devout Catholic and a Christian democrat, he played an important role in establishing the party's ideology and its connections to the Catholic Church.

Born in Jalisco to a wealthy family, González Luna studied law at the University of Guadalajara. He became involved in Catholic activism, and in 1939, with Manuel Gómez Morín and others, he co-founded the PAN, a conservative party committed to Christian humanism and liberalism. He served as the president of party's Jalisco branch from 1940 until 1951. The party did not run presidential candidates in the elections of 1940 and 1946, finally making González Luna their first presidential nominee in the 1952 election. He competed against Adolfo Ruiz Cortines of the incumbent Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and two other candidates, Miguel Henríquez Guzmán and Vicente Lombardo Toledano. Ruiz Cortines won in a landslide, with González Luna coming in a distant third.

Following his loss, he continued to promote the PAN's candidates in Jalisco until his death. In Guadalajara, there is a street named after him and a statue bearing his likeness. The party that he co-founded remained in opposition until rising to prominence in the 1980s and finally winning the presidency in 2000. González Luna's son, Efraín González Morfín, was the PAN's presidential candidate in 1970.

Early life Efraín González Luna was born on 18 October 1898 in Autlán de la Grana (now Autlán de Navarro), Jalisco. His parents were Mauro Heliodoro González Álvarez and María del Rosario Luna Michel. At the time, the ruling party was the Institutional Revolutionary Party , or PRI. The PRI, founded in 1929 by Calles, ruled Mexico hegemonically until the end of the century. The same year as their meeting, Gómez Morín and González Luna, with others, founded the National Action Party , or PAN. The PAN was conservative, being committed to Catholic humanism and liberalism, and representing a generation dissatisfied with the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution and the "extremism" of Cardenismo, the left-wing populist policies of President Lázaro Cárdenas. who lost to Manuel Ávila Camacho of the incumbent PRI. In 1943, the PAN ran their own candidates for the first time. They presented 21 candidates for federal deputies, with them garnering 25,000 votes across the country. González Luna was the PAN's candidate for Jalisco's third electoral district. The delegates unanimously selected González Luna as the party's presidential candidate for the 1952 election. His campaign was directed by Jaime Robles León, a fellow PAN co-founder. The other candidates were the PRI's Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, Miguel Henríquez Guzmán of the FPP, and Vicente Lombardo Toledano of the PPS.

From December 1951 until July 1952, González Luna toured most of the country for an intense campaign.

González Luna received 285,555 votes, representing 7.82% of the total vote. In his final years, González Luna focused on directing the PAN in Jalisco, and supported the party's presidential candidates in 1958 and 1964. He was convinced of the need for an explicitly Christian political party, and argued that such a group could appeal to the masses, as Mexico had a large Catholic majority. Although González Luna sympathized with the demands of the Catholic militants during the Cristero War, he personally opposed violence, instead supporting nonviolence to protect the rights of Catholics. or simply Efraín González Morfín, Through González Morfín, González Luna had four grandchildren. González Morfín's son Ignacio, like his grandfather, was a PAN candidate in Jalisco in 1964 and 1967, and the president of the PAN in Jalisco from 1965 to 1967.

The house that the family lived in was designed by the famous architect Luis Barragán, who was González Luna's brother-in-law, being married to González Luna's wife's sister. González Luna's brother, Ramiro González Luna, was a federal deputy for PAN from 1967 to 1970, but left the party in 1968.

Death and legacy González Luna died on 10 September 1964 in a hospital in Guadalajara, after suffering from a cerebral hemorrhage several days earlier. He was buried in the Panteón de Mezquitán. Upon learning of González Luna's death, Gómez Morín reportedly said, "What am I going to do? My brain of the [National Action] Party has died" . A street in Guadalajara is named after González Luna. There is a statue of González Luna in the Rotonda de los Jaliscienses Ilustres in Guadalajara, which was finished in 2006.

González Luna's son Efraín González Morfín was the PAN's candidate for the 1970 presidential election. He received 13.98% of the vote, the highest for the party up to that point. González Morfín became president of the PAN in 1975, but resigned the position the same year, and in 1978 he resigned from the party altogether. The party that González Luna co-founded would remain in opposition for much of the 21st century. The PAN finally began seeing larger success in the 1980s after winning several mayorships and finally governorships. They finally obtained the presidency in the 2000 and 2006 presidential elections, governing the country from 2000 to 2012 under Presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón. They lost the 2012 presidential election, having been in opposition since.