youth culture in latin america Flashcards
How was student unrest in Mexico?
There was student unrest with varied grievances + uncoordinated.
What happened in july 26th in 1968?
How did student activism grow from then (1968)?
July 26: students gathered to preach fully celebrate the anniversary of Castro’s first attempt to overthrow Cuba → police were called to disperse the crowd.
Participants reacted and demonstration became violent. 4 people died + hundred were wounded.
more students became radicalised in response to government repression and police brutality.
Protests spread to workers tired of authoritarian governments and corruption
What did students establish?
national strike council and nationwide demonstrations occurred in most high schools and universities.
What was Mexico preparing for in 1968?
The olympic games
What occurred on the 27th of august 1968?
half a million people joined in the biggest anti- government demonstration in Mexican history in Mexico City. → Olympic government wanted to show they had everything under control → armed soldiers + tanks broke up the demonstration → many students were beaten and jailed or killed which increased number + size of demonstrations
What was the protest on the tlatelolco plaza?
10 days before the Olympic Games were due to start→ 5000 students in Tlatelolco plaza protested against the military occupation of the national university, the continued police brutality and the cost of the Olympic Games.
Among the protesters were passers-by, friends sitting down, and children playing.
Demonstrators did not leave when asked → soldiers used tear gas, clubs, rifles with bayonets and automatic weapons on them.
Government claimed the students were armed and aggressive and that the police behaved justly facing provocation
esimated 500 deaths
How did the government handle the incident?
Government kept details of this massacre as quiet as possible until the PRI lost power in 2000. → full investigation of the event.
What were the results of the investigation?
2006: judge ordered the arrest of the 84 year old former president luis echeverria bc of his responsibility for the deaths of the students and others in 68.
Outline the 3 causes for the protests?
counterculture, political and economic discontent
What role did rock n roll play in student activism?
Historian Eric Zoloft (1999) attributed student unrest in part to the British and US Rock’n’Roll music, popular in Mexico in the late 50s.
Middle and upper class young people became influenced by rock n roll’s rejection of traditional values.
How popular had rock n roll become in mexico by 1965?
By 1965 rock music focused on Mexico’s city coffee houses constituted the centre of the Mexican counterculture. → authorities denounced the coffee houses as centres of perversion corrupted by decant foreigners and tried to close them down.
How did the government try and deal with rock n roll?
Government tried discrediting rock n roll by initiating an advertising campaign called “Die Elvis Presley.”
What were the political reasons for which students protested?
Government of Ordaz, in power since 63, repartition stole elections at all levels
Students angry that Mexico, supposedly a democracy, had become a single-party state, run for decades by the PRI
Students felt the PRI betrayed the Mexican revolution of 1910 → half a century after the revolution most Mexicans and indigenous people lived in poverty
Critics said the Olympics were excessively expensive and took money from social programmes.
What were the results of the protests?
Olympics went ahead after massacre at tlatelolco plaza → not much change
