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From covering the massacre of students at Tlatelolco in 1968 and the 1985 earthquake to the Zapatista rebellion in 1994 and the disappearance of forty-three students in 2014, Elena Poniatowska has been one of the most important chroniclers of Mexican social, cultural, and political life. In Stories That Make History, Lynn Stephen examines Poniatowska's writing, activism, and political participation, using them as a lens through which to understand critical moments in contemporary Mexican history. In her crónicas-narrative journalism written in a literary style featuring firsthand testimonies-Poniatowska told the stories of Mexico's most marginalized people. Throughout, Stephen shows how Poniatowska helped shape Mexican politics and forge a multigenerational political community committed to social justice. In so doing, she presents a biographical and intellectual history of one of Mexico's most cherished writers and a unique history of modern Mexico.
List of contents
List of Abbreviations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction. On Testimony, Social Memory, and Strategic Emotional Political Communities in Elena Poniatowska's Crónicas 1
1. Mexico City's Growing Critical Public: News and Publishing, 1959–1985 31
2. The 1968 Student Movement and Massacre 60
3. A History We Cannot Forget: The 1985 Earthquake, Civil Society, and a New Political Future 110
4. Engaging with the EZLN as a Writer and Public Intellectual 151
5.
Amanecer en el Zócalo: Crónica, Diary, and Gendered Political Analysis 197
6.
¡Regrésenlos! The Forty-Three Disappeared Students from Ayotzinapa 228
Conclusion: Telling Stories, Making History 247
Notes 257
Bibliography 281
Index 303
About the author
Lynn Stephen
Summary
Lynn Stephen examines the writing of Elena Poniatowska, showing how it shaped Mexican political discourse and provides a unique way of understanding contemporary Mexican history, politics, and culture.
