Left: a 2018 student-organized anniversary demonstration honoring Mexico City’s “March of Silence.” Right: a student march on Mexico City's main plaza,1968. Photographs by “Cel·lí” (Public Domain) and “ProtoplasmaKid” (published under Creative Commons license: Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International) respectively. Massive student demonstrations against violence have swept through Mexico City during the month of September 2018. Today's students face similar issues to those who marched fifty years ago with the Mexican Movement of 1968, a series of protests and demonstrations demanding an end to state-sanctioned violence. Today, the struggle to stop the violence continues as 30,000 university students including those from National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico's largest public university gathered on September 6, 2018, for a massive demonstration: ¡HISTÓRICO! Miles y miles de estudiantes de la UNAM, IPN, UAM, UACM, ENAH, UPN, normales (entre varias otras) llegaron a CU con una consigna: ¡Fuera porros de la UNAM! ¡Fuera porros de las Universidades! ¡Que vivan los estudiantes!#FueraPorrosUNAM #NoMasPorrosEnLaUNAM @lhan55 pic.twitter.com/WxS4Ibm8wp — Cooperativas Tlalpan (@HechoenTlalpan) 6 de septiembre de 2018 HISTORICAL! Thousands and thousands of students from UNAM, IPN, UAM, UACM, ENAH, UPN, regular students (among many others) came to CU with a demand: Porros out of UNAM! Porros out of universities! Long live the students! #FueraPorrosUNAM #NoMasPorrosEnLaUNAM @lhan55 pic.twitter.com/WxS4Ibm8wp This protest was organized in response to events three days prior when shock groups, also known as “porros”, allegedly attacked students within the College of Sciences and Humanities. The students were peacefully calling for more faculty hires as well as justice for the murder of CCH Oriente student Miranda Mendoza, who was killed in late August 2018. Protestors’ general demands include increased security within the dozens of UNAM's faculties, schools, centers, and research institutions. They also demand the expulsion of porro groups who allegedly receive political or economic bonuses in exchange for violently attacking student demonstrations and destabilizing university life. Today's demonstrations symbolically mark the 50th anniversary of the Mexican Movement of 1968 whose similar demands included the release of political prisoners, the resignation of the ruling party, and expansion of political liberties as well as democratic changes in efforts to eradicate authoritarianism. At the time, the government viewed these protests as an attempted coup d'état by communist groups and a threat to national security and responded with aggression and force. Several marches, sit-ins, demonstrations, and protests ensued in 1968 including the “March of Silence” on September 13, 1968, during which protesters covered their mouths with white bandannas to protest the government's silence about the Movement along with their use of brutal force against students in prior marches that year. On October 2, 1968, over 10,000 students organized a peaceful march in the Tlatelolco area of Mexico City but their gathering was violently repressed by the Mexican government. Over 300 people were killed and the tragedy is remembered today as “The Massacre of Tlatelolco.” Today, as the anniversaries of these historical events approach, students felt a solidarity with history and decided to replicate the March of Silence on its anniversary date, September 13, 2018, to honor the people who marched on these same streets for similar causes. Fifty years later, marches, memorials, and photographs contrasting protests of past and present have been shared through social media with hashtags such as #MarchaDelSilencio and #A50Del68: #FotoHistórica Asambleas Generales en Ciudad Universitaria. Arriba a la izquierda en 1968, a la derecha 2014, y abajo mitin hoy 2018. ¡Arriba lxs estudiantes¡ #UNAMSinViolencia #FueraPorrosUNAM pic.twitter.com/04fJVBzcgh — Veka García (@La_Tinisima) 6 de septiembre de 2018 #FotoHistórica General Assemblies in University City. Top left in 1968, right 2014, and below the rally today in 2018. Student power! #UNAMSinViolencia #FueraPorrosUNAM pic.twitter.com/04fJVBzcgh Animal Político has published a series of chronicles from 1968, released on the same dates as historical marches. Other journalists like Leopoldo Gómez have taken a closer look at the student movement of yesterday and today: La protesta ya no es por la represión, sino por la incompetencia del gobierno. En el 68 se luchó contra los excesos del gobierno; ahora se exige más, un buen gobierno. A 50 años subsiste un reclamo común: el fin de la impunidad.