José Guadalupe Cervantes Corona

Cervantes was born in the municipality of Teúl de González Ortega, Zacatecas, in 1924.[2][3]

Cervantes became Zacatecan state Director of Education in 1950 when he was only 26 years old.[2] He next served as an official within the administration of Zacatecan Governor Francisco E. García from 1956 to 1962.[2] Cervantes would later be elected to the state Chamber of Deputies and then as a federal deputy in the Chamber of Deputies.[1] Cervantes then held a seat in the Senate of the Republic from 1976 until 1980.[1]

A member of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), was elected Governor of the Mexican state of Zacatecas in 1980 with the support of Mexican President José López Portillo.[1] He served as Governor for one term, ending in 1986. Cervantes was a strong proponent of infrastructure and urban development projects during his tenure.[2] He supported and launched a new gas pipeline connecting neighboring Aguascalientes to Zacateca's second largest city, Fresnillo.[2] He sought to attract new investors and businesses to the cities of Guadalupe and Calera de Víctor Rosales.[2] He was the first Zacatecan Governor to propose a new industrial corridor extending from Ojocaliente to Fresnillo.[2] Cervantes hoped that the new projects would boost jobs and economic growth in the state.[2]

He largely stayed out of local politics until the early 2000s.[1] In 2004, Cervantes publicly renounced his membership in the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and left the party.[1] He endorsed gubernatorial candidate Amalia García of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in the 2004 Zacatecan election.[1] Garcia's father had served in Cervantes cabinet during his tenure as governor.[2] Amalia Garcia won the 2004 election over the PRI candidate and was elected governor.[1]

Cervantes again criticized the PRI in 2010 over a potential political alliance between the PRI and the Labor Party, which he opposed.[2] However, the proposed alliance never came to fruition.[2]

Cervantes died at home from heart failure on March 13, 2013, at the age of 88.[1][2] A public viewing was held at the Sixtina de Funerales Hernández chapel in the city of Zacatecas, Zacatecas.[1]