Desiderio Blanco López: emblematic professor at the University of Lima died at the age of 93

On Saturday, July 2, Desiderio Blanco López, professor emeritus and former rector of the University, passed away at the age of 93. Lima University. Of Peruvian-Spanish nationality, the teacher dedicated his life to semiotic studies, as well as to spreading film criticism in Peru.

As reported by the University of Lima website, Blanco López was born in the town of Santa María de la Vega (Zamora, Spain), after which he studied at the Colegio de Padres Agustinos de Valencia de Don Juan. He entered the Augustinian Seminary of Valladolid, where he then studied philosophy and theology.

He arrived in Peru in 1956, already ordained as a priest, where he was prior and teacher at the Colegio Santa Rosa de Chosica, as well as a teacher at the Colegio San Agustín de Lima. He eventually leaves the robes and starts a family. He was a promoter of film criticism in the country and, under his tutelage, prominent intellectuals such as Issac León Frías, Juan M. Bullitta, Federico de Cárdenas and Carlos Rodríguez Larraín launched the magazine “Hablemos de cine” in 1965. He became a Peruvian national in 1967 and the following year he joined the aforementioned university, where he became rector.

“I have a lot, a lot to thank the University of Lima, outside of which it is highly unlikely that I would have been able to develop my intellectual concerns. And since institutions are made up of the people who work in them, this gratitude is extended to the colleagues who have accompanied me throughout my career, to the students who have accepted and discussed my teachings, and especially to those responsible for their orderly and efficient academic progress”he indicated at the ceremony where he was named professor emeritus.