All photos by Hugh Siegel ©2009
It's hard to believe, but I didn't know that the day I went to visit Tlatlelolco was the anniversary of the massacre. It was pure coincidence. What are the odds? Well, 1 in 365, I suppose. The museum, before noon, seemed rather quiet -- though I did hear one of the staff mention that there seemed to be a number of people there that day. But it was just a few school groups. Nothing too out of the ordinary.
As I took in the panorama of the era and the events that shook the nation that year, I was led along through a chronology. Student unions were formed. Strikes took place. Encounters with the authorities heated up. With the Olympics scheduled to open in the fall, the government was increasingly nervous about the protests, which were taking place quite close to the Olympic Village.
Then I entered the room that focused on the massacre itself. Incredibly, it was that very day -- October 2nd -- exactly 41 years earlier.
Naturally, I made my way up to the Plaza to see what was going on and how this day was being commemorated. Before I knew it, tens of thousands of students and old-timers had gathered in the plaza and around the museum. Busloads of groups were being shuttled in with giant banners. Groups of kids were chanting epithets -- and I was soon swept away in it all.
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