It was 11am of this past September 19th at the beautiful and magnificent Paseo de la Reforma when the loudspeakers in Mexico City were activated, for the first time, in commemoration of the anniversary of the earthquake that occurred in 1985.
Office personnel paused their jobs to honor the victims of the earthquake, which back then caused between 10 thousand and 40 thousand casualties according to different sources.
To date, however, no one knows the exact figure.
Nobody could have imagined that a couple of hours later, the megaphones and alarms would go off again. Unfortunately, this time it was not a drill – a 7.1 Richter earthquake with epicenter in the border between the state of Puebla and Morelos, hit the country, exactly 32 years later from the devastating 1985 earthquake.
At that moment, I was at an appointment in a famous historical building in San Luis Potosí, when suddenly each and every mobile phone in the room started ringing. The news, unlike 32 years ago, did not take too long to be known. Information started pouring in: live images and streaming videos showing people running while at the same time whole buildings collapsed.
We were all touched, worried and in disbelief of what was happening. We were surprised, and we were hurt by the coincidence of tragedies happening on the exact same dates; we can’t pretend, we are still hurting.
Sadness and uncertainty were tangible during the very first hours of the tragedy. However, this time, the story that our children will read will have to be told differently. As Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, once said:
“We, from that time, we are not the same”.
The earthquake touched the foundations of the whole country, but people’s solidarity touched the deepest of our hearts. A comparison between the Mexican society in 1985 and the Mexican society of today is not necessary, none is better than the other: the great difference strives in that social media, the internet and telecom became our biggest allies during the 2017 earthquake, allowing people to organize faster and better than in 1985.
Students, paramedics, MDs, engineers, architects, psychologists, the army, police forces, rescue dogs, housewives, civilians, expats joining forces for the same cause – help Mexico get back on its feet. And there, relying on each other, filled with empathy, there were no distinctions between skin colors, social classes, religion or ethnicities. The preppy kid from Polanco rushed hand in hand with the hipster from La Condesa to build a human chain with no room for stereotypes, free of judgement. That day, we all became brothers and sisters and love, integrity and solidarity became our only banner.
The death of 21 kids at the Enrique Rébsamen school and over 200 more deaths at different places and states filled Mexicans with sadness. In Huajupán de León – located in the North of Oaxaca – more than five hundred houses suffered severe damage; consider the schools, churches, health-care and work centers. Together they add up to more than eleven thousand damaged buildings in Oaxaca, according to the latest reports. Tlaxcala and Michoacán were also hit, but fortunately no victims were reported.
“Don’t run, don’t scream, don’t push… And don’t focus your attention on idiots”
Here, in Aztec land, when we want to help, we help everyone. Ordinary people, from all walks of life, saved the situation through their commitment with their neighbors, their countrymen. Instead of discussing if we have an efficient of inefficient government, if protocols where in order or if something could have been prevented or done differently, people rushed out to help. The typical catastrophe survival rules had one last bit added: “don’t run, don’t scream, don’t push… and don ́t focus your attention on idiots”.
Society brought out the better side of it with tremendous spontaneity: brigades such as “Los Topos”, senior citizens transporting and delivering water and medical supplies, kids making lunches for those affected and the rescue crews, civilians moving rocks with picks and shovels day and night hoping to find someone alive. The international community was also ready to help and offer a hand to us. “We must help Mexicans” said one of theJapanese brigade members that traveled to Mexico; “Is it a responsibility?” someone asked, “Yes, friendship is”.
It gives me goosebumps thinking about the love from every country, of every continent to Mexico and to Mexicans. “Mexico could be the best country of the entire world” a Singaporean national said. Yes we could: we are a country where anonymous heroes not only refuse to rest to be able to keep helping, but also wipe the sweat of their heads while singing “Cielito Lindo” with a mariachi that plays in the background to help lift their spirits.
One third of the Mexicans are under 30, according to the National Statistics and Geography Institute, and are known as the ill-famed Millenial Generation. Time will tell, but it seems we will be known as “the reconstruction generation”, and not only referring to the earthquake but to institutions at-large. Today’s youth leaders will be tomorrow’s leaders, and we have proved that our social commitment goes beyond Twitter and Facebook. Millennials became activists, not afraid of getting their hands dirty and raising their voices for the less fortunate.
On September 19th young Mexicans showed everyone that it doesn’t matter if you are twelve or fifty, we are all together in this and now we have started a reconstruction movement that won’t stop until every one of the affected has a decent place to live.
The September 19th earthquake brought the best – and sadly the worst – out of Mexican society. We learned that people’s will is unbreakable when it comes to helping one another; we learned that in absences of an efficient public administration we can solve problems on our own, and we learned that a new society can be built one person at a time, through hard work, hope, love, and solidarity.
“Do you know what is also buried for good? The belief that “millennials” are an indolent narcissistic herd”
– @RockStroke-
Article written by:
Flossie Arias Navarro
PR Group & Event Coordinator at Hilton SLP
E-mail: flossie.arias@hilton.com
