Recommendations January 2022
Book: La Noche de Tlatelolco. Poniatowska—I take a Zoom Spanish class and this book was assigned. I started it in the summer and am nearly done with it. It is a collection of first person narratives about a demonstration in Mexico City (suburb of Tlatelolco) where a left wing demonstration was attacked by military authorities. Kent State, in the United States backfired over time in that it added fuel to the fire of anti-war sentiment. In Mexico, there were deaths and wounds still not counted as official statistics did not align with the stories recounted. People disappeared. People were in prison for years, including poor merchants who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. For a Spanish student, the exercise is a variety of speaking styles from those of street workers and soldiers to university professors speaking of their jail time. It is a reminder—we in the United States have no idea how things can be when an authoritarian government deploys troops who fire indiscriminately as was the case here. Note that those who live in ghettos would disagree with me on that point…..they have known what that feels like though back a century, the source of the bullets was from fellow citizens and not soldiers. That was not like this.The language of the student protest movement in Mexico was that of the Cuban revolution. For the Mexican Government, it was provocative and violent language. Despite a lack of organized aggressive action by students, they were treated like armed rebels. The back of that movement was broken by this night’s action (October 2, 1968) but within decades, the dominant ruling Mexican political party would be voted out of office……. If you are interested in learning Spanish, I can recommend a very good Spanish teacher.
Historical Fiction: The Skystone series or Camulod Chronicles tells the Arthurian legend as it may have passed.
News: What’s really wrong with the mainstream media
Music: Shelby Lynne: “I Only Want To Be With You”
Neil Young and Crazyhorse: “Wayfairin’ Stranger”
Kitty Daily & Lewis, “Going Up The Country”
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