ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GRAPHICS
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TLATELOLCO Police massacre of students in the Plaza of the Three Cultures, Mexico City, October 2, 1968
The National University of Mexico, UNAM, recently dedicated a Cultural Center in the Plaza of Tlatelolco, as a memorial to the students killed there. Elena Poniatowska gave the opening remarks. The following are excerpts from her speech.
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"El año 1968 fue de Vietnam, de Biafra, del asesinato de Martin Luther King, del de Robert Kennedy después del de John F. Kennedy, su hermano y presidente de Estados Unidos; de la reivindicación del pueblo negro, de los Panteras Negras, del movimiento hippie que llegó hasta la humilde choza de María Sabina, en Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, y sin embargo, para México, 1968 tiene un solo nombre: Tlatelolco, 2 de octubre. Sal al balcón, bocón, Sal al balcón, hocicón. Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh Díaz Ordaz, chin, chin, chin.
"The year 1968 was Vietnam, it was Biafra, the assasination of Martin Luther King and of Robert Kennedy, it was the resurgence of the black movement, of the Black Panthers and of the Hippies who came to the humble abode of Maria Sabina in Huautla de Jiménez in Oaxaca. However, in Mexico, it has only one name: Tlatelolco, October 2. Come out on the balcony, loudmouth, Come out on the balcony, big nose, Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh, Díaz Ordaz, chin, chin, chin. (Fuck, fuck, fuck)
Ho Chi Minh, el jefe de la República Democrática de Vietnam, era entonces tan carismático para los estudiantes como el Che Guevara. Ir a Vietnam era cometer genocidio y los estudiantes en Berkeley detenían a los futuros soldados sonriéndoles con una flor en la mano: “Peace and love”.
Ho Chi Minh was the head of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, as charismatic to the students as Che Guevara. Vietman was genocide and the students at Berkeley held back the soldiers with flowers in their hands calling for “Peace and love.”
Por primera vez los Juegos Olímpicos se llevarían a cabo en un país de América Latina, el mundo entero tendría los ojos puestos sobre México, pero tras la mampara de los edificios olímpicos seguiría la miseria, la jerarquización de una sociedad hostil a los olvidados de siempre, la crueldad de un gobierno dispuesto a aparentarlo todo. “No queremos Olimpiadas, queremos revolución”.
For the first time the Olympic Games were to be held in a Latin American country, with the eyes of the World on Mexico, but behind the scenes of the Olympic village lived the misery, the polarization of a hostile society, the always forgotten, the cruelty of a government given to covering up everything. “We don’t want Olympics! We want Revolution!”
Esta larga marcha (a veces jubilosa, otras aterradora porque había muertos y encarcelados) terminó en la Plaza de las Tres Culturas, el 2 de octubre de 1968, a las seis y diez de la tarde, a manos del Ejército y del Batallón Olimpia, compuesto por hombres vestidos de civil que llevaban un pañuelo o un guante blanco en la mano derecha para identificarse.
This large march (at times excited, at others fearful because there had been deaths and jailings) arrived at the Plaza of the Three Cultures on October 2, 1968, at 6:10 in the afternoon, into the hands of the troupes and Olympic battalions made up of men in civilian dress carrying a white handkerchief or wearing a white glove to identify themselves.
En el momento en que un estudiante anunció, a las 6:10, que la marcha al Casco de Santo Tomás del Politécnico se suspendía, en vista de que 5 mil soldados y 300 tanques de asalto tenían rodeada la zona, un helicóptero sobrevoló la plaza y dejó caer tres luces de bengala verde. Se oyeron los primeros disparos y la gente empezó a correr.
At that moment, a student announced, at 6:10, that the march to Casco de Santo Tomás was being suspended in view of the 5,000 soldiers and 300 tanks which had surrounded the area, helicopters flew overhead. The first shots were heard and the students began to flee.
... El mismo 2 de octubre, cuando la doctora en antropología Margarita Nolasco logró salir de la plaza, abrió la ventanilla del taxi que la llevaba a su casa y gritó a los peatones en la acera, a la altura de la Casa de los Azulejos, "¡Están masacrando a los estudiantes en Tlatelolco! ¡El ejército está matando a los muchachos!" El taxista la reprendió, "Suba usted la ventanilla, señora, porque si sigue haciendo esto, tendré que bajarla del coche". Él mismo cerró la ventanilla.
... It was on that October 2nd that Doctor of Anthropology Margarita Nolasco managed to flee the Plaza in a taxi, opening the window on the way to her house and shouting, “They are massacring the students in Tlatelolco! The soldiers are killing the young people!” The taxi driver shouted, “Close the window, lady, because if you keep it up you have to get out!” He reached around and closed the window himself.
Muchos cayeron. El fuego cerrado y el tableteo de las ametralladoras convirtieron la Plaza de las Tres Culturas en un infierno.
