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Spectacular Mexico: Design, Propaganda, and the 1968 Olympics . By Luis M. Castañeda . Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press , 2014. Pp. 336. Introduction. Notes. Index. $105.00 cloth, $35.00 paper.
The Mexico City Olympic Games in 1968 have been a scholarly subject for a range of reasons. American historians have focused on the black-power protest by US sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, while global historians have focused on the banning of South Africa from competition. For Latin Americanists, the government massacre of protesting students in the days leading up to the opening ceremony has been a difficult but important subject, while sportswriters have long heralded the event's spectacular athletic achievements, from Bob Beamon's historic leap of 29.2 feet in the long jump to Vera Cáslavská's four gold medals in gymnastics (not to mention her controversial head bow during the playing of the Soviet anthem at the medal ceremony for the balance beam).
From a Mexican perspective, the impact of being the first Latin American nation to host the Olympics meant vast improvements in the city's infrastructure, from telecommunications to roads, albeit at great cost. But...