Carlos Salinas was born 3 April 1948, the second son and one of five children of economist and government official
Raúl Salinas Lozano and Margarita De Gortari De Salinas. Salinas's father served as President
Adolfo López Mateos's minister of industry and commerce, but was passed over as the PRI's presidential candidate in favor of
Gustavo Díaz Ordaz (1964–70). When Carlos Salinas was chosen the PRI's presidential candidate for the 1988 election, he told his father, "It took us more than 20 years, but we made it."
[14]
A tragedy occurred early in Carlos Salinas's life. On 18 December 1951, when he was three years old, he was playing with his older brother
Raúl, then five, and an eight-year-old friend when they found a loaded rifle, and one of them shot and killed the Salinas family's twelve-year-old maid, Manuela. It was never determined which of the three boys pulled the trigger, and the incident was declared an accident; it was given newspaper coverage in
Excélsior and
La Prensa at the time. A judge blamed the Salinas parents for leaving a loaded weapon accessible to their small children.
[15] The Salinas family did not know the last name of their 12-year-old maid Manuela—only that she came from San Pedro Atzcapotzaltongo—and it is unknown whether her family ever claimed her body.
[16] They were also exonerated with the assistance of Gilberto Bolaños Cacho, maternal uncle of legendary Mexican comedian
Chespirito,
[17] who is also nephew to
Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, who became president of Mexico in 1964.
[18] He has not commented publicly on this tragic early childhood incident.
[19]