Red October
It was Wednesday, October 2nd, 1968 in Mexico City, a few weeks away from the Mexico '68 Summer Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. For the last three months, the city had been facing an intensive and stressful situation with the national university students on strike. This strike was initiated at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, from and for the student's sake against its Governing Board. Suddenly, the student's ideals were mixed with a politic radical stream through the well known communist group "El Muro" (The Wall) that was operating underground against the government, which covered almost the entire nation.The city's people were sick of this strike due to its endless resolution, but especially sick of the government that saw this movement getting out of control every day. In order to keep me busy and away from the students strike activities, my dad, with a wise vision, helped me land a job with one of the contracting companies that were in charge of building the general sewer system of the city. For the next five weeks, I got up early in the morning to go to my job, located a few blocks from the Alameda Park in downtown. Everything seemed to be normal for everybody, except for the students' move
Nobody knew why the meeting was delayed, but when the speakers were about to start a gunshot crossed the Plaza air. Then another one, and all of the sudden there was a crossfire between the soldiers and apparently some posted "deer hunters" inside the apartments buildings. There was a lot of confusion. The fire was all over the crowd. Students started screaming and running everywhere, and the soldiers tried to keep them in one single block. As they could not stop them, they began to shoot them or stop them with their bayonets. I was experiencing a lot of fear and was afraid for my life. One fellow close to me got shot in the back and fell onto me. He was bleeding all over. While holding him, my hands and clothes filled with blood. I realized that he was dead! Horrified, I dropped him on the floor and started sneaking away from the Plaza. Hiding in different places for several hours, I finally got away from the Plaza's massacre. By 10:30 p.m., I arrived at my home. At that moment, I opened the main door and my mom came running to me in tears to hold me and kiss me. I could not resist and broke into tears as well. I remember that I could not fall asleep that night. For a couple of months, I could hear the crowd screaming, the soldiers killing without mercy and the students, like myself, dying. I will never forget the feeling of being alive, safe, and close to my family, but most of all, those words that my dad told warning me
Some common words found in the essay are:
University Mexico, Plaza Hiding, Muro Wall, Games Knowing, Tlateloco City, Tres Culturas, National Treasure, Olympic Games, Games Ceremony, Mexico City, olympic games, de las, plaza de, plaza de las, de las tres, university mexico, meeting plaza, las tres, cultures square, attend meeting, speakers start, government authorities,
Approximate Word count = 971
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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