Máximo is a researcher and activist dedicated to fighting inequality. He is Associate Professor at CUCSH, University of Guadalajara and is the Co-founder of Institute of Studies on Inequality (INDESIG), based in Mexico. Currently, his work is focused on fiscal justice and taxes analysis in Latin America, inequality in the access to affordable and adequate housing in Mexico, access to health and education, and labour conditions of delivery app workers. In 2025, his first book 'Pobres porque quieren. Mitos de la desigualdad y la meritocracia' was published by Penguin Random House.
In 2018, Máximo started a social media-led initiative, Gatitos Contra la Desigualdad, with the aim of raising public awareness of the magnitude and illegitimacy of inequality and meritocracy through the use of concrete and verifiable data, simple and understandable language, and attention-capturing images. Previously, he has worked as an inequalities researcher at Oxfam Mexico; as Principal Statistician at EVALÚA CDMX, the government of Mexico City’s office in charge of official measurements of inequality and poverty; and as an inequality and fiscal justice researcher at Fundar. He has also served as a consultant for the ILO, UNICEF and CONEVAL.
Máximo is a member of the International Sociological Association’s RC19 Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy research committee, and REMIPSO, the Mexican Social Policy Research Network. He has organised conferences and academic events focused on inequality and young researchers and has served as a regular columnist in print and digital media. He received Mexico's National Journalism Award in 2022 for his work on the housing crisis and the National Public Policy Award in 2024 for his research on the impact of social policy on economic inequality.
Máximo has a BSc in Economics from the Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico, and a PhD in sociology from El Colegio de México.
In my research and activism, I found that the best strategy to end the reproduction of inequality is by attacking the myths that say that ‘poverty and wealth are individual decisions’, and ignore the systemic causes of inequality. If we achieve a general consensus that inequality in a society is the result of its own norms and policies, we will achieve a joint demand for greater redistributive regime. We need to fight to end the stigmatisation of poverty, and the obstacles to the growing demand for greater redistributive policies and greater fiscal justice.Máximo Ernesto Jaramillo-Molina