Ruth María Rivera Marín was born in
Mexico City on 18 June 1927 to parents
Diego Rivera, a prominent Mexican
muralist, and
Guadalupe Marín Preciado, a well-known actress and writer. Her elder sister was
Guadalupe Rivera Marín. She completed her primary education at the Escuela Alberto Correa and finished her secondary education at Secondary School N° 8. Rivera was the first woman to study architecture at the
College of Engineering and Architecture of the
National Polytechnic Institute and graduated in 1950 with the degree title of engineer-architect. Simultaneously with her studies at the College of Engineering and Architecture (ESIA), Rivera studied dance with
Waldeen Falkenstein and acting with
Seki Sano and appeared in stage productions. She married Pedro Alvarado Castanon, the President of the
Instituto Politécnico Nacional, with whom she had two children: Pedro Diego and Ruth María. Following Alvarado's death, she married
Rafael Coronel, a Mexican painter. They had a son, Juan Rafael. In 1947, Rivera began teaching visual arts at the teachers' training college and at La Esmeralda School of Painting and Sculpture. She participated in the Social Service Brigades of 1948, doing her public service in
Celaya, Guanajuato, and drafting a master plan for the city before heading to Italy in 1950 for further studies. She studied urban rehabilitation at the
Institute of Restoration in Rome for two years. After her graduation, Rivera returned to Mexico and began teaching in 1952 at EISA. She taught subjects related to theory of architecture, architectural composition workshop planning, and urban and planning theory. During the early years of her career, she also pursued in subjects such as literature,
anthropology, theater, dance, and fine arts. Through interactions with her father,
Juan O'Gorman,
Pedro Ramirez Vazquez, and
Enrique Yáñez, she developed her intellectual beliefs and
nationalist ideas. She was a delegate in the 1964 International Architects Congress held in
Budapest. She was the head of the Architecture Departments at the
Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes from 1959 to 1969 (which ran the Museo Nacional de Artes Plásticas at the
Palacio de Bellas Artes). However, she had been involved with INBA almost since its foundation, assisting Enrique Yáñez in archiving Mexico's modern architecture. Rivera published many articles and books. She managed the Journal
Cuadernos de Arquitectura y Conservación del Patrimonio Artístico of the INBA, which initially had a supplement called the
Cuadernos de Arquitectura (Notebook of Architecture). The Notebook became a separate publication under Rivera and evolved into "one of the most important publishing projects for the Institute" discussing both technical and artistic components of architecture. Though its publication lasted only from 1961 to 1967, its theoretical and practical significance and value as the basis for teaching spurred an effort concluded in 2014 to collect all 20 volumes and digitize them as a lasting reference. Rivera died on 15 December 1969 in Mexico City. Posthumously, the Architecture Center at INBA was renamed in her honor. ==Memberships==