During the past two decades, the 1968 Summer Olympics have attracted singular attention in the field of Mexican sports history. Claire and Keith Brewster, Kevin Witherspoon, Ariel Rodríguez Kuri, and others have scrutinized the diverse political, economic, and cultural repercussions of the first Olympic Games held in Latin America. They have focused on Mexican elites’ struggle to win the bid, the motivation behind the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its president, Avery Brundage, in celebrating the games in a developing nation, and the relationship between the games and the student movement that erupted almost simultaneously in the Mexican capital.

Axel Elías's monograph adds a new dimension to this well-established body of historiography by shedding light on an actor that has largely been overlooked: the Mexican citizenry. Along with the IOC and the government, ordinary people also played a crucial role in the “crafting” of Mexico 1968 through their everyday politics,...

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