Mexico City's Olympic Games

Axel Elías is a historian of nation building. He has studied at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and Instituto Mora in Mexico, and completed his PhD at King’s College London, UK. His interests are found in everyday forms of nation building. He has worked on the intersections of sport and performativity of nationhood, as well as gastronationalism and migration.

“This book provides important information regarding the 1968 Olympic Games and their significance to Mexican history. Therefore, it will be of interest to any scholar studying the intersection of culture and politics. It also makes an important contribution to the burgeoning field of global sixties studies, as it deals with unique global-local dynamics in one of the most crucial years of the twentieth century.” (Shunsuke Matsuo, Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 104 (4), November, 2024)

• Chapter 1. A Bottom-up approach to Sports and Nation Building in Mexico.- Chapter 2: ‘The exact route to achieving success’: International Politics and Mexican State Formation during the Cold War.- Chapter 3. ‘We do not want Olympics, we want revolution’: The Student Movement and the XIX Olympiad, July - October 1968.- Chapter 4. ‘Everything is possible in peace’: State Repression, Nationalism and Politics of Silence, 2-12 October 1968.- Chapter 5: ‘What a marvellous people and what a fabulous party’: The Cultural Politics of Emotions during the XIX Olympic Games, 12-27 October 1968.- Chapter 6: The Political Consequences of the XIX Olympiad