Cortés graduated in architecture and later in urban planning at the Escuela Nacional de Arquitectura of the UNAM. He continued his studies in Paris. After 1968 he taught at the UNAM. In 1999 he became Secretary General of the UNAM, and was the interim UNAM president from 12 to 17 November 1999. From 2001 to 2009 he was director of Sitios y Monumentos del Patrimonio Cultural of the CONACULTA, as well as president of the Academia Nacional de Arquitectos. He is an emeritus professor of the College of Architecture of the UNAM.[3][6]