¹ The historiography on 1968 in Mexico is vast and continues to expand, especially as access to government documents on both sides of the border becomes available. With very few exceptions, however, virtually all of the literature focuses on the question of state repression and student protest to the utter exclusion of the broader cultural context of this period. The recent historiography from the Mexican perspective includes Quezada, Sergio Aguayo, 1968: Los archivos de la violencia (Mexico City: Editorial Grijalbo/Reforma, 1998);Google Scholar Garín, Raúl Alvarez, La estrela de Tlatelolco: Una reconstrución histórica del movimiento estudiantil del 68 (Mexico City: Grijalbo, 1998),Google Scholar García, Julio Scherer & Monsiváis, Carlos, Parte de Guerra: Tlatelolco 1968 (Mexico City: Nuevo Siglo/Aguilar, 1999);Google Scholar Montemayor, Carlos, Rehacer la historia: Análisis de los nuevos documentos del 2 de octubre de 1968 en Tlatelolco (Mexico City: Planeta, 2000).Google Scholar Important exceptions to this trend include Kuri, Ariel Rodríguez, “El otro 68: Política y estilo en la organización de los juegos olímpicos de la ciudad de México,” Relaciones 19 (Fall 1998), pp. 109–29;Google Scholar Volpi, Jorge, La imaginación y el poder: Una historia intelectual de 1968 (Mexico: Era, 1998);Google Scholar Zolov, Eric, Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar For critical interpretations of how 1968 evolved as a trope of heroic resistance to state repression in Mexican memory see Frazier, Lessie Jo and Cohen, Deborah, “Defining the Space of Mexico ‘68: Heroic Masculinity in the Prison and ‘Women’ in the Streets,” Hispanic American Historical Review 83:4 (November 2003), pp. 617–60;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Markarian, Vania, “El movimiento estudiantil mexicano de 1968: Treinta años de debates públicos,” Anuario de Espacios Urbanos (2001), pp. 239–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For a new work treating the 1968 Olympics within the historiography of black protest see Bass, Amy, Not the Triumph but the Struggle: The 1968 Olympics and the Making of the Black Athlete (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2002).Google Scholar

² Volpi, La Imaginación y el poder is one of the few works to treat this important aspect of the decade.

³ See for example Kuri, Ariel Rodríguez, “Hacia México 68: Pedro Ramírez Vázquez y el proyecto olímpico,” Secuencia 56 (May-August 2003), pp. 37–73;Google Scholar Rodríguez Kuri, “El otro 68.”

⁴ Kuri, Rodríguez, “Hacia México 68,” p. 53.Google Scholar

⁵ Ibid. Emphasis in original.

⁶ See Tenorio-Trillo, Mauricio, Mexico at the World's Fairs: Crafting a Modern Nation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996);Google Scholar Tenorio-Trillo, Mauricio, “1910 Mexico City: Space and Nation in the City of the Centenario,” Journal of Latin American Studies 28:1 (February 1996), pp. 75–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷ “Hacia México 68,” p. 68.

⁸ Latham, Michael E., Modernization as Ideology: American Social Science and ‘Nation Building’ in the Kennedy Era (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000).Google Scholar

⁹ The question of how preparations were gauged and received by a domestic audience is crucial and will be examined here in part. However, a more thorough investigation on this point is still necessary.

¹⁰ See also Zolov, Eric, “Discovering a Land ‘Mysterious and Obvious’” in Joseph, Gilbert, Rubenstein, Anne, and Zolov, Eric, eds., Fragments of a Golden Age: The Politics of Popular Culture in Mexico Since 1940 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2001), pp. 234–72.Google Scholar

¹¹ The meeting was originally to be held in Nairobi, Kenya but was changed at the last moment due to conflict over South Africa's participation. Mexico won on the first round of voting, with the final tally being: Mexico (30); Detroit (14); Lyon (12); Buenos Aires (2). Press reports later suggested that Mexico received all eight votes from the Soviet Bloc, an allegation yet to be verified. For recent historical treatments see Kuri, Rodríguez, “El otro 68”;Google Scholar Witherspoon, Kevin, “Protest at the Pyramid: the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and the Politicization of the Olympic Games” (Ph.D. Diss., Florida State University, 2003).Google Scholar

¹² Following the Berlin crisis of 1961, the U.S. and France responded by denying visas for East German athletes to participate in the 1962 hockey and skiing championships. Espy, Richard, The Politics of the Olympic Games (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), pp. 76–82.Google Scholar

¹³ “Observations on the Selection of Mexico City as the Host for the Games of the XIX Olympiad in 1968 (Confidential),” 12 November 1963, Avery Brundage Collection (Hereafter: ABC), Box 178, “Organizing Committee, 1962–65”; Espy, Politics of the Olympics Games.

