Aniceto Ortega was born in
Tulancingo, Hidalgo, on 17 April 1825, the second of three sons born to Senator Sr. D. Francisco de Ortega-Montañés y Martínez y Navarro, and Countess Sra. Dña. María Josefa del Villar. His father was a statesman active in the
Mexican independence movement and a prominent literary figure, who wrote the patriotic verse drama
México libre (
Free Mexico). Both Ancieto and his older brother, Francisco, studied medicine at the
Escuela Nacional de Medicina in
Mexico City. There he specialised in
obstetrics and
gynaecology and received his degree in 1845. After further medical studies in
Paris, he went on to become a professor at the medical school in Mexico City and was one of the founders (and later Director) of Mexico's first hospital for women and children, the
Casa de Maternidad e Infancia. Ortega also had a parallel career as a musician. His first composition the
Marcha Zaragoza (1862), was named for the Mexican patriot and general,
Ignacio Zaragoza, and became Mexico's second national anthem. He composed two other
marches,
Potosina and
Republicana and several piano pieces, most notably
Invocación a Beethoven, first performed in 1867. In 1866, he became one of the founders of the
Sociedad Filarmónica Mexicana (Mexican Philharmonic Society) which played a crucial role in the establishment of Mexico's
National Conservatory of Music. The central plaza in
Pachuca, Hidalgo, bears his name. ==Partial list of works==