Obituary for Héctor Espinosa

Authors: Dean Hendrickson, Alejandro Varela-Romero, Lloyd Findley

Year: 2022

Abstract

Long-time DFC member and participant in many meetings, Héctor Espinosa Pérez, died in Mexico City on February 20th, 2022, a few days after his 68th birthday. Many DFC members knew him quite well and might remember his generous sharing of tequilas (for many years he brought it in bottles that carried his own special private label) in get-togethers in hotel rooms after the paper sessions. Over his career Héctor made it to at least 162 meetings (90 in México, 72 international)! Nineteen of those were DFC meetings (10 in the US, 9 in México). Almost all of his absences at DFC corresponded to date conflicts with meetings of both the Mexican Ichthyology Society (SIMAC), in which he was an officer (including President), and the Latinomamerican Ichthyology Congress, in which he was also active. At those 19 DFC meetings, he was presenter or co-author on > 24 papers (there are no data available for the 2018 50th anniversary meeting, but he was present). At DFC’s 2010 meeting, his student, and later Collection Manager, Christian Lambarri, was awarded DFC’s Robert Rush and Frances Hubbs Miller prize for the best paper presented by a student from a Latin American country for her first-ever, sole-authored paper. Héctor’s wife, Patricia Fuentes-Mata, a fisheries biologist for the National Fisheries Commission (CONAPESCA) also was a presenter and/or co-author on several papers at DFC, and Patty and their two sons, Alex and Héctor, accompanied Héctor to many DFC meetings. At the time he became ill, Héctor was working to arrange another meeting of the DFC in Cuatro Ciénegas, but both the global pandemic and his illness thwarted that. Héctor completed his B.S. in Biology at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in 1985 and continued there for an M.Sc. and continued there as a professor and curator of México’s National Fish Collection. Over his career, Héctor published 68 scientific articles, 43 book chapters, and seven books, in addition to several popular texts, which have been cited about 3000 times from 1988 to present. He also was a founder and President of SIMAC, the Mexican Ichthyology Society, and was present at probably as many (if not more) meetings of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists as DFC meetings. He was long a member of the ASIH-AFS Committee on the Common and Scientific Names of Fishes of the United States, Canada and Mexico, and he worked diligently with that committee on the new version of that huge project (now in final editing with the publisher) until very close to his passing. On October 6 of this year, the Instituto de Biología de la UNAM in Mexico City hosted a moving homage to Héctor, all 4 hours of which were recorded and archived on UNAM’s YouTube Channel. A specially commissioned painting of Héctor alongside his favorite poza in Cuatro Ciénegas was given to the family at that event, and a plaque honoring him was unveiled before its installation in a prominent place in the University’s brand new and beautiful public Biodiversity Museum and Collections facility, into which the Fish (and other) Biodiversity Collections are currently moving. Héctor was involved in preparing for the move, and I’m sure will rejoice, wherever he is, when the move into this much-improved space is finally completed. Héctor’s contributions and conviviality will be sorely missed by DFC and many other widely scattered collaborators and friends. I’ve brought tequila to this meeting in his honor, and invite you to share it with all interested in a toast to Héctor. ¡Salud Hectorcito!