Art and Identity in Mexico, from Olmec Times to the Present

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 05.02.05

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Rationale
  2. Playing the Game
  3. Meaning of the Game
  4. Conflict Resolution
  5. Olympic Games
  6. Modern Olympic Games
  7. Sports and Athletics in the United States
  8. Sports, Athletics, and War
  9. 1968 Olympics
  10. Conflict Resolution and the 1968 Olympics
  11. Appendix # 1: Bul: A Mayan Game of Chance
  12. Appendix # 2
  13. Appendix # 3: The Maya Ballgame
  14. Annotated Bibliography
  15. Web Sites
  16. Appendix # 4: Teacher Resource
  17. Appendix # 5: Standards

Conflict and Resolution through Sports: A Question of Civil Rights: The 1968 Olympics and Tlatelolco

Carol M. Petett

Published September 2005

Tools for this Unit:

1968 Olympics

"The goal of Olympism is to place every where sport at the service of the harmonious development of men, with a view to encouraging the establishment of a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity" (Olympic Charter; Fundamental Principles, paragraph 3)

The International Olympic Committee, headed by Avery Brundage from the United States, selected Mexico City as the site for the XIX Olympics. The Olympic Games would be held from October 5-27, 1968. This would be the first time the Olympics would be held in a Spanish-speaking country and the event would give Mexico a place of prominence among Latin American countries. The Mexican economy had been booming for years and the Olympics would demonstrate to the rest of the world how modernized and civilized "progressive" it was.

With that goal in mind in 1963 the XIX Olympic Games were scheduled for Mexico City in 1968. But 1968 was not to be an ordinary year with people around the world looking forward to the Olympic Games. Major Political events and turmoil around the world marked every month of 1968 and would shape the events that took place in Mexico leading up to the Olympics (Appendix A).

The Mexican government spared no expense in providing excellent facilities for the athletes, retainers and journalists who would come to Mexico for the Olympic Games. This event would also become a cultural event to showcase Mexican history and culture and help diffuse old ideas that the nation was uncivilized and corrupt... Over 140 million dollars would be spent on the Olympics. But, this also included money spent on buildings that would be used later by the general population for housing and recreation. Some of this money would also be used as a capital investment in the tourist business, which was an important source of profit and foreign exchange for the Mexican economy.

But not everyone in the athletic community was pleased with the decision to hold the Games in Mexico. There was widespread concern for the medical condition of the athletes. Doctors and athletes were afraid the high altitude, over 7,000 feet above sea level would deprive athletes of oxygen, especially those athletes who had to compete over long distances. A few countries felt their athletes might die competing under such physically stressful conditions. Some countries even went so far as to build high-altitude sports centers to test the affects of altitude on athletes.

The British Olympic Association brought a proposal from the International Olympics Committee stating that a period of no less than four weeks in the last three months prior to the Olympics be spent in training at high altitudes to acclimate athletes to the high altitudes. Some countries would allow their athletes a longer time to train at high altitudes, which many believed gave those participants an unfair advantage in the games.

At home in Mexico everyone was not happy about the Olympics. Students at colleges around Mexico City protested the cuts to education which they associated with the high cost of the Olympics. Student protested that too much money was being spent on the Olympics. While the government spent millions of pesos on the construction of stadiums, hotels, housing for athletes, and a new subway to move the tourists around, students questioned the millions of pesos that were taken away from programs to alleviate widespread poverty among Mexicans.

This was the tone of the city when on the evening of July 22, 1968, two rival groups of students fought in the Ciudadela neighborhood of Mexico City. Fights between these two groups of students, one from the preparatory school who were part of the National Autonomous University (UNAM) system and the other, from the vocational students from the less prestigious National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) were not uncommon. Some fights between these groups of adolescent boys were to prove masculinity; other times the fights were caused by class tensions brought about by the different social classes each group represented. In the past these fights were seen as minor events between adolescent boys. In the months leading up to this event there had been other instances of student upheaval. Some students had stolen and destroyed city busses as a protest over fare increases and cuts to service. But, with the Olympic Games looming and the whole world watching, the government felt it needed to take aggressive action to protect both its international image and assure the word community that the games would go on. The day after the fight in the Ciudadela neighborhood, the riot police (granaderos) were sent to stop the student protests. The police reacted so violently to the students that protests were lodged. By some accounts at least one student was killed by the police, and his body never returned to his family for burial. These two events at Ciudadela, the student fight and the overt police reaction would become defined as the starting point for the Tlatelolco Massacre of 1968.

In response to the granaderos' attack on the students, the IPN called for a protest. A demonstration was called for by FNET, the organization for IPN students, on July 26. FNET demanded that the government disband the granaderos or dismiss its leaders for the violence against the students on July 22. On that same date, July 26, another group was planning a demonstration. A group of UNAM students planned to celebrate the anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. Both groups received the proper authorization to demonstrate. The groups of students from FNET and UNAM mingled and stopped to listen to the speeches commemorating the Cuban Revolution. As the students mingled together they came too close to the Zocalo, the main square and the site of the Presidential Palace, an unauthorized demonstration zone. They were met there by the granaderos who attacked and brutally dispersed the students.