Many were killed. The close shots and the noise of machine guns made the Plaza into a kind of Hell.
Ver las imágenes del 1968 es darse una idea de la magnitud del peligro. El Ejército detuvo a miles de jóvenes a quienes no sólo mantuvo con los brazos en alto bajo la lluvia, sino que humilló bajándoles los pantalones. Algunos golpearon desesperadamente.
To view the images of 1968 is to get some idea of the magnitude of their danger. The troops arrested thousands of young people, who they not only strung up by their arms but humiliated by lowering their pants. Many they beat mercilessly.
Hoy, en 2007, a 39 años de la masacre, la ventanilla sigue cerrada. Todavía hoy, a 39 años, faltan nombres en la estela del Memorial levantado por el Comité de 1968 que encabeza Raúl Álvarez Garín. Quizá nunca sepamos el número exacto de muertos en Tlatelolco. Sin embargo, resonará en nuestros oídos durante muchos años la pequeña frase explicativa de un soldado al periodista José Antonio del Campo, de El Día, “Son cuerpos, señor...”
Today, in the year 2007, 39 years after this massacre, the window is still closed. Today, 39 years later, we still do not know the names of the killed. Perhaps we will never know the exact number of deaths in Taltelolco. However, echoing in our ears down through the many years is a small comment by a soldier to the reporter José Antonio del Campo of EL DÍA, “They’re bodies, sir …”
El periodista José Alvarado escribió: “Había belleza y luz en las almas de los muchachos muertos. Querían hacer de México morada de justicia y verdad, la libertad, el pan y el alfabeto para los oprimidos y olvidados. Un país libre de la miseria y el engaño. “Algún día habrá una lámpara votiva en memoria de todos ellos.”
The journalist José Alvarado wrote, “There was beauty and light in the souls of the young dead. They wanted a just and truthful Mexico, freedom, food and education for the oppressed and forgotten. A country rid of misery and deceit. "Someday there will be a memorial candle lit for them.”
... El 3 de octubre de 1968, los periódicos, para colmo, acusaban a los estudiantes: El Día, Excélsior, El Nacional, El Sol de México, El Heraldo, La Prensa, La Afición, Ovaciones minimizaron la masacre. El Universal habló de Tlatelolco como un campo de batalla en el que, durante varias horas, terroristas y soldados sostuvieron un combate que produjo 29 muertos y más de 80 heridos. ... Los corresponsales extranjeros se escandalizaron. “Es la primera vez en mi larga trayectoria que veo a soldados disparándole a una multitud encajonada e indefensa”, manifestó Oriana Fallaci.
... The following day, October 3, 1968, the daily papers, as one, accused the students and minimalized the killings. EL UNIVERSAL called it a battle between soldiers and terrorists, reported 29 killed and more than 80 injured. … Foreign correspondents were shocked. “It was the first time in my long career that I had seen soldiers open fire against a defenseless multitude,” said Oriana Fallaci.
Si no hay verdad y justicia, el 2 de octubre del 68 puede asolarnos de nuevo. La universidad es la gran educadora, el barómetro moral de nuestro país, y la primera de sus enseñanzas es la ética. A partir de ella puede construirse el México que todos buscamos. Es la UNAM quien convertirá esta plaza en una lámpara votiva, como pidió José Alvarado.
If there is no truth or justice, October 2, 1968, could rise up to threaten us again. The University is the grand educator, the moral barometer of our country, and its first lesson is ethics. Through it we build a Mexico which we all want. It is the University which converts this Plaza into the memorial candle that José Alvarado foresaw.
- Excerpts from the speech by author and journalist, Elena Poniatowska, during the inauguration of the Memoirial to 1968 in the University Cultural Center of Tlatelolco, below, October 22, 2007.
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For many years it was illegal to write or publish anything about the events of October, 1968. Though many rumors were spread, newspapers and publishers were forbidden to print anything but the government line.
One of the first people to break this rule was Elena Poniatowska, Polish-born writer living in Mexico since the early 40's. She circumvented the law by not "writing" one word of the events herself, but gathered and then published underground, "oral histories" by people who had witnessed what happened that night. She became a prominent figure in the controversy.
Then, in 2000, the ruling party was ousted after 71 years of dictatorship. The new president agreed to open the government archives of many of the above photographs. They were printed on the front pages of newspapers and magazines throughout Mexico. It is now known that somewhere between 300 and 600 students were killed that night.
(See also PONIATOWSKA, ELENA in the Encyclopedia of Images.)
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I was preparing the above page in my Encyclopedia yesturday, November 30, 2007, and picked up the Mexico City daily, LA JORNADA, where the front page reported police repression of student demonstrators in the state of Guerrero.
Depressing.
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