Every country has chapters in their histories that are hidden and hushed. But in the memories of the pueblo, the people those events are held in silence and passed from generation to generation in whispers. At times, the silence is infused with pride – and others, with pain so intense that it is reflected in eyes …
In Mexico’s history, one such event is the Massacre of Tlatelolco.
In 1968, Mexico – like France, the United States of America and other countries – rocked with demonstrations for human and civil rights. These manifestaciones were largely led by students.
But Mexico was being put in the world’s spotlight. The capital, Mexico City, would be hosting the 1968 Summer Olympics in October.
Ten days before the games were to start, then-President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz ordered the military soldiers to suppress a demonstration of unarmed students and their families. The venue of this demonstration was the Plaza de Tres Culturas, also known as Tlatelolco.
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I present to you the following multi-voice poem I composed about the Tlatelolco Massacre, and how I came to learn about it – and Mexicans to touch their own history…
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To the martyrs of Tlatelolco …
2 de octubre
¡No se olvide!
2 October
It won’t be forgotten!
TLATELOLCO
(a poem for four voices)
— al pueblo mexicano
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I. 1968
July they marched
for human rights
Mexico City will be
hosting the Summer
Olympic Games
º
August they marched
at times a half-million
filling the Zócalo
Mexico City is preparing
for the arrival of thousands
hundred countries
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September they marched
The athletes are already
beginning to arrive here
in our City
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October
The second of October
They gathered in the Plaza
of Three Cultures
Tlatelolco
Students
& their families
Seven thousand
Ten thousand
No-one counted
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The second of October
dusk
The meeting is over
The rumble of arriving tanks
blocking the exits of the Plaza
The meeting is over
The sound of helicopters overhead
dropping flares
The sounds of panicked voices
The sound of troops moving
For almost an hour
the sound of gunfire
People shot down as they run
The sounds of wounded & killed
For almost an hour
the sound of gunfire
People shot as they
try to surrender
their hands in air
The screams of wounded & killed
For almost an hour
the sound
of gunfire
People drop to the ground for refuge
only to be riddled with bullets
The screams
For almost an hour
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Then the silence fell
with the completeness of night
The Plaza ran with blood
an inch thick
Shoes hundreds of shoes
thousands of men’s shoes
of women’s shoes
of children’s shoes
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The bodies were disappeared
before the ambulances
were allowed to arrive
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No-one knows how many died
how many hundreds were massacred
how many thousands
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The night’s rain washed the blood away
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& the silence fell
the silence fell ….
II. 1989 – Missouri
A Mexican student at our university smuggled a copy of the banned movie out of his country.
In living rooms around town we gather, munching on palomitas & tortilla chips.
The violence of that night fill us with horror.
The Mexicans cry.
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The next day dawned red
with the blood of
the Plaza massacre
& with the police sweeps
through homes throughout the night
ROJO AMANECER
The secret police arrive
º
Grandpa opens a secret
compartment beneath his bed
Here,
Hide here, my grandson
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The secret police arrive
& kill the entire family
for hiding a wounded student
Not even the father’s position
could save his wife
his daughter his father-in-law
his two sons
their compañeros
Nor even himself
º
& the secret police flee
from this massacre
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Only the nine-year-old grandson survives
to step diligently
through the mass of his
slaughtered family
Only this son survives
to cry
& to remember
III. 1991 – Mexico City
I come to this City
& ask
Is it true there was a student
massacre here in ’68?
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Silence
Not with blank stares
but those full of pain
Muteness
Muted voices
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Silence
º
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I find the Plaza
of the Three Cultures
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Within the Aztec ruins
bathed in the blood of Cuauhtémoc
lie the Lovers of Tlatelolco
Their skeleton arms
embrace one another
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To the east is the Franciscan church
built of stones of those ruins
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All surrounded by
this modern Mexican city
º
La Plaza de las Tres Culturas
grey & red volcanic slabs laid
Open & empty
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& silent
IV. 1993 – Austin, Texas
I arrive at the gift shop of a friend’s art gallery. The place is ablaze with Mexican artesanía & Frida Kahlo posters.
Upon a case of silver jewelry, I hoist my books. They are bound into a stack with old shoe strings. Their aglets softly click against the glass.
His eyes fall upon the uppermost book. “La Noche de Tlatelolco. Where did you get that?”
“At the public library.”
His long fingers touch the cover lightly. “I was there. At the time, I was a student at the Politécnico. I survived.”
I look into his dark eyes, pained by the tears of more than twenty-four years.
& the silence falls between us.
V. 1995 – Mexico City
A novelist from the US asks me
Is it true there was a student
massacre here in 1968?
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Yes
I can take you there
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The silence within the Plaza
is pierced by a white slab
towering 20, 30 feet into
the winter-blue sky
Three sculpted doves fly
into the sun’s light
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… ADELANTE !!
To those compañeros who fell
the 2nd of October 1968
in this Plaza
Cuitlahuac Gallegos Buñuelos, 19
Ana María Maximiliana Mendoza, 19
Gilberto Reynosa Ortiz, 21
Antonio Solorzano Gaona, 47
Augustina Matus de Campos, 60
Cecilio León Torres, 27
Ana María Teuscher Kruger, 19
Jorge Ramírez Gómez, 59
Carlos Beltrán Macieli, 27
Miguel Baranda Salas, 18
Juan Royas Luna ( )
Leonardo Pérez González, 29
José Ignacio Caballero González, 36
Luis Gómez Ortega, 20
Jaima Pintado Gil, 18
Guillermo Rivera Torres, 15
Reynaldo Monzalvo Soto, 68
Cornelio Benigno Caballero Garduño, 15
Fernando Hernández Chantre, 20
Rosalino Martín Villanueva ( )
& many other compañeros
whose names & ages
we still don’t know
& I, Rosario Castellanos, testify
Who? Who? No-one. The next day, no-one.
