Malors Emilio Espinosa Lara

Note: This is very descriptive, almost painfully so. Nothing here can be really proved that it is true or so, is just an alternative description of who I am from my perspective and what I do, that is also important in any person for anything, either academic, job, love, life, etc. I hope it is useful for people coming to my academic page to see who I am for whatever reason they have to come.

Personal Experience

I live for thirteen years in Mexico City. I studied in Olinca and spent a lot of my time with my parents, whether it was in the campus of the National University of Mexico (Universidad Autónoma de México, UNAM) or the Polytechnic Institute (Instituto Politécnico Nacional, IPN). I have been in universities all my life!

I moved to Monterrey when I was thirteen years old and studied in the Latin American School of Monterrey. It has an incredible view to the mountains. It was here where I started participating in Mathematical Olympiad as well as in sports (back then it was volleyball).

When I was sixteen, I moved to Zapopan, Jalisco. I wanted to try public school as opposed to private schools. I also wanted a school that was good in the Math Olympiads. That led to Highschool #7 of the University of Guadalajara (Preparatoria 7, UdeG). I spent most of my time there studying mathematics for the Olympiad and sometimes beyond that. I had a personal challenge against linear algebra, multivariable calculus and elliptic curves were a dream.

At 19 I moved to Guanajuato, Gto to study the Bachelor in Mathematics in Guanajuato University (Universidad de Guanajuato) in conjunction with Research Centre of Mathematics (Centro de Investigación en Matemáticas, CIMAT). A very special place for me lost in top of the mountains. The views were incredible and sometimes we were surrounded by bulls, sheep, goats…and the occasional tarantula. It was here I discovered football!

I spent my days in the school and in cafetal. A place for which I have very much appreciation. In truth I still dream frequently of Guanajuato and my goal is always to walk toward Cafetal. I usually wake up before I arrive. Who knows what Freud would say about me?

And then at 26, after seven/eight years of living in Guanajuato, I moved to Toronto!

Arts and Crafts

I have always felt that arts flow in my family very deeply. I started exploring art quite young through dance and painting. Later it broadened to sculpture and literature.

This is one of the oldest paintings I have. I drew it with pastels in 1995 (or 1996).

Pastels have always been one of my preferred media to paint.

I go to museums very frequently and take courses there as well. The latest course I’ve taken were in the Art Gallery of Ontario on Painting Flora and Fauna.

I have also taken courses on comics and zines. I intend to take one on puppetry and maybe on clowning. Time is limited!

In literature I find poetry quite powerful, but I also enjoy reading fiction. I myself write frequently, both essays and short (and not so short) stories. However, most of the time whenever I think of stories, they come to my mind first in the format of drawings and cartoons.

If I were to recommend the poetry of someone at this moment it would be All the Flowers Kneeling of Paul Tran. It’s been a while since I read and still, I cannot take its impact away.

Cartoon Presentations

I have been drawing since I am very young. Quite early I started to focus on cartoons and, as I grew up, started to wonder on the artistic potential they have.

A presentation I did on the day of my Ph.D. defense with selected cartoons that are math related.

When I taught MAT315: Introduction to Number Theory in U of T for the first time I prepared a “Sketch” of a proof of Quadratic Reciprocity and displayed it for everyone to see.

Sports

I didn’t grow up liking sports very much. I had the classical experiences of being left out, and sometimes bullied, for being bad at sports. I did like to play badminton, where I was told I was good…now I am wondering if they were just being nice. My father tried to convince me to play squash, but I never got into it.

However, my relationship with sports somewhat changed when I was in junior high school. All my friends participated in the volleyball team of the school, and I joined them. We even went to the nationals (where I think we ranked last or second to last…)

In undergrad I was convinced of playing football. The story is more complicated: people wanted to create a team with people that would not usually play. One of them said: if you convince Malors, then we will play. They thought they would never convince me. However, the day they asked me I had achieved proving something I wanted to prove for a while and I was fascinated with life. I said yes, I felt invencible.

The shirt I used for my first team. It was based on the shirt of Liverpool FC, which was our captains favourite team.

This was a team of math undergrads and grad students. We were forbidden to put crazy things as numbers (some people tried to put pi or e or square root of 2), however, I was allowed to put 0 to remind me that I had not scored yet.

I never thought much of football, and I could not believe how it would change me. It became part of my life, for good and for bad, I was hooked. I love the sport, and I continue to follow it and play it!

In the Math Department of the University of Toronto we created a team. We played three seasons in the fourth or fifth division (?) and we were in the finals the three times and won twice.

Our first time winning. It was incredible.

I never thought I would win a football tournament twice. It ranks up there with earning the Ph.D.

Games

In undergrad I participated in the Go Club of Guanajuato, which was mostly organized by people from the math department. My best ranking (unofficially) was 5 kyu but I have not played consistently for a while and now I should be around 8 kyu. Tragic.

I had a lot of mixed feelings for chess. I started playing chess when I was around four years old, I even went to some children camps for chess. However, I could never really feel at ease with chess. I felt, on the one hand, very trapped in the board and, on the other hand, unbelievably annoyed and stupid when playing.

I stopped playing for many years until I was in high school. In there several of my friends took chess somewhat seriously and were very good. I was “forced” to study endings, learn the board and to be able to play with my eyes covered (I was never really good and messed all up relatively soon). This was not enough to hook me again back into it. However, I did learn to checkmate with two bishops.

Then, when the pandemic started, chess had a boom. Streaming on the internet also had a big boom. And the Queens Gambit (which I actually have not watched) was a hot topic. I started to watch Hikaru Nakamura stream chess and other chess streamers, and also to follow Magnus a little bit closer. What I see them do, for chess, was to bring chess closer to “people” by removing (at least for me) that aura of superiority that it had. Suddenly it became a game for everyone and not only the gifted.

I returned to chess very motivated after seeing these streamers playing the Bongcloud and having no remorse. I was lucky enough to meet Hikaru Nakamura and watching him play live has been one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in my life.

Motivated by this I founded, with another friend, the chess club of the math department at U of T. It is one of the most popular clubs of the math department and it has really helped to build community between students, postdocs, faculty.

I also enjoy playing computer games. My favorite ones are Factorio, Zomboid Project and Rimworld. I enjoyed as well Stardew Valley and was a frequent player of Minecraft some years ago. I have the intention of playing Rain World and Hollow Knight, but I have not started yet.

Desks

I have a fascination with desks. I have taken many pictures of my own desks and frequently I ask my friends to let me see how their desks look on a regular day.