Mexico in the Worldwide Expansive Wave of ’68. From Insurrectional Utopia to the Mutilated Revolution

Abstract

My objective in this paper is to dialogue analytically on the centennial commemorations of a cycle of revolutions by presenting a particular, creative, reading of the 50 years of worldwide mobilizations that oc-curred in 1968. That century of conflagrations, social insurrections, and collective student actions together generated a set of contexts that are significant because they highlight, and allow us to place in perspective, the mobilization of Mexican students that, through novel forms of so-ciopolitical interpellation, confronted the authoritarian Mexican State established, paradoxically, due to the outbreak of the 1910 Revolution. The diversity and complexity of the legacies of the revolutions of the 20th century, especially those in Russia, Cuba, and Mexico, are the anchors I grasp to expound a new vision –unusual, generational, and evocative– of Mexico 1968. Those inheritances came to form the transmission, enjoyment, usufruct, and patrimony of a historical memory that clothes us in an identity as citizens –male and female– of our current world. The article discusses historical continuities and ruptures from a transnational focus, placing value on the revolutionary par-adigm as a foundational link between past and present.

Keywords

• cycle of revolutions in the 20th century
• worldwide mobilizations of 1968
• mexico 1968
• insurrectional utopia
• mutilated revolution