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The History Hour

Mexican history: A love song and a gas explosion

The History Hour

BBC

Personal Journals, History, Society & Culture

4.4913 Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service.

Our guest is Michelle Meinhart, a reader in musicology and cultural history at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London. We start by hearing about a Mexican song that captivated lovers in World War Two. Then, a marketing strategist recalls how he worked on a Mexican election campaign in 2000 that saw a change of government for the first time in 71 years. We hear how millions of indigenous women in Mexico won the right to vote and stand in elections in 2014. Plus, a woman recalls her family's escape from a deadly gas explosion in Mexico City in 1984. Finally, we find out how Titanic, one of the most successful films in movie history, was made in Mexico in 1997. Contributors: Mariano Rivera Velazquez - son of singer Consuelo Velazquez who wrote Bésame Mucho. Michelle Meinhart - a reader in musicology and cultural history at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. Francisco Ortiz - marketing strategist. Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza - campaigner for indigenous women's rights. Virginia Martínez Tellez - San Juanico resident. Antonio Moreno - sports journalist. Luisa Gomez de Silva - assistant coordinator in the art department for the movie Titanic. (Photo: A welcoming kiss. Credit: Topical press agency/Hulton archive/Getty images)

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.

0:07.2

Things just swirling around my head.

0:09.6

Am I really the product of this?

0:12.1

Astonishing secrets uncovered by at-home DNA tests.

0:17.0

Little did I know what more was to come.

0:19.5

I'm Jenny Clemen, and in the new series of The Gift,

0:23.6

we'll hear more stories emerging out of the ever-expanding global DNA database.

0:28.8

They did know that I was different.

0:31.7

You had kids together.

0:33.0

Yeah.

0:33.5

Then you met.

0:35.2

The Gift.

0:36.1

Listen on BBC Sounds. Imagine we met. The Gift. Listen on BBC Sounds.

0:39.4

Imagine being here.

0:40.9

Scientists have made the atomic bomb.

0:43.2

The first one was dropped on a Japanese city this morning.

0:46.2

Here?

0:46.6

During the meeting, Mr. Mandela was informed of the government's decision regarding his release.

0:51.6

And here.

0:52.4

Witnesses have spoken of a wall of water

0:54.6

that swept coastlines in Sri Lanka, Indonesia.

0:58.4

Hear from the people who were there.

...

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