 He was the son of the journalist Carmen Gracía García-Nájera and his wife Daría Cumplido Sáenz, and had two siblings.During the revolution, he belonged to the Primera Brigada ("First Brigade") which marched on Ciudad Juárez to oust Porfirio Díaz from power.He founded the revolutionary paper "El Noroeste" and began his studies at the Escuela Nacional de Medicina (currently Faculty of Medicine of the UNAM) in Mexico City.