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Myth and Experience in Mexico's 1968 Student Movement

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Myth and Experience in Mexico's 1968 Student Movement UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO The Dividing Line: Myth and Experience in Mexico’s 1968 Student Movement A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Sara Katherine Sanders Committee in Charge: Professor Michael Monteón, Chair Professor Christine Hunefeldt, Co-Chair Professor Milos Kokotovic Professor Everard Meade Professor Eric Van Young 2011 Copyright Sara Katherine Sanders, 2011 All rights reserved. The dissertation of Sara Katherine Sanders is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Co-Chair ________________________________________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2011 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page ……………………………………………………………………….. iii Table of Contents ……………………………………………………………………. iv Chronology of Major Events ………………………………………………………... v Organizations and Acronyms ………………………………………………………... vii Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………….. viii Vita ………………………………………………………………………….………. xi Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………… xii Introduction ………………………………………………………………………….. 1 Chapter 1: The Meaning and Practice of a Student Politics …………………………. 50 Chapter 2: ―To the Streets and Factories‖ ……………………………………………. 97 Chapter 3: ―The Route to Liberty‖ ………………………………………………….. 140 Chapter 4: Radical Mothers and Deviant Sons ……………………………………… 204 Chapter 5: ―We Were in the Vanguard‖ …………………………………………….. 252 Conclusion: A Familiar Tragedy? …………………………………………………… 293 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………… 308 iv CHRONOLOGY OF MAJOR EVENTS July 22 – Fighting breaks out between students from the Vocational Schools 2 and 5 and the Preparatory School ―Isaac Ochoterena‖ after the Preparatory students lost a soccer game to the Vocational students. July 23 – The fighting between Preparatory and Vocational students continues. When the number of students involved exceeds 3,000, more than 200 granaderos are called in to put an end to the conflict. The confrontation then becomes one between students and the state’s riot corp. July 26 – The Federation of Technical Students plans a march to protest the presence of granaderos in the Vocational School 5. On the same day, the National Democratic Students’ Organization and the Communist Youth plan a march in celebration of the Cuban Revolution. The two marches collide, granaderos are called in and fighting continues for days. That night, the Department of Federal Security and Secret Service occupy the offices of the Mexican Communist Party. July 29 – The first strikes are called in the UNAM and the IPN. July 30 – Armed with bazookas, soldiers occupy the UNAM’s Preparatory Schools 1, 3, 4, 5, and San Ildefonso and Vocational Schools 2, 5, and 7. August 1 – The first joint demonstration with students from the UNAM and IPN. The six-point petition, the movement’s official list of demands, is made public. August 5 – The National Strike Committee is officially formed. August 8 – The National Coalition of Professors is formed. August 12 – In a press conference, students propose to engage in a public dialogue with the state. August 13 – The first march to the Zócalo. August 27 – The second march to the Zócalo, beginning at the Museum of History and Anthropology in the Bosque de Chapultepec. Protestors, numbering at least 100,000, demands a public dialogue on September 1 and establish a guard of 3,000 students to occupy the Zócalo until that demand is met. Soldiers clear the square and fighting between students, soldiers, and granaderos continues for days. September 1 – The annual Presidential Address in which Gustavo Díaz Ordaz vows to ―do what is necessary‖ to defend Mexico. v September 13 – The ―Silent Demonstration,‖ beginning at the Museum of History and Anthropology and ending in the Zócalo. Protestors march in silence. September 18 – More than 10,000 soldiers equipped with tanks occupy University City, detaining over 700 students in the process. The fighting between students and soldier continues until the troops withdraw on September 30. September 21 – The conflict is extended to residents of the housing development, Nonoalco-Tlatelolco, when soldiers arrive with tanks looking for members of the National Strike Committee. September 23 – Soldiers occupy the IPN’s Casco de Santo Tomás leaving many wounded and dead. September 27 – The CNH announces a hunger strike of those imprisoned since the beginning of the conflict, scheduled to commence on October 2nd. September 30 – Troops withdraw from the UNAM. October 