“La noche de Tlatelolco”

“La noche de Tlatelolco”
October 9, 2011
By: Gina Yoryet Roman



A few years ago when I became more curious to learn about my history and culture I did a run down of a few bookstores in Guadalajara.
I spent hours and hours looking for useful material to help me find my roots. At the end of the day I was snowed under with many books but two that really caught my eye were
these excellent informative books, “Los presidentes de México,” by Alejandro Rosas Robles and José Manuel Villalpando César and “La noche de Tlatelolco,” by Elena Poniatowska.
Los presidentes de México has a listing of all the Mexican Presidents up to Vicente Fox in which I found a very particular profile, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, who served as President from 1964 to 1970. Díaz Ordaz governed when the massacre of “La noche de Tlatelolco,” The Night of Tlatelolco (a government massacre of student and civilian protesters and bystanders) on October 2nd, 1968 took place in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the Thttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giftelolco section of México City. The riot started ten days before the 1968 Summer Olympics in México City.

There’s even a 1989 film, “Rojo Amanecer,” Red Dawn, produced by Hector Bonilla and Valentín Trujillo and directed by Jorge Fons that narrates the story. According to “El Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía,” The Mexican Institute of Cinematography, the then President, Carlos Salinas de Gortari called Producer Valentín Trujillo to Los Pinos to show the film and requested to have a few scenes in which showed the Mexican Army to be removed in order to make it less violent. The scenes were later incorporated on the DVD version.

If I remember correctly, many years ago my father once mentioned that him and two of his brothers were part of the students protesting but they were lucky to flee on time to avoid being butchered.

I am not sure what exactly originated that painful turmoil, all I know is what I read on those two books and what I hear from people year after year.
One thing I do realize is that some facts on both stories don’t match. Perhaps I will do a deeper research when the right time comes.