This grouping emerged characters as Jose Vasconcelos, Antonio Caso and Pedro Enriquez, who had a great influence on the consolidation of the thought of Cosio Villegas, but it was the latter which purchased its willingness to intellectual work and its critical spirit (Moya and Serrano, 2006: 114). Not in vain Cosio Villegas is considered an ateneista in the most strict sense of the word: knew how to combine a deep academic discipline both teaching as a Professor, as well as an intense work of mobilizer. However, this critical sense and their tendency to the expression of scientific truth openly caused conflicts. Famous are his disputes with President Luis Echeverria Alvarez, who was about to force him to leave the pen, but subsequently, the President himself asked him not to do so. Cosio Villegas also highlighted as a promoter of culture and the dissemination of the letters. He was prominent founder of two fundamental and essential institutions of education in Mexico: El Fondo de Cultura Economica, with the assistance of Alfonso Reyes, which facilitated the editing and distribution of scientific and humanistic literature in Latin America, as well as the translation for the first time to the Spanish language of fundamental texts in social, political and economic thinking.
Your solidarity work would boost it to found the College of Mexico with the help of the Francoist civil war Spanish exiles. Although the validity of his work is present in the Mexican intelligentsia, often took criticism, not only of pro-Government scholars, but writers of left. Famous was his discussion with Jose Revueltas, essayist and Communist political activist, who in a later work to the publication of the Crisis in Mexico, openly criticized his tendency to maximize the decisive power of elites in the course of national history. Revolts Cosio Villegas claimed his pessimism, pointing out that although the country does not have a true democracy not be can circumvent the improvements that have been taken in the field Educational, infrastructure and land-sharing.