Quote by Elena Poniatowska: “Journalism is the first draft of history, but love is the first draft of the self.”

News captures events before we fully understand them. Love does the same for identity — it is through loving others that we first discover who we are, before we've had time to refine or understand ourselves. Both are raw, essential, and imperfect.

By 1980, Mexico was still reckoning with the political trauma of the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre, which Poniatowska had documented. Latin American journalism was operating under intense censorship and danger, with reporters across the continent facing violence for reporting on state crimes.

Mexican journalist and novelist, winner of the Cervantes Prize in 2013, considered one of the most important voices in Latin American literature and investigative journalism. Her 1971 chronicle La Noche de Tlatelolco documented the 1968 student massacre through survivor testimonies.