"Loco Tlatelolco:" The Conflicting Past of this Historic Neighborhood, 1960–1964

Abstract:This essay is an investigation into the Tlatelolco Housing Project and the complexity of Mexican modernity. The completion of the project in 1964 was meant to represent the culmination of modernity. Ironically, the depiction of modernity was also the tool of repression in the student massacre in 1968, and thus the end of modernity. As such, this is an investigation into the Mexican Miracle and the state project of modernization, and the role of the modernist movement not only in the Mexican Revolutionary project, but also in architecture. At the same time, the Tlatelolco Housing Project is an exploration into Mexican state representations of national identity, and Mexican citizens perceptions of Mexicanidad. My project draws from a variety of primary and secondary sources, from state and national archives, architectural journals, and the Mexican census board. This project also involves the examination of pamphlets, newspapers, photographs, blogs, and magazine articles, to grasp how Mexicans understood the state project of modernization, and problems of urban growth.