¹⁴ Avery Brundage to General Clark, 13 November 1963, ABC, Box 52, “Gen. José de J. Clark Flores, 1962–1965.” Popocatepetl, of course, is a reference to Mexico's famed snow-capped volcano, once clearly visible from the capital.

¹⁵ McGarry, Terranee W., “The Real Nitty-Gritty on the 1968 Olympics,” The News (Mexico City), 26 September 1966, p. 21.Google Scholar Located in ABC, Box 139, “Newspaper Clippings, 1961–69.” Enrique Krauze writes: “In economic matters, Díaz Ordaz had always shown great responsibility…. Under López Mateos, he had opposed Mexico's bid for the Olympic Games, expressing doubts about the cost to Mexico or the benefits it would supposedly bring to the country” (Biography of Power: A History of Modern Mexico, 1810–1996, translated by Heifetz, Hank [New York: Harper Collins, 1997], PP. 680–81).Google Scholar

¹⁶ These divisions were exposed in the aftermath of the Cuban revolution, when former President Lázaro Cárdenas briefly headed a reformist political movement, the Movimiento de Liberación Nacional (MLN), which challenged the PRI's capitalist-oriented development strategy. Following Cárdenas's endorsement of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz as presidential candidate the MLN lost its political compass; nevertheless the reverberations on political culture in Mexico during the 1960s were substantial. See Maciel, Carlos, El Movimiento de Liberación Nacional: Vicisitudes y aspiraciones (Mexico: University of Sinaloa, 1990).Google Scholar

¹⁷ Quoted in McGarry, “Real Nitty-Gritty.”

¹⁸ Waldmeir, Pete, “Mexico Lagging on Olympics; Detroit Told it Has Chance,” Detroit News, 13 January 1965.Google Scholar Located in ABC, Box 178, “Press Department, 1968.” See also Witherspoon, Kevin, “Thin Air and Lofty Dreams: The Altitude Controversy and the 1968 Olympics,” Paper presented at the American Historical Association, Washington, D.C. (January 2004).Google Scholar

¹⁹ Comité Organizador Jueges Olímpicos, de los Décimonovenes, Mexico 68, vol. 1 (Mexico City: Olympic Committee of the Games of the XIX Olympiad, 1969), p. 14.Google Scholar

²⁰ Waldmeir, “Mexico Lagging.”

²¹ Zolov, , “Discovering a Land ‘Mysterious and Obvious,’” p. 235.Google Scholar A broader context for this controversy was the mounting dispute over the very nature of Mexico City's urban planning, epitomized by the political wrangling (then heating up) over a proposed subway system. See Davis, Diane, Urban Leviathan: Mexico City in the Twentieth Century (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994),Google Scholar chapter 5.

²² Quiñones, Horacio, Buró de Investigación Política, 23 August 1965.Google Scholar Located in ABC, Box 139, “Mexico: Newspaper Clippings.” According to the informant cited by Quiñones, on learning of the estimated costs for the Olympics Díaz Ordaz reportedly stated: “Señores, si esto es lo que nos cuestan las olimpiadas, tiro el arpa.”

²³ McGarry, , “Real Nitty-Gritty.”Google Scholar López Mateos suffered from migraine headaches throughout his presidency. An operation in July, 1966 revealed he had seven cerebral aneurysms. Although he survived, over the next three years he gradually lost control over his body and consciousness. He died on September 22, 1969, “ignorant of the silence and pain of his country” and the outcome of the Olympic Games he had so avidly pursued. ( Krauze, , Biography of Power, p. 664.)Google Scholar

²⁴ Kuri, Rodríguez, “Hacia México 68,” p. 47.Google Scholar Ramírez Vázquez was an architect of considerable national and international renown. His resumé included the winning design for low-cost rural school buildings and numerous government commissioned projects, including the building that housed the Secretary of Labor and the acclaimed Museum of Anthropology and History. In 1962 his firm won the bid to construct a massive sports stadium funded by Emilio Azcárraga Jr., son of the media magnate; the Estadio Azteca was inaugurated in May 1966 and played a key role in Olympic sport infrastructure during the Games. For a discussion of the stadium politics see Fernández, Claudia and Paxman, Andrew, El tigre: Emilio Azcárraga y su imperio Televisa (Mexico: Grijalbo, 2000).Google Scholar

²⁵ Avery Brundage to Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, 24 July 1966, ABC, Box 178, “Organizing Committee, 1966.”

