Citia Velazquez Marroni works at the University Cultural Center based at Tlatelolco. Among other things, she provides guided visits to "The '68 Memorial" exhibit.
Tlatelolco or "The Plaza of the Three Cultures" is where an unknown number of people died when hundreds of police were sent in to disrupt a protest and arrest the student leaders. The government claims 30 protestors died, while most estimates are between 200-300. As many as 1000 protestors, mostly students, were arrested. For an excellent virtual tour, go to the Cultural Center's website and click on the video above "Recorrido virtual."
Given her knowledge of the movement of the late 60's and early 70's, plus the fact that she is a university student herself, Cintia is an excellent person to turn to in order to understand comparative changes in youth politics and popular culture. As you'll remember, that is the main question explored near the end of both articles, especially Podalski's. Cintia has keen comparative insights that will add a great deal to our understanding of youth culture in Mexico and the relationship between popular culture and politics.
This will be the first of a few posts based on the interview with Cintia. I will post a short video here where she argues that while there has been some "depoliticization," it is more a matter of how young people enact politics today. Below the video is a quick translation (Remember, I am using an iPhone for video, so be kind):
Transcript:
"I think that, yes, there has been some depoliticization to a certain point, but what has mainly changed is the way of doing politics. The youth of the 60's--I am not sure about other parts of the world, but here in Mexico--I get the impression from today's vantage point and as a young person, that they were very boxed in. They believed in ideologies that were very strict concerning what communism is, what capitalism is. They would read political books like they were Bibles. Suddenly there was a seriousness that was, I would say, sometimes exaggerated. You had to be a revolutionary, you had to listen to protest music. Rock was the music of the capitalists, it was superfluous. You had to sing music that was purely Latin American."
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