Born in Ávila, Spain, in 1937. He studied Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy in Louvain, Belgium, where he received his PhD in 1971, and did postdoctoral studies in Anthropology and Semiotics at the School of Higher Studies in Paris. Director of the Department of Communication of the Universidad del Valle in Cali (Colombia), where he remained between 1975 and 1995. Between 1999 and 2003 he taught at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, in Guadalajara, Mexico. He has been a visiting professor at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Standford, Free University of Berlin, and King’s College of London, among others. In 2003, he obtained Colombian nationality. Doctor ‘honoris causa’ by the Universidad Nacional de Rosario (Argentina) and the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá (Colombia).