1968 olympic dreams and tlatelolco nightmares: Imagining and imaging modernity on television

Mexican Studies - Estudios Mexicanos

Volumn 26, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 1-30

  De Bustamante, Celeste González ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA   (United States)

Author keywords

1968,mass media; Authoritarianism; History; Journalism; Mexico; Modernity; Social movements; Student movements; Television; Television news

Indexed keywords

EID: 77951728589     PISSN: 07429797     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/msem.2010.26.1.1     Document Type: Article

References (89)

1. Paul Kennedy, "Mexico Prepares for 1968 Olympics: Finance Committee Meets on Housing Problems,"The New York Times, 3 July 1965, p. 13
2. Over the past forty years scores of scholars have generated a sizable body of literature in Spanish focusing on the student movements of 1968 and the massacre at the Plaza de la Tres Culturas froma variety of perspectives. Some of themost prominentworks include Sérgio Aguayo, 1968: Los archivos de la violencia (Mexico: Grijalbo/Reforma, 1998)
3. Raúl Alvarez Garín, La estela de Tlatelolco: Una reconstrucción histórica Movimiento estudiantíl del 68 (Mexico: Grijalbo, 1998)
4. Elena Poniatowska, La noche de Tlatelolco:Testimonios de historia oral (Mexico:Ediciones Era, 1971)
5. José Revueltas,México 68: juventud y revolución (Mexico: Ediciones Era, 1978)
6. Julio Scherer García and Carlos Monsivaís, Parte de Guerra, Tlatelolco 1968:Documentos del General Marcelino García Barragán: los hechos y la historia (Mexico: Siglo/Aguilar, 1999)
7. Kevin B. Witherspoon, Before the Eyes of theWorld:Mexico and the 1968 Olympics (DeKalb:Northern Illinois University, 2008) analyzes the myriad of controversies surrounding the XIX Olympiad, including the government crackdown on students. Diana Sorensen examines the work of literary figures such as Octavio Paz and their relationship to politics, modernity, and post-modernity in A Turbulent Decade Remembered:Scenes fromthe Latin American Sixties (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2007)
8. Aurora Cano Andaluz, 1968:antología periodística (México:UNAM, Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas, 1993)
9. Carey, Plaza of Sacrifices:Gender, Power and Terror in 1968Mexico, pp. 128-130
10. Aguayo, 1968: Los archivos de la violencia, p. 221
11. In thisway, this article furthers the research of Eric Zolov, "Showcasing the 'Land of Tomorrow':Mexico and the 1968 Olympics,"The Americas 61: 2 (2004), pp. 159-188, as well as Witherspoon, Before the Eyes of the World
12. A larger study of newscast scripts from 1950 to 1970 produced similar results. See Celestine González de Bustamante, "Tele-visiones (tele-visiones): The Making of Mexican Television News, 1950-1970" (Ph.D. diss., University of Arizona, 2006)
13. Nestor Garcia Canclini, Culturas híbridas:Estratégias para entrar y salir de la modernidad (Buenos Aires: Paidós, 2001)
14. Jesús Martín-Barbero, Communication, Culture, and Hegemony: From the Media to Mediations, trans. Elizabeth Fox and Robert A. White (London: Sage, 1993), p. 151
15. William Gamson and André Modigliani, "Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power: A Constructionist Approach,"The American Journal of Sociology 95, 1 (1989): pp. 1-37
16. Jorge Perezvega, interviewwith the author. 6 August 2009
17. Ana Ignacia Rodríguez, interview with the author. 5 August 2009
18. "Mexico,"International TV Almanac (NewYork:Quigley Publishing Co., 1961)
19. "Mexico," International TV Almanac (New York: Quigley Publishing Co., 1970)
20. Luis Antonio De Noriega and Francis Leach, Broadcasting in Mexico (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979), p. 58
21. In this way, the essay contributes to a recent trend in the literature on the Cold War and Mexico and Latin America that moves beyond treating the conflict as a phenomenon primarily influenced by two superpowers. See Greg Grandin's The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the ColdWar (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2004)
22. Gilbert M. Joseph andDaniela Spenser eds., In fromthe Cold:Latin America's NewEncounterwith the Cold War (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008)
23. Christopher M. White, Creating a ThirdWorld:Mexico, Cuba and the United States during the Castro Era (Albuquerque:University ofNewMexico Press, 2007)
24. and Kevin B.Witherspoon, Before the Eyes of theWorld
