Back in Mexico - Tlatelolco

Hey everyone! It's been a minute since I updated you all last on my little fantastic Mexican adventure. I basically left you all clueless about my last month to month-and-a-half in Mexico last semester, and it seems like forever ago. But a lot did happen, and I am happy to say that I was able to personally and academically achieve so much in the last month amidst the craziness and chaos.

Thus, I've decided to share with you all some stories/realizations/experiences that I found to be especially poignant in my life, as I get settled back into Mexican life. So here's the first one:

Tlatelolco - La Plaza de Tres Culturas

 In late November I decided to pay Mexico City a visit to see British singer Kate Nash in concert, which happened to be her first time ever in Mexico. I was really stoked to be there once I got off the 15 1/2 hour long bus ride from the Pacific coast of Huatulco, Oaxaca . So anyway I got there super early and I needed a way to kill some time.

I had decided awhile back that once I was in Mexico City again that I would visit a place called Tlatelolco, which holds a special, albeit tragic place in Mexican history. I first heard about the place in late September, when I had two of my Mexican teachers mention an anniversary that was coming up. So us students had to research and what happened there October 2nd, at Tlatelolco.

First, let me tell you about this Tlatelolco place. Tlatelolco is an Aztec ruin site in the middle of the megalopolis known as Mexico City. It used to be the twin city of Tenochtitlan, the former kingdom of the Aztecs before it fell to the Hernan Cortes and the Spaniards. The Spanish destroyed Tlatelolco after conquering it and then decided to build a church on the site, using the rubble and ruins of the city as their building materials. Adjacent to the site is a modern 20th century high-rise office building, and a college. This special conglomeration of past and present is what gave rise to Tlatelolco's other name, la plaza de tres culturas, or the plaza of three cultures, represented by the three cultures present, the pre-Hispanic or indigenous culture (the remains of Tlatelolco), the colonial and Spanish culture (the church) and the present Mexican (office building and college).

Which that said, let me tell you what happened there on October 2nd, 1968.

The 1960's were a politically and socially turbulent time in Mexico and the rest of Latin America, sparked by Fidel Castro's 1959 Cuban revolution. It was an era in which power came into the hands of the people for the very first since winning their independence from the European imperialists. And Mexico was no exception, as nation-wide strikes and protests sought to win over some their basic civil rights and equalize the distribution of power. This national and continental-wide unrest culminated tragically for Mexico in la plaza de tres culturas in Tlatelolco on October 2nd, 1968. On that fateful night, college students and professors from UNAM and other Mexican universities who had gathered there to fight for their own rights, were fired upon by the Mexican army, resulting in some 20 confirmed and government-acknowledged deaths, with investigators and eyewitnesses claiming the death toll to be well into the hundreds.

It was a surreal experience standing there in the plaza where so many people had died and went missing, but what made it most surreal was the fact that this place had been the scene of yet another tragedy. It was the place where Cuauhtemoc, son of Aztec leader Moctezuma was defeated and over 40k Aztecs were killed, an event that assured the Spanish control of not only Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco, but of all of Mexico too. I have a strange belief I guess that the place in which extreme trauma occurs, there is sometimes a residual emotion and energy, and I've been feeling it all around Mexico, because let's face it, Mexico has had a pretty traumatic history.

What probably touched me most was a plaque that sits over looking the Aztec ruins which reads:

"EL 13 DE AGOSTO DE 1521

HEROICAMENTE DEFENDIDO POR CUAUHTEMOC
CAYO TLATELOLCO EN PODER DE HERNAN CORTES
NO FUE TRIUNFO NI DERROTA
FUE EL DOLOROSO NACIMIENTO DEL PUEBLO MESTIZO
QUE ES EL MEXICO DE HOY"

In English it kinda reads: "Heroically defended by Cuauhtemoc, fell Tlatelolco to the power of Hernan Cortes. It was not a triumph, nor a defeat. It was the painful birth of the Mestizo town, which is the Mexico of today."

I was profoundly touched by this visit and will carry the memory of this place with me in my heart and mind for far longer than the concert that I had come for.

Stay tuned for more as I reflect while I unpack!