"La Plaza de las 3 Culturas" - 1960's Nonoalco, Tlatelolco, México D.F.
"Las 3 culturas" was the aztec, spanish, and the "mestizo", as seen thru their architecture. We always had one lookout for the "tecolotes" (brown-suit police) who would surely arrest all of us, if they could catch us. Actually, one or two were usually caught, but it was way too much fun. We'd play spider-man. Climbing and clinging to the lava rock walls of the aztec ruins, jumping from one wall to another, and hoping our grip was as good as our courage.
This same area was the site of many a conflict between the "estudiantes" and "granaderos". I was living there, in the middle of the conflict. Molotov Cocktails going off, bullets flying, students running, granaderos giving chase. We would sleep in the hallway, to ensure stray bullets had a chance to be stopped by a 2nd wall, but no bullets ever came near our 2nd floor apartment at San Juan de Letrán 402, Edificio C-11, Entrada 5, Departamento 201. At a time when every corner, every building entrance, every building top, had a fully armed soldier my uncles opted to put my brother and I on a bus to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, to live with my maternal grandparents - Jesús and Casimira Canchola