Guanajuato, Gto., August 31, 2016.- With an emotive posthumous homage, the university community said goodbye to M.A. Jorge Pantoja Merino, maximum promoter of the seventh art in the University of Guanajuato (UG), who passed away on the latter April 21st.

The event was held in the Mesón de San Antonio, place where family, friends and university authorities gathered and recognized the arduous work that for many years the M.A. Pantoja Merino made, same that formed many generations in Guanajuato in the world of cinema.

In the beginning, there was a video shown about his life and cultural labor he developed not only at the University of Guanajuato, but in different institutions such as the Festival Internacional Cervantino, Canal Once and the National Film Archive, just to mention some.

M.A. Jorge Pantoja Merino was born in the city of Irapuato, city where he worked as a High School professor and where he founded a Cinema Club. Afterwards, from 1979 to 1988 he was coordinator of the Cinema Club of the University of Guanajuato, institution where he made an extraordinary labor by projecting art movies that were out of the commercial distribution.

With Law studies, never practiced, M.A. Pantoja decided to dedicate his life to cinema, hence, why he took the cinematographic appreciation course at Columbia University (New York, 1968), film critic at UCLA (San Francisco, Cal., 1973) and film translation at BBC in London (1998).

The Coordinator of the Cinema Club of the University of Guanajuato, Lic. Montserrat Alejandri Oranguyen, gave a message where she highlighted the great passion for cinema the homage felt and that he reflected in every action he made to rise the path of cinematography in the University of Guanajuato. She highlighted that the critic also made programme with rebellion and subversion because he always chose the best of the seventh art despite censorship.

Likewise, she thanked the legacy of M.A. Pantoja and assured that from UG's Cinema Club they will continue working so his cinematographic teaching lasts.

On his part, UG's General Rector, Dr. Luis Felipe Guerrero Agripino mentioned that a university must be capable to recognize the transcendental actions of their members, hence, he distinguished the work of M.A. Pantoja Merino to enrich the university's cultural doing. Likewise, exhorted all the attendants to dedicate an applause in memoriam of the curator and critic of cinema.

In name of his family, spoke Lic. Jesús Pantoja Merino, brother of the homage, who thanked the University for recognizing the work of M.A. Jorge and remembered him as a person of firm beliefs, tireless worker always conquering the cinema.

It is precise to mention that besides his labor as promoter, he also worked as an essayist and among his published books is found: "Hojas de cine a vuelapluma", "Alfaguara del cine silente", "De cinefilia, cinefagia y cinenáutica", "Placeres culposos y Trasuntos de cine", the latter is a compendium of the last stage of M.A. Pantoja as a movie reviewer at TV UNAM.

To continue with the homage, the movies that will be projected are: "Manhattan" of Woody Allen, "The flavor of cherries" of the Iranian Abbas Kiarostami and "I'm a curious in yellow" of the Swedish Vilgot Sjöman, the latter censored in several countries. All the films will be presented from Wednesday August 31 to Friday September 2 at 20:00hrs at the Teatro Principal, free entrance.