On the night of October 2, 1968, there occurred a bloody showdown
between student demonstrators and the Mexican government in Tlatelolco
Square. At least two hundred students were shot dead and many more were
detained. Then the bodies were trucked out, the cobblestones were washed
clean. Detainees were held without recourse until 1971.
Official denial of the killing continues even today: In the first week
of February 2003, Mexico's Education Secretary Reyes Tamiz ordered a new
history textbook that mentions the massacre-Claudia Sierra's History of
Mexico: An Analytical Approach-removed from shelves and classrooms.
(Public outcry led Tamiz to reverse his decision days later.) No one has
yet been held accountable for the official acts of savagery.
With provocative, anecdotal, and analytical prose, Taibo claims for
history "one more of the many unredeemed and sleepless ghosts that live
in our lands."