²⁶ Seyde, Manuel, ‘“Una Olimpiada no Onerosa para el País y Ningún Gasto sin una Plena Justificación Social,’ Dijo Ramírez Vázquez en su Discurso Ayer,” Excelsiór, 4 November 1966.Google Scholar Located in ABC, Box 139, “Newspaper Clippings.” Two months later Mexico City's once all-powerful mayor, Ernesto Uruchurtu, was forced to resign. While Uruchurtu's demise was already underway by that point, his opposition to plans for a costly subway system and accelerated urban development in general had brought him into direct conflict with President Díaz Ordaz. By simultaneously designating replacements for López Mateos and Uruchurtu (Alfonso Corona del Rosai, a long-time ally of Díaz Ordaz, became the new Regent) President Díaz Ordaz was able to regain control of the debate over planning for the Olympics. (See Davis, , Urban Leviathan, p. 172.)Google Scholar

²⁷ The phrase, “Olympics on the cheap” is from Kuri, Rodríguez, “Hacia México 68,” p. 39.Google Scholar

²⁸ Avery Brundage to Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, 1 November 1966.

²⁹ Kuri, Rodríguez, “Hácia Mexico 68,” p. 39.Google Scholar Rodríguez Kuri's chart showing comparative Olympiad financing is extremely useful. See also Arbena, Joseph L. , “Hosting the Summer Olympic Games: Mexico City, 1968,” in Arbena, Joseph L. and LaFrance, David G., eds., Sport in Latin America and the Caribbean (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2003), pp. 133–43.Google Scholar

³⁰ Kuri, Ródriguez, “Hacia México 68,” p. 53.Google Scholar Internal MOC documents indicate that plans for a significant cultural component were already under consideration by spring 1965. Nevertheless, Ramírez Vázquez elevated this component to the status of a “dual Olympiad,” with virtually coequal status as the sporting events themselves. See for example, José Clark to Lic. Agustín Yáñez (Secretario de Educación Pública), 24 March 1965, Comité Olímpico Internacional [Hereafter, COI], Gallery 7, Box 41, Folder 146, Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico City [Hereafter, AGN].

³¹ “Mexico City's Olympic Feats,” Fortune (March 1968), p. 149. The remark was repeated on several occasions in the U.S. press.

³² “Versión Taquigráfica y Traducción a la Audiencia que El Señor Presidente de la República Licenciado Don Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Concediera a los Honorables Miembros del Comité Olímpico Internacional,” 22 October 1966, ABC, Box 82, “Meeting of the Executive Board, Mexico City, October 22, 1966.”

³³ Avery Brundage to Ramírez Vázquez, 1 November 1966.

³⁴ Avery Brundage to Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, 28 November 1966, ABC, Box 178, “Organizing Committee, 1966.”

³⁵ Comité Organizador, México 68, vol. 2, p. 275; Rodríguez Kuri, “El Otro 68”; Kuri, Rodríguez, “Hácia México 68” p. 54;Google Scholar Vázquez, Pedro Ramírez, “Mexico's Cultural Olympics,” Americas (October 1968), pp. 15–19.Google Scholar

³⁶ Riley, Frank, “Of Poets and Pole Vaulters,” Saturday Review, 9 March 1968, p. 58.Google Scholar See also “Programa General de los XIX Juegos Olímpicos,” Press release, 3 November 1966, COI, Gallery 7, Box 41, Folder 4, AGN.

³⁷ Comité Organizador, México 68, vol. 1, p. 106.

³⁸ Zolov, Eric, “Toward an Analytical Framework for Assessing the Impact of the 1968 Student Movement on U.S.-Mexican Relations,” Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies 9:2 (December 2003), pp. 41–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁹ An internal memorandum of the MOC listed the specific instances in public speeches where President Díaz Ordaz referenced “conceptos … de la paz.” (“Conceptos del Sr. Lic. Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, Sobre ‘La Paz’,” n.d., COI, Gallery 7, Box 41, Folder 32, AGN).

⁴⁰ “Humanismo Olímpico,” Excélsior, 5 November 1966. Located in ABC, Box 139, “Mexico: Newspaper Clippings.”

⁴¹ Luis Aveleyra Arroyo de Anda to Lic. Don Hugo B. Margain, 10 September 1966, COI, Gallery 7, Box 41, Folder 121, AGN. Among the prominent (and, interestingly, left-wing) figures that eventually collaborated were Pete Seeger and Dalton Trumbo.