25. Richard Cole, ed. Communication in Latin America (Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 1996)
26. Fátima Fernández Christlieb, Los medios de difusión masiva en México (Mexico: J. Pablos, 1982)
27. Claudia Fernández and AndrewPaxman, El Tigre:Emilio Azcárraga y su imperio Televisa (Mexico: Grijalbo, 2000)
28. Leonardo Ferreira, Centuries of Silence:The Story of Latin American Journalism(Westport, CT:Praeger, 2006)
29. Chapell Lawson, Building the Fourth Estate:Democratization and the Rise of the Free Press in Mexico (Berkeley:University of California Press, 2006)
30. Sallie Hughes, Newsrooms in Conflict: Journalismand the Democratization ofMexico (Pittsburgh:University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006)
31. Francisco Martínez Medellín, Televisa: Siga la huella (Mexico City: Claves Latinoamericanas, 1992)
32. Marjorie Miller and Juanita Darling, "Emilio Azcárraga and the Televisa Empire," in A Culture of Collusion: An Inside Look at the Mexican Press, ed. William A. Orme, Jr. (Miami: North-South Center, 1997)
33. Guillermo Orozco Gómez, "La televisión en México,"in Histórias de la televisión en América Latina:Argentina, Brasil, Colombia, Chile, México, Venezuela, eds. Guillermo Orozco Gómez and Nora Maziotti (Barcelona:Gedisa, 2002), pp. 59-70
34. Alex Saragoza, TheMedia and the State:the Origins of Televisa (forthcoming)
35. John Sinclair, Latin American Television:A Global View (New York:Oxford University Press, 1999)
36. Thomas Skidmore, Television, Politics, and the Transition to Democracy in Latin America (Washington, D.C.:WoodrowWilson Center Press, 1993)
37. Raúl Trejo Delabre, ed. Las redes de Televisa (México: Claves Latinoamericanas, 1988)
38. and Trejo Delabre, ed. El quinto poder (Mexico: Claves Latinoamericanas, 1985)
39. Kevin B.Witherspoon's Before the Eyes of theWorld:Mexico and the 1968 Olympic Games is one of the fewwho has looked at the intersection between these two events
40. Before the Eyes of theWorld:Mexico and the 1968 Olympic Games is one of the fewwho has looked at the intersection between these two events, Ibid, 119
41. Mexico's student movements of 1968 were distinct from many other social and political movements throughout the world. Certainly, the historical factors that inspired and led to social unrestwere different thanmovements in the United States, Brazil, France, and Czechoslovakia. Nevertheless, television and othermassmedia functioned to connect themovements in no smallway. For an intriguing look at student protests around theworld and government responses to them see, Mark Kurlansky, 1968: The Year that Rocked the World (New York: Ballantine, 2004)
42. Enrique E. Sánchez Ruiz, "Los medios de difusión masiva y la centralización en México,"Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 4, 1 (1988): pp. 25-54
43. For a cogent discussion of the internal and external factors that inspired the students of 1968 see, Carey, Plaza of Sacrifices, 29-35
44. Witherspoon, Before the Eyes of theWorld, p. 50. Telesistema televised the Pan-Am Games, which served as significant training for personnel who prepared for broadcasts of the XIX Olympiad, as did the "Little Olympics,"held in Mexico City in 1965
45. Zolov, "Showcasing the 'Land of Tomorrow': Mexico and the 1968 Olympics."
46. Francisco Alba and Joseph E. Potter, "Population andDevelopment inMexico Since 1940: An Interpretation,"Population and Development Review 12, 4 (1986), pp. 47-75
47. Tlatelolcowas the site of one of the preeminent pre-Hispanicmarketplaces in the Valley of Mexico; see Charles Gibson, Aztecs under Spanish Rule:A History of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico (1519-1810) (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1964), p. 352
48. Krauze, La Presidencia Imperial, p. 379
49. Diana Sorensen, "Tlatelolco 1968: Paz and Poniatowska on Law and Violence,"MS/EM 18, 2 (2002), p. 304
50. Poniatowska, La noche, p. 167
51. CBS news reporter Bert Quint's account of themassacre provides one of the best audiovisual sources available to the public. See CBS News, 3 October 1968, Vanderbilt Television News Archive
52. Patricia Fournier and Jorge Martinez, "México 1968: Entre las fanfarrias olímpicas, la represión gubernamental y el genocidio," in P. Funari and A. Zarankin (eds.), Arqueología de la represión y resistencia en América Latina en la rea de las dictaduras (decadas de 1960-1980), Colección "Con-textos Humanos (Colombia, Argentina: Encuentro Grupo Editor, Editorial Brujas, 2006), pp. 67-102