The Plaza dawned, swept up.
The newspapers gave as the major news the weather report.
And on television, on the radio, in the theaters, there was no change in the programs, no announcement inserted.
Nor a minute of silence in the regular programming.
(Well, the regular programming continued.)
– 2 October 1993 –
VI. 1996 – Mexico City
For the second year in a row, the government has cancelled the official May Day parade, that of its unions.
But the people march. A half-million or more fill the broad Avenida de la Reforma.
There are independent unions & neighborhood organizations.
The Frente Zapatista de Liberación Nacional & the Frente Popular Francisco Villa.
Here come those revolutionary artists of CLETA. Up on a flatbed truck, they provide theater & song.
The women veterans of the guerrilla movement of the 70s.
& there, their banner fluttering in the bright day – THE SURVIVORS OF TLATELOLCO.
VII. 1997 – Mexico City
Now another Cuauhtémoc rules
this valley metropolis
& on this warm December afternoon
I enter the Plaza
passing the grassy ruins
A modern wall
prods the collective memory
2 of October
It is not forgotten!!
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By those empty poles at
one end of the Plaza
Two mothers sit with their children
Blown bubbles catch the
sun’s light before
it passes behind a swift cloud
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& not but a few meters from them
lies a red body
outline
2 of October
It is not forgotten!!
It is a comabative struggle
Prepa 9
Karman Cole
Another compañera whose name
has been known?
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The Plaza is littered
with spray-can & brush graffiti
Some students –
– a shame only some …
But its words fade into
the red lava stone
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On the other side
three more human outlines
in white & a flower
CCH SOUTH
We offer our ♥
to the student compañeros
who fell in the struggle
The fight continues!
º
That slab memorial
still towers into the
bright blue sky
The backside has been marred
by gang taggings
But in bright green paint
the call goes out
People unite!
2 of October
It is not forgotten!
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& there between monument & church
within an abandoned fountain basin
A young boy kicks a soccer ball
His dark hair is a bobbing
tangled mop
A blue & white jacket
hangs loosely off
his shoulders
º
I leave through the
high-rise neighborhood
Birdsong fills the trees
Uniformed police stroll
wearing bulletproof vests
º
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As the New Year approaches
the call grows more audible
in the newspaper headlines
After Thirty Years
Tell Us the Truth!
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January
12 of January
They march
for human rights
Protesting the massacre
of Acteal, Chiapas
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12 of January
a half-million or more
fill the Zócalo
A woman’s sign
prods the collective consciousness
1968 – Tlatelolco
1998 – Acteal
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12 of January
dusk
We have sad news to report
The sound of thousands more
entering the Plaza
We have sad news to report
The sound of thousands of
murmured conversations
We have just received news
The military opened fire on
the march in Ocosingo
Three are fatally wounded
The Zócalo erupts
into a collective grito
Ricocheting off the lava block walls
of the National Palace the Supreme Court
the Cathedral the five-star hotel
ASESINOS
ASESINOS
ASESINOS
ASESINOS
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I think back to my nine-year-old fall
watching those Olympic Games
The black & white image flickered
on our TV screen
Howard Cosell’s nasal drone
filled the living room
The African American runners
gave the power salute
heads bowed
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Then & through all these years
white America has
wrinkled its collective nose
“Those uppity …”
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But now, almost thirty years later
I wonder, I wonder if
they knew of what had happened
& we – the US public, Howard Cosell
& this nine-year-old girl
didn’t hear
the silence
VIII.
Survivors of Tlatelolco
Those who lost family friends
at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas
Please pardon me for touching your wound
For touching your wound
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Which is the wound of
Haymarket Square, Chicago
1 May 1885
number killed – unknown
Which is the wound of
Hooverville, Washington DC
28 July 1932
number killed – two veterans, and an eleven-week-old baby
Which is the wound of
the indigenous massacre in El Salvador
1932
estimated number killed – 30,000
Which is the wound of
India’s Independence
1857-1947
estimated number killed – 35 million
Which is the wound of
Sharpeville, South Africa
21 March 1960
number killed – 69
Which is the wound of
Kent State, Jackson State and other US university campuses
2-9 May 1970
number killed – 14
Which is the wound of
Tiananmen Square
3-5 June 1989
estimated number killed – over 10,000
Which is the wound of
University of San Carlos, Guatemala
10 April 1992
number killed – 1 … plus 15 disappeared
Which is the wound of …
Which is the wound …
Which is …
your wound
Which is their wound
Which is my wound
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Which is our wound
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Please pardon me …
for touching …
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published in a bilingual edition :
Tlatelolco (Twin Tails Publishing, 2000)
© Lorraine Caputo
To learn more / Para aprender más:
La Noche de Tlatelolco: Testimonios de Historia Oral / Massacre in Mexico by Elena Poniatowska
The Other Mexico: Critique of the Pyramid by Octavio Paz
68 by Paco Ignacio Taibo II
“Los muertos de Tlatelolco, ¿cuántos fueron?” Aristegui Noticias (1 octubre 2013)
“Videos: Los documentales sobre el 2 de octubre en Tlatelolco,” Aristegui Noticias (1 octubre 2013)
Rojo Amanecer (movie, 1989, 1993), directed by Jorge Fons
Please add any other books, movies or other sources about the Tlatelolco Massacre in the comments below. Thank you … Gracias.
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