Historias Unknown

On October 2, 1968, the Mexican military opened fire on students who were protesting. This dark event in Mexico's history became known as the Tlatelolco Massacre and takes place during Mexico's Dirty War. Before discussing the dirty war, Cristina tells Carmen a brief history of the party who was enacting this war on the Mexican people, the CIA backed PRI party.

If you have topic suggestions, feel free to email [email protected] or use the contact us form on the website https://www.historiasunknown.com/contact/

Want ad free episodes? And weekly bonus episodes? Support Historias Unknown on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/HistoriasUnknownPodcast
By joining, you can help Historias Unknown donate 20% funds to mutual aid.

Follow on social media:
Instagram: https : //www.instagram.com/historiasunknown/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@historiasunknown
Substack: https://substack.com/@historiasunknown

Sources:

Benjamin T. Smith & Alexander Aviña (2023) A War to the Death, NACLAReport on the Americas, 55:3, 222-228, DOI: 10.1080/10714839.2023.2247740
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/mexico/2024-12-20/fifty-years-silence-mexico-faces-legacy-its-dirty-war
https://www.inehrm.gob.mx/es/inehrm/Verdades_innegables_Por_un_Mexico_sin_impunidad
https://www.justiceinitiative.org/voices/victory-truth-about-mexico-s-dirty-war
Delgado, K. (2013). El Partido Comunista Mexicano y el movimiento estudiantil de 1968: enfrentamiento, aportación e impacto. UAQ.
https://course-exhibits.library.dartmouth.edu/s/modernmexico/page/gutierrez
Former Spy Chief Arrested In Mexican 'Dirty War' Case
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Mexicanist_Action
The Mexican Dirty War: A War to the Death w/ Alexander Avina and Benjamin T. Smith

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/historias-unknown--6253658/support.

The Ohio Immigrant Alliance completed an analysis of ICE and Border Patrol agents who committed sexual or violent offenses against women and children. Their report presents the data, which includes an alarming pattern- 86% of the agents they examined were charged with or convicted of sex offenses, more than half targeted children and most remained employed with DHS for decades. The report also examines how failures in vetting, training, accountability, and institutional culture enabled this crisis and proposes solutions and reforms. 

CW- THIS EPISODE IS HEAVY, mentions of SA

If you have topic suggestions, feel free to email [email protected] or use the contact us form on the website https://www.historiasunknown.com/contact/

Want ad free episodes? And weekly bonus episodes? Support Historias Unknown on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/HistoriasUnknownPodcast
By joining, you can help Historias Unknown donate 20% funds to mutual aid.

Follow on social media:
Instagram: https : //www.instagram.com/historiasunknown/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@historiasunknown
Substack: https://substack.com/@historiasunknown

Sources:

https://ohioimmigrant.org/blog/2026/8/18/worst-of-the-worst
https://tramontela.substack.com?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web



Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/historias-unknown--6253658/support.

"Keep politics out of sports" is something heard a little too often, but these two have never really been separate. To further show that, Cristina tells Carmen about another very political football match, Argentina vs England, 1986. What made it political? The short but devastating war between the two countries just four years before this historic match. Las Malvinas were brought up once again as the two national teams faced each other in the 2026 World Cup.

If you have topic suggestions, feel free to email [email protected] or use the contact us form on the website https://www.historiasunknown.com/contact/

Want ad free episodes? And weekly bonus episodes? Support Historias Unknown on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/HistoriasUnknownPodcast
By joining, you can help Historias Unknown donate 20% funds to mutual aid.

Follow on social media:
Instagram: https : //www.instagram.com/historiasunknown/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@historiasunknown
Substack: https://substack.com/@historiasunknown

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jul/14/england-argentina-world-cup-2026-rivalry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War#Casualties
https://www.npr.org/2026/07/15/nx-s1-5893686/old-rivals-new-battle-argentina-and-england-clash-in-world-cup-semifinal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina_v_England_(1986_FIFA_World_Cup)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_FIFA_World_Cup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da_CDPRG2j0
https://talksport.com/football/world-cup/559182/argentina-legend-diego-maradona-says-hand-of-god-goal-against-england-revenge-falklands-war/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-18425572
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkland_Islands#Sovereignty_dispute
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_FIFA_World_Cup
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Vernet#Falkland_Islands_venture

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/historias-unknown--6253658/support.

Carmen and Cristina are taking a summer break! They will be back with a new episode on the first Thursday of September.

If you have topic suggestions, feel free to email [email protected] or use the contact us form on the website https://www.historiasunknown.com/contact/

Want ad free episodes? And weekly bonus episodes? Support Historias Unknown on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/HistoriasUnknownPodcast
By joining, you can help Historias Unknown donate 20% funds to mutual aid.

