José María Obregón, born in 1832 till 1902, was one of the most recognized Mexican painters of the 19th-century and an important figure of the Academy of San Carlos, which is also known today as the Faculty of Fine Arts at UNAM. In his early years, after his training under the renowned Catalan painter Pelegrín Clavé, Obregón entered the Academy and stayed for sixteen years to continue his artistic practice, where he became a renowned painter himself, due to his exceptional technical skill and success in the institution's annual competitions. Beginning in 1855, he regularly participated in these competitions, earning third place for San Lorenzo and, in 1858, the first prize for "Agar e Ismael en el desierto". His career reached a turning point in the year 1869 with the creation of "El descubrimiento del pulque", an artwork created under the academic guidance of his professors, which went on to become his most celebrated work. The painting depicted an event before the Spanish conquest: the introduction of one of the most traditional and popular drinks in Mexico, el pulque. As a consequence, Obregón later gained recognition as an official portraitist during the reign of Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg and later served as a drawing professor at the Academy of San Carlos until 1891. Today he is recognized as one of the artists who helped bind and develop European academic traditions with the birth of a national artistic identity in Mexico.