The students sought protection from the police in surrounding buildings and overturned buses to build barricades. After three days the police and the army moved into the area, claiming that the public was in danger, to disperse and arrest the students.

Supporters, both teachers and fellow students, of the UNAM and IPN schools started a National Strike Council and strikes spread throughout Mexico City's schools. The rector of UNAM led a demonstration of between 50- 100,000 people from the university into the city. On August 5, the rector of IPN led an even larger demonstration for missing and dead students.

The clashes between students and police continued the entire month of August. The last of four major demonstrations occurred on August 27 and totaled between 200,000 to 400,000 people. These demonstrations were held in front of the National Palace where speakers publicly denounced President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz. The public denunciation of the president broke with the political tradition of never publicly criticizing the Mexican head of state.

After weeks of restraint the government called out troops to occupy the grounds of UNAM. Thousands of students and their teachers were arrested. Despite continued disturbances and street fights the government troops remained in control. Three weeks before the Olympic Games were to begin army troops were positioned outside the gates to the main Olympic stadium. As the date for the Olympics approached, on October 2 ("La Noche Triste"), an unauthorized student rally of 5-10,000 students and residents took place at Tlateloco, the Plaza of the Three Cultures. The army surrounded the demonstrators and fired indiscriminately into the crowd killing dozens of students, women and children, and wounding hundreds more. The shooting continued for hours. As many as 1500 student activists were arrested, many never seen or heard from again, as well as journalists and foreign correspondents. This was the last of the student demonstrations of 1968.

The government confiscated film from reporters showing the events of the massacre and issued a statement which said that army troops had been fired on by student demonstrators from the surrounding buildings and returned fire in self-defense. The official story released by the government was that 32 people were killed. The demonstrators have always disagreed with this number of dead released by the government and estimated that at least 300 people , possibly more, were killed by the army.

The Olympics were held without any further disturbance. Students returned to their classes and the Mexican student movement ended with little to show for it other than the deaths of several hundred students and the arrests of hundreds more.

The XIX Mexico Olympics would become games known for the number of athletic records, which still stand today, and policy records that were broken. To the people of Mexico, 1968 would have a different meaning.

The 1968 were a milestone for women. Of the 6,000 competitors close to 800 were women. The XIX games marked the first time the Olympic torch was carried by a woman. The woman was Enrirqueta Basilio, a Mexican runner in the 400 meters. The 1968 games was also the first year that women competing had to undergo a sex test to ensure their gender.

Although women began to see some equality, African Americans felt they were not being treated as fairly at home. Black African nations and the Soviet Union had threatened to boycott the games over the participation of South Africa and its policy of apartheid and thereby reduce the number of athletes participating in the games. The Civil Rights movement in the United States was in a state of disarray with the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King jr. on April 4 of that year. Along with that was the continuing question of "apartheid" and South Africa's participation in the games. Prior to the games Harry Edwards, a sociology instructor at San Jose State College, had tried to organize a boycott of all black athletes participating in the 1968 games. The idea of a boycott originated at the Black Power Conference held at Newark, New Jersey, in1967. The boycott was to emphasize the inequities faced by black athletes in America daily. By 1968, the idea of a boycott had lost favor with the athletes who felt they had trained and worked too hard to win their positions at the games. A decision was made for the participants to make a symbolic gesture such as wearing black armbands.

John Carlos and Tommie Smith, roommates and students at San Jose State College, demonstrated their discontent with the status of black Americans at home by quietly planning their own protest. Tommie Smith won the 200 m race and John Carlos received a bronze medal in the same race. As the Star Spangled banner played both men closed their eyes, bowed their heads and raised black gloved fists into the air. Smith raised his right hand to represent Black power in America, and Carlos raised his left hand to represent the unity of Black America. Later Smith explained that together they formed an arch of unity and power. The black scarf Smith wore around his neck represented black pride; their black socks with no shoes represented black poverty in racist America.

Their protest was met with boos from the spectators who felt the Olympics were no place for politics. After the demonstration both men suffered the consequences of their actions. The IOC was outraged and made the two men ineligible for any other games; they were suspended from the U.S. National team and were thrown out of the Olympic Village. When they returned home they received death threats. Finally in 1998, both men were honored on the thirtieth anniversary of their protest.

In the high jump Dick Fosbury of the U.S. introduced a new technique. He launched off his outside foot and went over the bar with his body facing upwards. With his new style he won the gold medal in the high jump.

Long Jumper, Bob Beamon of the U.S. hit everything perfectly and set a world record at 29 ft. 2.5 inches.

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