Introduction

The introduction provides in-depth historical context on Uruguay in the mid-twentieth century in order to better understand the specifics of what happened in 1968. It also situates the complex interactions between culture and politics that led to the emergence of a new generation of leftist activists under the influence of global youth trends, while providing an overview of the relevant schorlarship on these topics.

Conclusion

After proceeding through different sets of historical sources and layers of interpretation, the conclusion places the Uruguayan student movement of 1968 and its cultural and political effects (including increasing state repression and authoritarism) in dialog with the existing literature on other national cases, particularly the United States.

Cultural Expressions

This chapter offers a more nuanced portrait of the movement, considering the cultural ramifications of activism and the many different ways politicization was experienced by this new generation of Uruguayan leftists. First, it suggests that diverse understandings of leftist activism tended to both encourage and blur the meanings of heroism as expressed in the image of Che Guevara, among other icons of the time. It also traces the individual trajectories of a handful of young people who took part of the mobilizations to show how many of them came to politics only after participating in the era’s countercultural undertakings, such as fanzines, beat festivals, and poetry concerts, which picked up on the main themes and gestures of the global counterculture. In addition, the chapter uses class and gender as lenses through which to understand the meanings of political engagement and cultural participation.

Discussions

This chapter considers the range of responses to the student’s innovative protests and the ensuing efforts of social and political actors to interpret the new repertoires of contention. In secondary schools, this meant emphasizing horizontal exchanges and mechanisms of direct democracy; at the national university, the student federation struggled to maintain control over those who advocated “spontaneous” action. In addition, the sudden irruption of student mobilization led the various groups and parties of the Left to reconsider the concept of “generation” in conjunction with more traditional class analysis and the role of political violence and direct action in producing revolutionary social change. The analysis advances some conclusions about the impact of the student movement on both the old and new Left, since none of the sectors anticipated the power of the student protests to politically “activate” young people and to attract thousands of new activists into their ranks.

Mobilizations

This chapter profiles the irruption and development of the 1968 student movement in Montevideo. It considers both politics in high schools (which were the first ones to mobilize around demands for cheaper transportation) and in the national university (where students initially asked for more government funding and then promoted radical changes to their institution and beyond). Through an almost day-by-day description of the movement, it shows the gradual taking of streets and remaking of the urban landscape as well as the innovative repertoires of contention within the mobilized groups. It situates the violent actions and rhetoric of students in relation to the increasing authoritarianism of the government, examining new police tactics and the influence of training programs conducted by the United States. The killing of three students by police forces, the first such incidents in Uruguayan history, are analyzed within this broader context.