Follow on social media:
Instagram: https : //www.instagram.com/historiasunknown/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@historiasunknown
Substack: https://substack.com/@historiasunknown

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/historias-unknown--6253658/support.

"Keep politics out of sports", is something heard very often, especially right now as the world cup is taking place. These two, especially futbol and politics, have never really been seperate and to show that, Cristina tells Carmen about two of the most political football matches in history. Argentina vs Peru during the 1978 World Cup, hosted in Argentina during the dictatorship, in which at least 30,000 were disappeared. As well as Chile vs the Soviet Union in 1974, the second leg was set to take place in el Estadio Nacional, which had been converted to a concentration camp during the dictatorship. The Soviet Union asked for a venue change, as it was already known that prisoners were being held captive there. 

If you have topic suggestions, feel free to email [email protected] or use the contact us form on the website https://www.historiasunknown.com/contact/

Want ad free episodes? And weekly bonus episodes? Support Historias Unknown on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/HistoriasUnknownPodcast
By joining, you can help Historias Unknown donate 20% funds to mutual aid.

Follow on social media:
Instagram: https : //www.instagram.com/historiasunknown/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@historiasunknown
Substack: https://substack.com/@historiasunknown

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_FIFA_World_Cup
Smith, B. L. (2002). The Argentinian Junta and the Press in the Run-up to the 1978 World Cup. Soccer & Society, 3(1), 69–78.
https://doi.org/10.1080/714004869 
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/dec/06/argentina.usa
https://www.theguardian.com/football/in-bed-with-maradona/2017/jul/05/1978-world-cup-argentina-political-protest-goalposts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(UEFA%E2%80%93CONMEBOL_play-off)
https://www.marca.com/2013/11/21/futbol/futbol_internacional/chile/1385026960.html
https://www.bbc.com/mundo/deportes-40301910
https://pca.st/hg41k09e


Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/historias-unknown--6253658/support.

Guadalupe "Lupe" Villalobos Briseño was a civil rights activist who led the Kitayama Carnation Strike in 1968-1969, at the height of the Chicano movement.

If you have topic suggestions, feel free to email [email protected] or use the contact us form on the website https://www.historiasunknown.com/contact/

Want ad free episodes? And weekly bonus episodes? Support Historias Unknown on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/HistoriasUnknownPodcast
By joining, you can help Historias Unknown donate 20% funds to mutual aid.

Follow on social media:
Instagram: https : //www.instagram.com/historiasunknown/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@historiasunknown
Substack: https://substack.com/@historiasunknown

Sources: 

https://www.historycolorado.org/es/node/8155
https://www.historycolorado.org/story/2025/03/07/strike-national-florist-workers-vs-kitayama
https://www.westword.com/news/the-chicano-movement-powered-up-nationally-in-1969-with-two-denver-protests-11255549/  
https://youtu.be/2ozBYkeuYzo?si=PyZs04fjpuKATghU
https://history.denverlibrary.org/colorado-biographies/guadalupe-villalobos-brise%C3%B1o-1933-2024
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalupe_Brise%C3%B1o 

Lupe talking about the strike: 
https://vimeo.com/315250649

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/historias-unknown--6253658/support.

What They Stole by Paige Towers blends together a true crime case from her hometown, a familicide, geopolitics, history, and so much more. The synopsis: In 1955, following the devastation of the Korean War, Bertha and Harry Holt made headlines for adopting eight Korean children. Driven by evangelical convictions and emboldened by a special act of Congress, the couple founded the Holt Adoption Program, which would facilitate the migration of tens of thousands of Korean children to the United States over the following decades.

The Sueppels were among the families profoundly shaped by the legacy of the Holt Adoption Program. To their suburban Iowa City community, Steven and Sheryl Sueppel were kind and charitable, humble yet magnetic—seemingly ideal candidates to adopt. But in 2008, when Steven found himself facing federal embezzlement and money laundering charges, he murdered Sheryl and their adopted children before ending his own life.

Paige Towers traces the interwoven histories of the Holts and the Sueppels, exploring the deeper, often hidden complexities of intercountry adoption: the ethical gray zones, the influences of religion and race, and the global inequalities that made such large—scale child migration possible. Meticulously researched and sensitive with its storytelling.

Carmen and Cristina were joined by Paige to talk about her new book. 

Follow her work here https://www.paigetowers.com/

Get the book from the University of Iowa Press or wherever you get books


Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/historias-unknown--6253658/support.

Joseph Doherty fulfilled a childhood dream when, after graduating high school and joining Maryknoll, a Catholic missionary society, he was assigned to work in Chile. He was present for the coup, in 1973, when the military overthrew the government of President Salvador Allende. Arrested by DINA, the secret police, he was imprisoned in the National Stadium for eleven days before being expelled from the country. CHILE: EMBERS OF THE PAST is the story of what took place before and during his expulsion as well as his time in El Salvador, where he was reassigned. His book also recounts, how in 2001 he accompanied Joyce Horman, widow of Charles Horman, whom the Chilean military executed, and returned to Chile to testify against various military officials. Leaving Maryknoll in 1975 he obtained his doctorate in psychology. He returns to visit his friends in Chile as often as he can.

