When he was young the family was imprisoned in a concentration camp until World War II ended,[2][3] when he was liberated by the Allies.
He then founded the Centro Regional del Bajío, Instituto de Ecología, Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.
He explored a lot of places surveying the local plant life and collected more than 50,000 specimens that can be found in many herbaria.
He was significant in the re-development of the Sociedad Botanica de Mexico and he organized the First Mexican Botanical Congress in 1960.
In 2005 he, jointly with Graciela Calderón de Rzedowski, was awarded the José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany.