Francisco Luna Kan | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Luna Kan in his home office in Mérida, 2010 | |
| Governor of Yucatán | |
| In office 1 February 1976 – 31 January 1982 | |
| Preceded by | Carlos Loret de Mola Mediz |
| Succeeded by | Graciliano Alpuche Pinzón |
| Member of the Chamber of Deputies for Yucatán's 3rd district | |
| In office 1 September 1964 – 31 August 1967 | |
| Preceded by | Carlos Loret de Mola Mediz |
| Succeeded by | Víctor Manzanilla Schaffer |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 3 December 1925 Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico |
| Died | 23 November 2023 (aged 97) Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico |
| Political party | Institutional Revolutionary Party, Party of the Democratic Revolution |
| Spouse | Gloria Soria Vera |
| Alma mater | IPN |
Francisco Epigmenio Luna Kan (3 December 1925 – 23 November 2023) was a Mexican politician who served as the Governor of Yucatán from 1976 to 1982.
Luna Kan was born on 3 December 1925 in the town of Noc Ac in the municipality of Mérida.[1] He earned his medical degree from the National Polytechnic Institute's Higher School of Rural Medicine, writing his thesis on epidemiology and social characteristics of tubercular patients, before earning a master's degree in health sciences.[2] Luna Kan was a practicing doctor of medicine then taught as a Professor of Medicine before first obtaining political office, at first being overseer of the state's rural medical system.[clarification needed]
Luna Kan was the first person of pure Maya ancestry to govern the state since the Spanish conquest of Yucatán.[3] (In the early 1920s, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, who was partly Maya, had been governor.) For centuries the political elite had been Criollos (Yucatecans of pure Spanish ancestry). It was widely said that party officials of Mexico's ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) took the unusual step of selecting a person of Maya descent as their candidate in 1975 because the opposition National Action Party (PAN) had been getting many votes in Yucatán, and PRI candidates had been getting a poor showing in the state's predominantly Maya towns and villages. It was said that PAN got the majority of votes in the previous governor's race, and the PRI managed to maintain control of the state only through fraud in counting votes.[citation needed]
After his term as governor Luna Kan resigned from the PRI and joined the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).[4] He unsuccessfully ran as that party's candidate for municipal president of Mérida in 1998.[4] Francisco Luna Kan held a seat in the federal Chamber of Deputies as a PRD deputy for Yucatán.[when?]
Francisco Luna Kan died on 23 November 2023, at the age of 97.[5]