The #WATWB September Edition: On Earthquakes and the Soul of a Nation (#FuerzaMéxico)

Every year on the 19th of September, Mexico City commemorates the anniversary of the 1985 earthquake that leveled the city, and honors those who perished, those who survived, and—perhaps most especially—the millions who took part, over days and weeks and even months, in the search and rescue efforts to find the missing and, later, to rebuild not just the city but the lives devastated by those three minutes the earth shook.

Tlatelolco (Mexico City), 1985

The commemoration includes, every year, an evacuation drill that takes place at 11:00 am. The alarms of the early-warning system sound, and every building in the city empties, people stand in groups in the street until they're given the all-clear, and then everyone mills back up into their offices and cubicles to wait for the evacuation assessment. How fast did we do it? Where did we screw up? What can we do to make it faster, safer, better?

This year, when the alarms sounded again at just past 1:15pm, most people thought it was another drill. Or a malfunction.

It wasn't.

Mexico City is no stranger to earthquakes. Being built on the bed of what once was Lake Texcoco, the city sits on sandy and clayey soil that amplifies any seismic activity. After 1985, building regulations changed drastically, an early warning system was implemented, evacuation drills were practiced and perfected, and for 32 years the city suffered no major damages, structural or human, during quakes.

Until eleven days ago. Over three hundred people dead, and counting. Search and rescue efforts are ongoing. Corruption has been revealed and documented, much to the chagrin and embarrassment of politicians and public servants. Lives have been turned upside down, the damage to the city will take months to assess fully, and reconstruction will take millions of dollars. Mexico is in mourning.

But they're far from paralyzed.

Instead, there's this:

And all this is happening without—perhaps even in spite of—the government.

The feeling all around the city, even as far as Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos (where the epicenter was located) and also damaged, though not as badly as Mexico City, is that Mexicans are taking back the country. For a long time, mainly because of that apathy I talked about earlier, we believed we did, in fact, deserve the government we had. That there were more bad people than good. And therefore that the good ones had no hope. But today there is an undercurrent of optimism, of potential: the evidence—the Topos, the volunteers, the selflessness—seems to prove the old sentiments wrong. The good ones seem to be everywhere. And the bad ones easily identifiable in their government buildings, wearing their silence and sheer ineptitude in the face of a crisis right out on their sleeve for the whole world to see.

In the trenches, all these long days and late nights of working shoulder to shoulder, regardless of color or religion or education or socioeconomic background, have revealed a brotherhood we had perhaps forgotten, perhaps chosen to ignore, perhaps been swindled into betraying. There is hope, today, that this brotherhood, these sentiments of unity and shoulder-to-shoulder equality, may become the driving force for the change—the awakening—Mexico so desperately needs.

Y que viva México, cabrones!

Late at night, hundreds of rescuers, some military, some professionals, most simply volunteers, finally get confirmation that there is no one else trapped in the collapsed building. Instead of giving in to the exhaustion I'm sure permeated every muscle of their bodies, they all stood proud and straight and launched into a spontaneous rendition of the Mexican national anthem.

I am beyond proud to be Mexican.

Want to help México? The New York Times has a good list of organizations that are doing extraordinary work. My personal favorite, also included in the NYT list, is the Topos ("moles" in Spanish). They're heroes without capes—but with plenty of superpowers. CNN did a great piece on them, if you want to find out more. Or you can choose to "stay" (symbolically only, for obvious reasons) in housing damaged by the earthquake. Arriba México, via Cadena.ngo, will direct all proceeds to the fund for rebuilding. In advance, and on behalf of all Mexicans, mil gracias!

This post is part of the We Are The World Blogfest, a monthly event intended to seek out stories of hope and light. If you need more brightness in your life, hop on over to the other participants for a healthy dose of feel-good and inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by!