The Teatro Universitario was officially founded in August 1952 with the staging of Arsénico y encaje antiguo at the Teatro Juárez, under the direction of Enrique Ruelas Espinosa. In 1953, Miguel de Cervantes’s Entremeses Cervantinos were presented for the first time in the Plazuela de San Roque, giving rise to a tradition that, over time, attracted audiences from across the country and culminated in 1972 with the creation of the Festival Internacional Cervantino.

Under Ruelas’s direction, and later that of Eugenio Trueba Olivares, the group consolidated a repertoire that includes both classical productions and original works, taking advantage of Guanajuato’s natural settings for outdoor performances. In 2014, Hugo Jaime Gamba Briones assumed directorship, continuing the group’s artistic and cultural mission. In 2018, the Teatro Universitario was honoured with the Orgullo Guanajuato-FIC award, bearing the name of its founder, in recognition of its outstanding career and contribution to the arts in the state.

They received international recognition in Toledo, Spain, with the Fernando de Rojas Prize, for being the seed of the FIC and for preserving Cervantes’ writings. More recently, it was recognised as Intangible Cultural Heritage of the State of Guanajuato.