Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena

Guillermo González Camarena (1917-1965) was a prolific Mexican inventor who made critical advancements in early television, most notably commercial color TV. Born in Guadalajara, González Camarena demonstrated great skill in electronics from a young age.In the late 1930s, while studying engineering, he developed a system for transmitting color images by using a high-speed commutator to send red, green and blue signals sequentially. This “trichromatic field sequential system” became the basis for modern color broadcasting.González Camarena also invented an early color camera tube and receiver to work with the field sequential system. On August 31, 1946, he received Mexico’s first patent for color television technology. This was over a decade before color TV was introduced in the United States.In 1963, González Camarena launched XHGC-TV, Mexico's first color television station. His patents were eventually licensed to Sony, RCA and other major electronics companies, allowing the commercial spread of color TV globally.Beyond his pioneering work with color television, González Camarena was granted over 150 patents covering inventions in optics, sound recording, nuclear energy and more. He brought great pride and innovation to Mexico throughout a prolific inventing career cut short by his untimely death in 1965 at age 48. González Camarena remains one of Latin America’s most renowned engineers and inventors.