53. Colin M. MacLachlan and William H. Beezley, El Gran Pueblo: A History of Greater Mexico (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1999), p. 407
54. National Security Archives, RG 59, 1967-1969 Pol 23-8Mex, Box 2343. Document can be accessed at http://www.gwu.edu/nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB99/
55. While titles tended to be one to three words, in the October 2, 1968, Su Diario Nescafé rundown, I have expanded the titles tomore clearly reflect the topic of each report
56. Su Diario Nescafé, 2October 1968. All scripts are housed at Televisa's Filmoteca de Noticieros in the Estadio Azteca, which Grupo Televisa owns, along with the soccer team Club América
57. Interview with author. 5 August 2008
58. González de Bustamante, "Tele-visiones (tele-visiones), pp. 96-135
59. Historian Enrique Krauze called Díaz Ordaz "the lawyer of order," in La Presidencia Imperial: Ascenso y Caída del Sistema Político Mexicano, 1940-1996 (Mexico: Tusques Editores, 2002), p. 8
60. Poniatowska, "1968, Año delmovimiento estudiantíl enMéxico"(Paper presented at COMEXUS,Mexico-U.S. Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange,Mexico City, 2005)
61. Noticiero Canal 2, 2 October 1968
62. Noticiero Novedades, 2 October 1968
63. Official documents and testimony have revealed that government officials dressed in plain clothes fired the shots from the top of the Ministry of Exterior Relations building, which overlooks the Plaza de las Tres Culturas. See Julio Scherer García and Carlos Monsivais, Parte de Guerra II:Los Rostros del 68 (Mexico:Nuevo Siglo, 2002), pp. 69, 70
64. Scherer García and Monsivais, Tlatelolco:Documentos del general Marcelino García Barragán. Los hechos y la historia (Mexico: Nuevo Siglo, 1999), pp. 179
65. General Hernández Toledo's four children who were involved in the student movement chose not to attend theOctober 2meeting at the Plaza de Tlatelolco. See Aguayo, 1968: Los archivos de la violencia, p. 221
66. Patricia Fournier and Jorge Martinez, "Violencia y memória histórica: Tlatelolco 1968," in Antropología y Simbolismo, Patrica Fournier, Saúl Millán, María Eugenia Olavarría, coordinadores (México: INAH, 2007), p. 182
67. Noticiero General Motors, 27 June 1958
68. Interview by author. 5 August 2008
69. "Girl Who Carries Torch for Mexico also Loves Sports,"The New York Times, 13 October 1968, p. S3
70. México '68: 25 años después, Televisa, 1993, videocassette
71. "Girl Who Carries Torch for Mexico also Loves Sports," The New York Times
72. Rodríguez was imprisoned three times between 1968 and 1970. She spent almost two years incarcerated in a women's prison from January 3, 1969, to December 31, 1970. Interview by author. 5 August 2009
73. Interview by author. 5 August 2009
74. Many of the student- and faculty-produced images were published by former students of the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas, Arnulfo Aquino and Jorge Perezvega, in Imágenes y símbolos del 68: Fotografía y gráfica del movimiento estudiantil (México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2004)
75. Jorge Perezvega, interview by author. 6 August 2009
76. Aguayo, 1968 Los archivos de la violencia, pp. 222-223
77. Steve Cady, "Mexicans Mix Tears of Pride and Joy as Friendliness Overflows at Olympics,"The New York Times, 13 October 1968, p. S3
78. Perezvega, interview by author, 6 August 2009
79. Miguel Alemán Velasco, interview by author. 6 August 2009
80. MiriamDelal Baer, "Television and Political Control inMexico"(Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1991), p. 118
81. Miguel Alemán Velasco, interview by author. 14 March 2006
82. Miriam Delal Baer, "Television and Political Control in Mexico,"p. 123
83. Alemán Velasco, interview by author. 6 August 2009
84. The importance of centralization among mass media, especially with respect to television, is difficult overstate. See Sánchez Ruiz, "Los medios de difusión masiva y la centralización en México."
85. Poniatowska, Todo México, Tomo V (Mexico: Editorial Diana, 1999), p. 172
86. Fernández and Paxman, El Tigre:Emilio Azcárraga y su imperio Televisa (Mexico: Grijalbo, 2000), p. 144
87. Julia Preston, "News and (State) Anchor Weighs His," The New York Times, 20 January 1998
88. Liliana Alcántara, "AI demanda reabrir indagación sobre el 68," El Universal, 2 October 2008. http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/ nacion/162735.html [accessed 2 October 2008]
89. Sánchez Ruiz, "Los medios de difusión y la centralización en México."