68

This is what primary-source, first-person history is supposed to be like, and it's written with regret -- regret, specifically, that Taibo II finds himself alone as the memorialist of the rebellion and massacres of 1968. History has made Mexico City into the empty center of the events of that year, and the place where so much of what was to follow, from the Dirty War in Argentina to, ultimately, the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas, found its beginning. This is essential history; a book that every school library should have.

Paco Ignacio Taibo II, considered by many to be Mexico's greatest modern writer, dives into his memories of 40 years past to recollect a time when the world was turning upside down, when political movements were more than just slogans, and when revolution was something the young deeply aspired to. "68" is a powerful, fascinating look at 1960s Mexico, while America was celebrating flower power, Latin America's own youth was inspired and captivated by the possibility of socialist revolution inspired by events in Cuba and figures like Che Guevara. The mass student movement culminated in a notorious chapter of Mexican history: The October massacre in Tlatelolco Square where hundreds, possibly thousands of people were shot down by government troops in an even still shrouded in mystery and official denial. Taibo is the perfect choice to write on the subject considering he lived through it, he was one of the students marching in the streets of Mexico City that year and still a Leftist, having written the definitive Che bio, "Guevara, Also Known As Che." His chronicle here is a nostalgic, interesting, never boring slice of memory. He meticulously captures the culture of the time, not just politically but socially, showing us a conservative country rattled by the emergence of hippies and miniskirts, with students studying Marx and traveling to Havana to drink in the idea of utopian revolution. He also captures the dark side of the times, the brutal government repression, troops invading campuses in ways that make the 60s campus battles in the U.S. seem like child's play. There are comic side stories that dip into the more light-hearted side of youth and discovery, but always full of intrigue, consider Taibo lamenting his girlfriend leaving him for a "student" that turned out to be a government informant. "68" races along with the urgency of memory, of a writer trying to get it all down before memory and official history begin to fail. 40 years later the bloody events of 1968 will no doubt be revisited in Mexico, and in times just as interesting with the new rise of the Left in the region impulsed by Venezuela. But the beauty of "68" is how it is just such a well-written, fascinating moment in time, a universal story of being young and having ideals, fighting authority and hoping for something better. The hope and terror are all here, "68" is not confined to it's era and finds itself at home in our own decisive moment in history.