I was part of the 1968 movement, and October 2 wasn’t my day to die. Mario Díaz Mercado

Libro Abierto Interviews ENGLISH · Oct 2, 2026 · 31m · transcript

Mario Díaz Mercado was only 18 when Mexico’s 1968 student movement changed the course of his life. What began with theater, school life, and a student council campaign soon became something much bigger. Mario found himself distributing political propaganda, joining demonstrations, confronting police repression, and becoming deeply involved in a generation that believed it could transform Mexico. He remembers the anger against President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, the presence of government forces around schools, encounters with violent groups, and his later belief that government infiltrators had…