To understand the phrase, one must know the event it references. On October 2, 1968, just ten days before Mexico City was set to host the Summer Olympics, the Mexican military and police opened fire on a peaceful student protest at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in the Tlatelolco neighborhood. Hundreds (estimates vary widely, with many citing over 300) of unarmed students, intellectuals, and bystanders were killed, and thousands were arrested. The government, under President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, portrayed the massacre as a necessary crackdown on “dissidents,” but for generations of Mexicans, it became the ultimate symbol of state repression.
In Velasco Piña’s interpretation, Regina was not just another victim. He described her as a “mujer-águila” (eagle woman)—a conscious soul who knew she was destined to die for Mexico’s spiritual rebirth. Drawing on archetypes from Aztec mythology (such as the sacrifice of the goddess Coyolxauhqui in Tlatelolco’s very same plaza), Velasco Piña framed Regina’s death as a tragic but necessary catalyst.
He wrote that before entering the plaza on October 2, Regina had a premonition of her death but decided to go nonetheless. Her final words, according to his sources, were not of hatred but of determination: “My blood will wake up Mexico.” Regina 2 De Octubre No Se Olvida Antonio Velasco Pina
Velasco Piña further claimed that Regina was a member of a secret feminine lineage—guardians of an ancient Mexican spiritual tradition dating back to the Toltecs. Her murder, he argued, was meant to extinguish that lineage. Instead, it galvanized it.
In his book El despertar del águila (The Awakening of the Eagle), Velasco Piña writes: “The 2nd of October was not the end of the student movement. It was the beginning of Mexico’s esoteric war for its true soul. Regina is the face of that war. She is not dead. She is transformed.” To understand the phrase, one must know the
The insistence on “no se olvida” (is not forgotten) is a direct challenge to the Mexican state’s long-standing policy of olvido (forgetting). For years, official history textbooks omitted the massacre, and archives were sealed. Families of the disappeared were denied justice. In this context, art by figures like Velasco Piña serves not just as commemoration but as evidence—a visual testimony that refuses to let history be rewritten.
Antonio Velasco Piña, a lawyer, writer, and eventually the director of the Instituto Nacional de Estudios Históricos de las Revoluciones de México (INEHRM), approached this history through a unique lens. Regina is not a standard historical text; it is a hybrid of political testimony and metaphysical fiction. Drawing on archetypes from Aztec mythology (such as
The book follows the life of Regina, a young woman from a privileged background who becomes radicalized and involved in the student movement. However, Velasco Piña frames her story not merely as a political awakening, but as a spiritual destiny. In the novel, Regina is portrayed as a sort of modern-day pre-Hispanic deity or spiritual guide whose sacrifice is preordained.
By blending the brutal reality of the 1968 repression with themes of reincarnation, Aztec mythology, and New Age spirituality, Velasco Piña accomplished something remarkable: he made the history accessible. He transformed the horror of Tlatelolco into a tragic, almost mythological narrative. This approach allowed readers to process the trauma through a story of redemption and cosmic justice, rather than just cold political analysis.