Carmen and Cristina were joined by Dr. Joseph Doherty. He discussed his book, as well as what it was like to live through the coup and the National Stadium.

Get the book here:  https://a.co/d/09FtCrDQ

If you have topic suggestions, feel free to email [email protected] or use the contact us form on the website https://www.historiasunknown.com/contact/

Want ad free episodes? And weekly bonus episodes? Support Historias Unknown on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/HistoriasUnknownPodcast
By joining, you can help Historias Unknown donate 20% funds to mutual aid. 

Follow on social media:
Instagram: https : //www.instagram.com/historiasunknown/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@historiasunknown
Substack: https://substack.com/@historiasunknown

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/historias-unknown--6253658/support.

Caught in the Current: Mexico's Struggle to Regulate Emigration, 1940–1980 is a pioneering analysis of Mexico’s efforts to curb the outflow of its citizens to the United States. It spotlights the miscalculation of Mexican authorities, who believed they could restrain migration at will—particularly when it provoked social chaos, drained the domestic labor pool, or produced egregious cases of migrant abuse. Mexico’s counter-migratory policies, both those based on coercion and incentives, repeatedly collapsed. Mexican migrants resisted restrictions, U.S. authorities refused to cooperate, and Mexican officials ultimately lacked resolve. As the migration swelled, it slipped beyond Mexico’s control. What was once seen as a looming source of disorder, depletion, and disgrace became naturalized as an irreversible fact of national life.

Follow Irvin Ibarguen's work and get his book here: https://www.irvinibarguen.com/

If you have topic suggestions, feel free to email [email protected] or use the contact us form on the website https://www.historiasunknown.com/contact/

Want ad free episodes? And weekly bonus episodes? Support Historias Unknown on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/HistoriasUnknownPodcast
By joining, you can help Historias Unknown donate 20% funds to charity.

Follow on social media:
Instagram: https : //www.instagram.com/historiasunknown/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@historiasunknown
Substack: https://substack.com/@historiasunknown

Historias Unknown is on YouTube now! https://youtube.com/@historiasunknown?si=_rmuVXrSQhs5R1bg

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/historias-unknown--6253658/support.

Berta Cáceres was a Lenca indigenous leader, an environmental activist, and a human rights defender. But she was also so much more than that: a beauty pageant queen, a revolutionary, and a mother. In part 4, Cristina tells Carmen about the harassment and constant surveillance Berta faced before her murder, her murder, the trial and what the latest GIEI report on her case revealed. 

If you have topic suggestions, feel free to email [email protected] or use the contact us form on the website https://www.historiasunknown.com/contact/

Want ad free episodes? And weekly bonus episodes? Support Historias Unknown on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/HistoriasUnknownPodcast
By joining, you can help Historias Unknown donate 20% funds to charity.

This month's donation went to CLEAN, carwash worker center, an org that has been helping car wash workers who are unable to leave their homes due to increasing ICE raids in LA county, by providing groceries to over 200 car wash workers. Follow @carwasherxs on instagram

Follow on social media:
Instagram: https : //www.instagram.com/historiasunknown/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@historiasunknown
Substack: https://substack.com/@historiasunknown

Historias Unknown is on YouTube now! https://youtube.com/@historiasunknown?si=_rmuVXrSQhs5R1bg

Sources

Who Killed Berta Caceres? Dams, Death Squads, and an Indigenous Defender’s Battle for the Planet by Nina Lakhani
https://archive.ph/BsiZB#selection-3399.94-3399.248
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berta_C%C3%A1ceres
https://english.elpais.com/international/2026-03-02/berta-caceres-and-the-resistance-that-was-born-under-an-oak-tree.html
https://elpais.com/elpais/2016/03/04/planeta_futuro/1457113234_162700.html
https://www.gaipe.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Represa-de-Violencia-ES-FINAL-.pdf
https://www.internationalrivers.org/news/remembering-river-defender-berta-caceres/
https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/honduras-berta-caceres-killed
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/21/berta-caceres-name-honduran-military-hitlist-former-soldier
Berta Caceres Goldman acceptance speech, 2015
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2016/03/honduras-deep-failures-in-investigation-into-activist-s-killing-put-many-at-risk/
https://www.oas.org/en/IACHR/
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/experiential/clinics/human-rights-clinic/projects-and-cases/featured-reports-and-projects/the-giei-honduras-report-on-the-murder-of-berta-caceres/

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/historias-unknown--6253658/support.