It is with deep regret that we write this remembrance, as today we are missing Julio. We are doing so, however, with great affection for him, our extraordinary friend, a wonderful person and a brilliant economist with a spectacular academic career, one defined by innovating contributions. In addition to his outstanding contributions as a researcher, Julio was always a highly committed teacher and mentor. Generous yet demanding, he stimulated his students intellectually and motivated them to apply their knowledge in the service of society. Witness to this are the several generations of first-rate economists who passed through his classroom, some of whom had the good fortune to have been his research assistants or have received his supervision on their end-of-degree theses.

Julio's contributions to the discipline of economics are the product of a deep commitment to his academic studies, combined with a series of fortuitous coincidences. He graduated from the University of Chile in Santiago, the head office of ECLAC, then at the forefront of economic development thinking. The connection between the two institutions allowed him to study under the preeminent exponents of the Latin American structuralist school. Among them were two of its most prominent advocates: Aníbal Pinto and Osvaldo Sunkel. After graduation and now married to Judith Villavicencio, his dear Pelusa, he set out for Europe where he studied with Michal Kalecki and Ignacy Sachs at the University of Warsaw, and Paolo Sylos-Labini at La Sapienza in Rome. Julio thus studied under the wings of the founders of the two most important schools of heterodox economic thought of the 20th century: Latin American structuralism and the post-Keynesian school.

When he returned to Chile, now with his doctorate degree under his arm, he joined the group of social scientists which advised the government of the Unidad Popular, on economic policy, presided over by Salvador Allende. The priceless experience of those years marked his personal and professional life. After the 1973 military coup, Julio and Pelusa went into exile in Cuba, and a year later went to Venezuela, before finally landing in Mexico in 1979. Both embraced our country and our people, growing to become a Mexican couple. Here they saw their daughters, Manuela and Antonia - born in Chile - grow up and devote themselves to research and teaching. Pelusa became a professor in the Department of Sociology in the field of Urban Sociology at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM). Julio soon earned well-deserved recognition as one of the best professors and researchers at the UNAM's Faculty of Economics, which he joined at the invitation of two Mexican disciples he had in Chile, Arturo Huerta and Eduardo González. He received numerous awards, including, most notably, the National University Award in 2003. Julio made academic contributions to areas of the upmost importance to the growth and performance of developing economies including, investment and economic growth, employment and productivity, income distribution, and inequality, to name just a few.

Consistent with what he taught his students, Julio combined theoretical aspects with statistical/econometric analysis in his research to devise macroeconomic policy recommendations for promoting equitable development. The list of academic journals in which he was published is exceptional, and includes El Trimestre Económico, Investigación Económica, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review, International Review of Applied Economics, Metroeconomica, Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, and Problemas del Desarrollo, this issue of which opens with his posthumous article.

In his books on theoretical and applied studies, he brilliantly incorporated Kaleckian macroeconomics to the analysis of Latin American economies. This can be observed in La economía del capitalismo contemporáneo: teoría de la demanda efectiva (The Economy of Contemporary Capitalism: Theory of Effective Demand); Teoría del crecimiento económico y economías semi-industrializadas (Theory of Economic Growth and Semi-industrialized Economies); and Macroeconomía de México: el pasado reciente y el futuro posible (Macroeconomics of Mexico: the Recent Past and the Possible Future). His books La economía de Michal Kalecki y el capitalismo actual (The Economics of Michal Kalecki and Current Capitalism) and Michal Kalecki are essential reading in the field. Likewise, together with a group of young people, Julio managed to create a postgraduate program of international caliber, in the then Academic Unit of the Professional and Postgraduate Cycles of the UNAM, to which he made extraordinary contributions to training many of the most important applied economics specialists in Mexico.

Our dear Professor López loved literature, music, and cinema; pleasures that he shared zealously with his friends through pleasant conversations. This great academic with a worldwide reputation in heterodox and post-Keynesian circles was, above all, a family man. When his daughters moved to France to pursue their studies and successful academic careers, it did not take long for Julio and Pelusa to follow them. Once in Paris, Julio gave himself to daughters and grandchildren, and applied himself to new cultural activities such as running a book club. All this, of course, while continuing with research that was published in high-profile academic journals.

Julio's extensive and profound academic legacy is a contribution that has shaped and will continue to shape generations of economists. We are also left with his friendship, endorsed on many occasions and in many places in our country: Ciudad Universitaria, Palmira in Morelos, the Guadalupe Inn, and many more. This friendship is a gift to us and one which we will always remember, as is his beloved family: Pelusa, Manuela, and Antonia. His cultured conversation, his warm smile, and his tireless and sincere interest in the welfare of his friends, touched us. As, of course, did his contagious sense of humor.

Thank you, dear friend, Julio, for being who you were and always will be.