Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco, Mexico City 1968

Instructions for Group 1

You are Dona Maria, 78 years old and a life-long citizen of Mexico City.  In 1968, during the Mexican “Dirty War” your son Roberto (who was then a 20 year old college student) was shot and killed by the police as he protested against the government at Tlatelolco Plaza.  Roberto, a promising and intelligent young man, was one of hundreds of young people who were killed that night by government forces.  As you become old and ill, you must give a speech to a group of politicians at City Hall next week.  You have been asked to give your insight on the 1968 Massacre because your son died in the massacre. 

Write your speech for the officials including information from researching the documents linked below along with other resources and make sure to discuss the following:

1. Talk about your feelings surrounding the leaders who were responsible for the Dirty War and your son’s death.
2. Talk about the possibility of prosecution of officials who committed crimes during the 1960’s and 1970’s.
3. What do you think a just punishment should be for those officials?
4. How do you feel about it taking so long for justice to be done?

• Human Rights and the Dirty War in Mexico

• Arrests in Dirty War Case

• The Dawn of Mexico's Dirty War

• A Reflection on the Tlatelolco Massacre of October 2, 1968

• Chronology of Events, May 1-4, 1970, Kent State, Ohio

• Tlatelolco Massacre

• Understanding

Speeches need an interesting introduction and a memorable conclusion to go along with your main ideas.

Grading Rubric  24 pts total

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Instructions for Group 2

On the night of October 2, 1968, you and many of your college classmates gathered in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco to continue protests against the government for limiting freedoms in Mexico. When soldiers fired into the crowd that night, killing a number of your friends and colleagues, you managed to escape with a bullet wound that has since limited your use of your right arm.  Now some 35 or so years after that night you read about a meeting at City Hall where the prosecution of officials who committed crimes during the 1960s and 1970s in Mexico’s “Dirty War” will be discussed.  You plan to attend the meeting and speak to the group of politicians assembled at the meeting because you have special insight few others have, since you were there.

Write your speech for the officials including information from researching the documents linked below along with other resources and make sure to discuss the following:

1.     Talk about your feelings surrounding the leaders who were responsible forthe Dirty War and your disability and the death of your friends.

2.     Talk about the possibility of prosecution of officials who committed crimes during the 1960’s and 1970’s.

3.     What do you think a just punishment should be for those officials?

4.     How do you feel about it taking so long for justice to be done?

• Student Movements around the Globe

• Taking It Global

• The 1968 Mexican Student Movement

• The Anti-War Movement in the United States

• The Student Protest Movement of the 1960s

• Tiananmen Square

• TIME--The Generation Gap

• Student Movements

 

Speeches need an interesting introduction and a memorable conclusion to go along with your main ideas.

Grading Rubric  24 pts total

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Instructions for Group 3

It is October of 1968 and your job as spokesperson for President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz of the Institutional Revolution Party has become very difficult due to large-scale student protests and social unrest.  President Diaz has asked you to make a speech trying to clam some of the unrest by reassuring the students that the government still supports and follows the goals and ideals of the Mexican Revolution.  You need to write a speech that does what the president has asked you to do, to give to the people on a special broadcast on TV tomorrow night.

Write your speech for the broadcast including information from researching the documents linked below along with other resources and make sure to discuss the following:

1.     What were the goals and ideals of the Revolution?

2.     What is the government doing these days to continue trying to meet those goals?

3.     Why can the students trust the government?

• Headlines in the Major Daily Newspapers in Mexico City on Thursday, October 3, 1968

• It's Only a Beginning

• Mexico's Dirty War Has Been a Secret for Too Long

• Mexico: Investigation continues into 1970s Dirty War

• 20th Century Mexico

• CIA Files

Speeches need an interesting introduction and a memorable conclusion to go along with your main ideas.

Grading Rubric  24 pts total

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