2 – A protest in Tlatelolco ends in a massacre. vi ORGANIZATIONS AND ACRONYMS Central Nacional de Estudiantes Democráticos (National Center of Democratic Students, CNED) Coalición Nacional de Profesores (National Coalition of Professors) Confederación de Trabajadores de México (Confederation of Mexican Workers, CTM) Consejo Nacional de Huelga (National Strike Committee, CNH) Dirección Federal de Seguridad (Directorate of Federal Security, DFS) Federacion de Estudiantes Socialista Campesino de México (Federation of Socialist Campesino Students of Mexico, FESCM) Federación Nacional de Estudiantes Tecnicos (National Federation of Technical Students, FNET) Instituto Politécnico Nacional (National Polytechnic Institute, IPN) Juventud Comunista (Communist Youth) Liga Comunista Espartaco (Spartacus Communist League) Movimiento Universitario de Renovadora Orientación (University Movement for Moral Regeneration, MURO) Partido Revolutionario Institutional (Revolutionary Institutional Party, PRI) Partido Comunista de México (Mexican Communist Party) Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM) Union Nacional de Estudiantes Revolucionarios (National Union of Revolutionary Students) Union Nacional de Mujeres Mexicana (National Union of Mexican Women, The Union or UNMM) vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the support of my advisors, Michael Monteón and Christine Hunefeldt, as well as my committee members Eric Van Young, Everard Meade, and Milos Kokotovic. Michael closely supervised the project from its germination as a seminar paper to the present, reading multiple drafts of each dissertation chapter, providing professional advice and encouragement at key moments during my time at both UCSD and Oxford, and putting far too much of his time into mentorship at every stage of the doctoral process. Christine opened my eyes to the art of fine historiographical writing and served as an exemplary and inspiring role model for a junior scholar. Eric’s colonial Latin America minor field exposed me to the richness of that literature, and the introduction to his The Other Rebellion has inspired numerous close re-readings. Ev’s expertise in Mexican history has helped me better frame my historiographical claims and locate my dissertation within the scope of twentieth century Mexico. Misha’s understanding of power and state violence proved invaluable as I analyzed the state response to the social protest. The Department of History at UCSD has, over the years, provided a lively and educational environment, both intellectual and professionally. I want to thank the many faculty, staff, and students who have taken their time to share ideas, solve problems, and unravel bureaucratic riddles whose answers would have otherwise eluded me. The International Gender Studies Center at the University of Oxford, in particular Maria Jaschok, Paula Heinonen, and Judith Okely (most notably for her mentorship, viii stories, and friendship) gave me the space in which to formulate the central ideas of the dissertation’s thesis, and discuss these in a supportive and collegial setting. Funding for dissertation research and writing came at various stages, and in varying amounts, but all of it was deeply appreciated. Support from the UC Regents and UC MEXUS allowed me to chase archival materials during multiple years as a graduate student at UCSD; thanks are also due to the Tinker Fellowship, Oaxaca Summer Institute, UCSD’s Institute for the Humanities, the Institute for International Comparative Area Studies, the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies, and the Pacific Rim Research Program for their willingness to encourage my participation in various scholarly endeavors in both Mexico and the US. Sincerest thanks are also due to the many archivists at the UNAM and AGN for introducing me to the intricacies of their respective holdings; the movement participants whose sincerity and ideals I have attempted to honor in the re-telling; the many non- UCSD graduate students and faculty working on mid-20th century Latin American social movements who shared their findings and enthusiasm for the subject. Finally, thank you to my father, Robert Sanders, for moral and financial support, and for reading multiple drafts, and to my sister, Lilly Sanders, for her research, companionship and encouragement; Jerree Sanders for her editing; Bo Ubbens for his encouragement; Catherine Byers and Lee Toombs for sustenance material and non- material; my brother-in-law Geoffrey Johnson for his steadfast friendship and support. My mother, Ramona Byers Sanders, did not live to see the completion of this project but her presence was felt throughout and
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