⁴² Conde, Sergio Rivera, “El Diseño en la XIX Olimpiada. Entrevista al arquitecto Pedro Ramírez Vázquez,” Creación y culture 1:1 (July-August 1999), p. 33.Google Scholar

⁴³ Comité Organizador, México 68, vol. 4, p. 732.

⁴⁴ Ibid., pp. 731–35; “El Diseño en la XIX Olimpiada,” p. 33.

⁴⁵ The drawings were done by Mexico's well-known caricaturist, Abel Quezada, specifically recruited for the campaign. For an English translation of the speech in which Juárez's famous statement appears see Juárez, Benito, “The Triumph of the Republic” in Joseph, Gilbert M. and Henderson, Timothy J., eds., The Mexico Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Durham: Duke University Press, 2002), pp. 270–72.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ “Departamento de Ornato Urbano,” n.d., COI, Gallery 7, Box 41. Folder 27, AGN.

⁴⁷ Lance Wyman, 16 October 2001 (email communication with author).

⁴⁸ Conde, Rivera, “El Diseño en la XIX Olimpiada,” p. 28.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Solin, Arthur, “Mexico 68: Graphics for the XIX Olympiad,” Print (May/June, 1968), p. 3.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Lance Wyman, 16 October 2001 (email communication with author). Curiously, Ramírez Vázquez recalls the evolution of this graphic quite differently and claims that it was his insight to draw the connection between Huichol design and Op Art. See Conde, Rivera, “El Diseño en la XIX Olimpiada,” p. 28.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Lance Wyman, 16 October 2001 (email communication with author).

⁵² Rohan, Tim, “Games Plan,” Wallpaper (September 2000), p. 158.Google Scholar

⁵³ Lance Wyman, 16 October 2001 (email communication with author). For a discussion of the shift in direction in promotional strategy for the Olympiad see Kuri, Rodríguez, “Hácia México 68,” pp. 51–2.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Report by Mr. Pedro Ramírez Vázquez to the Executive Board of the IOC, Mexico City, 22 October 1966, 2. ABC, Box 82, “Meeting of Executive Board, Mexico City, October 22, 1966.”

⁵⁵ Ibid.

⁵⁶ Ibid.

⁵⁷ Ibid.

⁵⁸ Rivera, Gustavo, “Cancha,” Novedades, 4 November 1966.Google Scholar Located in ABC, Box 139, “Mexico: Newspaper Clippings.” The original Spanish reads: “a dar una proyección real del Mexico inmortal … una fiel imagen de lo nuestro.”

⁵⁹ Avery Brundage to Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, 1 April 1967, ABC, Box 178, “Organizing Committee, 1967.” The Cultural Olympiad's year-long schedule was inaugurated on 19 January 1968 with a performance of the specially choreographed “Ballet of the Five Continents,” directed by Amalia Hernández (founder and artistic director of Mexico's famed “Ballet Folklórico”) and with music by Mexican composer, Carlos Chávez. For a discussion of the Ballet Folklórico's role in Mexican promotion abroad see Zolov, “Discovering a Land ‘Mysterious and Obvious.’”

⁶⁰ Comité Organizador, México 68, vol. 2, p. 419.

⁶¹ Rodríguez Kuri, “Hacia México 68.”

⁶² Comité Organizador, Mexico 68, vol. 4, p. 627. The original budget estimate for costs involving the flame ceremony was 620,000.00-700,000.00 pesos. The final cost, however, was twice that amount: 1,403,834.93 pesos. (“Festival en Teotihuacan para recibir la Antorcha Olímpica,” 31 October 1967, COI, Gallery 7, Box 41, Folder 13, AGN; “Memorandum,” 25 October 1968, COI, Gallery 7, Box 41, Folder 354(1), AGN.)

⁶³ Rankin, Allen, “Born to Dance,” Reader's Digest (October 1963), p. 235.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Conde, Rivera, “El Diseño en la XIX Olimpiad,” p. 35.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Salázar, Ruben, “Wonderland of Color Welcomes Olympics,” Los Angeles Times, 13 October 1968, 8.Google Scholar Located in ABC, Box 177, “XIX Olympiad, Mexico City—U.S. Press, 1968–69.”

⁶⁶ For a discussion of how gender was a key element of tourist marketing in the 1940s see Saragoza, Alex, “The Selling of Mexico: Tourism and the State, 1929–1952” in Joseph, , et. al., eds.. Fragments of a Golden Age, pp. 91–115.Google Scholar For a discussion of gender conflicts and public discourse in Mexico during the 1960s see Zolov, Eric, Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Brundage, Avery, “Personal Diary of the Olympics,” ABC, Box 84, p. 18.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ “Memorandum,” Pedro Ramírez Vázquez to Luis Aveleyra Arroyo de Anda, 19 September 1966, COI, Gallery 7, Box 41, Folder 114, AGN.

