Chronicle
Massacre in Mexico
La noche de Tlatelolco
Elena Poniatowska · 1971
Synopsis
A chorus of voices on the student movement of 1968 in Mexico City and on the night of 2 October, when the army and the police fired on the crowd gathered in the Plaza of the Three Cultures, at Tlatelolco. Students, workers, parents, teachers, domestic servants, soldiers and civil servants, supporters or opponents of the movement, recount the momentum of the demonstrations, then the shooting, the families' waiting, the prison. The testimonies intertwine, without commentary.
Context
The author began collecting testimonies in October and November 1968 and continued for two years; the book appeared in 1971 from Ediciones Era. It received the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize, which she refused. The student Luis González de Alba, imprisoned after 2 October, reproaches her for having drawn on his own book; a court decision obliged her to correct the text. Helen Lane's English translation appeared in 1975, with a preface by Octavio Paz.
Who it is for
A large book of short, often harsh testimonies, to be read in fragments; translated into French and English.
Prizes and reception
Her best-known book and perhaps the most frequently reissued Mexican book of recent decades, regarded as an emblematic text of the country.
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