Life + Arts

Students get more than just a history lesson

A monument was erected in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in memory of the students who were killed in The Night of Tlatelolco massacre in 1968. Hundreds were killed after being met with soldiers and military tanks in a protest of government actions. | Miguel Cortina/The Daily Cougar

Some of the buildings that you cannot miss in Mexico City are churches. Countless churches give mass everyday in Mexico’s capital city.

During this trip, we were able to visit one of the most important churches in Latin America, the Basilica of Guadalupe. It’s here where the actual image of the Virgin of Guadalupe stands.

For those who don’t know the story of the Mexican virgin, it starts in December 1531 with Juan Diego, an Indian living in Tepeyac, Mexico, just a few miles north from what used to be Mexico City during those times. Juan Diego was once walking up a hill in Tepeyac when the Virgin appeared to him. The Virgin told him to build a church where they were standing, but when Juan Diego went to tell the bishop, he asked for some proof.

The next day, Juan Diego went back to the same spot where he had seen the Virgin. This time she told him to take a lot of roses, which did not grow in December, and put them in his poncho. Juan Diego filled his poncho with roses and went back to the parish where the Bishop was. When he showed his poncho to the Bishop, the image of the Virgin appeared in his tunic.

Since then, the Basilica was built in Tepeyac. However, because several million people visited it each year, a new Basilica was built in 1974. The modern Basilica is host to the thousands of visitors who pay tribute to the Virgin on December 12, the day of Guadalupe.

Just next to the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco is the church where Juan Diego went to tell the bishop that the Virgin wanted a church in Tepeyac.

Tlatelolco is also the site where the army shot thousands of students because they were protesting against the government on Oct. 2, 1968.

This historic place was witness of the massacre just 10 days before the Olympic games started. As we were touring the Plaza, a man in his 60s was sitting down by the monument dedicated to the students who died that day.

As I was looking at the monument and reading the names of the students, he told us in a sad tone, “I was here on October 2. I was shot and taken to prison for 42 years. I got out of prison 15 days ago.”

We were all shocked. His name is Carlos Beltrán, and according to the monument, he is dead.

He was incarcerated as a political prisoner after the massacre occurred. He was shot in the leg and got leukemia while in prison. He had been looking for his family for the past 15 days without luck. He didn’t have a job or money.

After a group of us stayed to listen to his testimony, he said that the student movement was not worth it, as he sees the Mexican government as the same kind of corrupt government 42 years later.

Just a few minutes after we were talking, he began to cry in front of us as he remembered how he was protesting and suddenly the military began to shoot at the crowd. He remembered looking at thousands of bodies laying down in the Plaza. He said that when he got shot he tried to run, but a few feet after he fell and was taken to prison.

Because our tour guide was rushing us to go to the next place, we were unable to listen to his whole testimony, but we could feel his emotion by the words he spoke and the tears that came from his eyes.

That moment was what impacted me most throughout the entire trip.

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