⁶⁹ Ibid.

⁷⁰ Bass, , Not the Triumph but the Struggle, pp. 106–7.Google Scholar

⁷¹ John Leinbaugh to Avery Brundage, 16 December 1969. ABC, Box 178, “Organizing Committee, 1969–70.”

⁷² For two excellent treatments of Cuban poster art see Cushing, Lincoln, ¡Revolución! Cuban Poster Art (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2003)Google Scholar and Kunzle, David, ed., Che Guevara: Icon, Myth and Message (Los Angeles: University of California Press/Fowler Art Museum, 1997).Google Scholar

⁷³ “Brain Storming,” 9 May 1968, COI, Gallery 7, Box 26, Folder 41, AGN.

⁷⁴ For images see Comité Organizador, Mexico 68, vol. 4, pp. 306–57.

⁷⁵ “A Well-Designed Warm-Up for the Olympics,” Life, 17 May 1968, p. 57.

⁷⁶ Salázar, “Wonderland of Color.”

⁷⁷ Ibid.

⁷⁸ Riley, , “Of Poets and Pole Vaulters,” p. 60.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Eimon, Pan Dodd, “Olympic-Sized Fiesta,” The American City (August 1968), p. 4.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Legat, Mexico City (80–103) to Director, FBI, 29 February, 1968. Located in FBI file, “1968: Mexican Olympics” at the National Security Archive in Washington, DC. (Many documents may now also be accessed via their website: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB99/.)

⁸¹ Riley, , “Of Poets and Pole Vaulters,” p. 57.Google Scholar An article in Sports Illustrated listed various problems facing the Games including “the stereotype of the Mexican peasant, slumped against the wall, sombrero down to shield his eyes from the work left undone.” ( Underwood, John, “Games in Trouble,” Sports Illustrated, 30 September, 1968, p. 46.)Google Scholar

⁸² Riley, , “Of Poets and Pole Vaulters,” p. 57.Google Scholar

⁸³ Rand, Christopher, “Letter from Mexico,” New Yorker, 29 June 1968, p. 68.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Ibid., p. 86.

⁸⁵ Butwin, David, “The Games, the Boycott, the Problems,” Saturday Review, 22 June 1968, p. 39.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ “¡Vengámos, Gringos!,” Sports Illustrated, 17 June 1968, p. 69. Emphasis in original.

⁸⁷ Leonard, George B., “A Different Journey on the Eve of the Olympics,” Look, 3 September 1968, pp. 42–44.Google Scholar Emphasis in original.

⁸⁸ “¡Vengámos Gringos!,” p. 75.

⁸⁹ Volpi, La imaginación y el poder, pp. 23–8; Rodríguez Kuri, citing Volpi, is cautious on this point, noting “although dangerous for the historian, Volpi's argument should be considered in order to evaluate the collective excitement of the city” ( Kuri, , “Hacia México 68,” p. 53).Google Scholar

⁹⁰ For a recent analysis of the origins of the movement see Kuri, Ariel Rodríguez, “Los primeros días. Una explicación de los orígenes inmediatos del movimiento estudiantil de 1968,” Historia Mexicana 80:1 (2003), pp. 179–228.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Poniatowska, Elena, Massacre in Mexico, transl, by Lane, Helen R. (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1992), pp. 52–3.Google Scholar

⁹² “Tough Action on Threat to Olympics,” U.S. News & World Report, 30 September 1968, p. 8.

⁹³ Wyman was evidently unaware of this at the time and only learned of the students’ use of his images in 1985, when he gave a lecture at the National University (UNAM). See Rohan, , “Games Plan,” p. 158.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Salazar, , “Wonderland of Color,” p. 8.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Rosenberg, Morris, “At Olympic Time, Mexicans Worry about Manana,” Washington Post, 13 October 1968,Google Scholar p. HI.

⁹⁶ White House Memorandum, “Student Disturbances in Mexico City,” Bowlder, William G. to LBJ (Secret), 31 July 1968, National Security Archives, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Kahn, , “Sporting Scene,” p. 221.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ Ibid., p. 226.

⁹⁹ New York Times, 13 October 1968, p. 1.

¹⁰⁰ Smith and Carlos were not formally ejected from the country by the Mexican government, which in fact offered standard tourist visas to them. However, the pressures were so great following their ejection from the Olympic team that they nevertheless soon left the country on their own account. See Bass, , Not the Triumph but the Struggle, pp. 268–69.Google Scholar