Luz de Carmen Vilichis Esquivel

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Abstract
A revolutionary movement was conceived and developed in Mexico in 1910, in which a government regime that was the result of the assimilation of the old order into the conquering forces became part of the political system, allowing for the reaffirmation of national identity through the promotion of its culture and social development. The Revolution is established due to historical necessity and in defence of its internal and external enemies. A doctrinaire pragmatism is established along with an authoritarian democracy centred around the president’s relationship with the official party and the official party’s relationship with the organized popular movements, introducing practices that allow it to keep its power, to maintain social balance, and to continue its political ideology whose various tendencies allow for the convergence of several ideologies: from Madero and Carranza to Zapata, Calles and Obregón, to lead the people toward democracy according to the times and opportunities: women’s right to vote in 1953 with Adolfo Ruiz Cortines, privatization of the natural resources with Lázaro Cárdenas, or Adolfo López Mateos’s political reform.

However, a failure to remember the Revolution results in the government not fulfilling its commitments with the people, avoiding its return to national identity and its own educational project, allowing for an amorphous democracy that is self-satisfied by its deep thoughtlessness. 1968 is a transcendent year in which the various social movements taking place around the world influence Mexico and contribute to sharpening the political, economic and cultural crisis. In all this, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico plays an important role, its students participating in an important movement of protest that, in a short time, glues together social forces of all levels and turns the student conflict into a serious national problem with tragic consequences: on October 2, 1968, a betrayal of the movement is promoted and, with it, the cruel massacre of civilians by a section of army and paramilitary groups.