September 19th changed me. The earthquake on that day instilled me with a hypersensitivity to movement. At times now, in the silence of the morning, as I lean on the table I feel an intense beating of my heart, and it seems the whole world is moving. Then I look to see if the lamps hanging from the ceiling are swaying. They have become my seismometers. El Grand Temblor of September 19th has become a ghost that haunts me. Let me reiterate:
The night of September 7th I was awakened by a rocking motion and the sound of rhythmic rattling. Doors moved on their own, creaking and tictocking, marking time to the churning waves that were traveling through a sea of dirt and rock. It was a soft movement, like that of a hammock,, a typical earthquake in Tenancingo. It didn't seem serious like most of the earthquakes I have experienced for the last fifteen years except that it lasted almost two minutes. When it finished I fell sleep. Early the next morning when I entered the kitchen to make a cup of coffee I noticed that all the drawers were agape. I checked the news and discovered that the quake had registered 8.2 and had devastated parts of Oaxaca and Chiapas. We are 1000 kilometers from the epicenter of that September 7th event which was located off the coast of Chiapas where the Cocos and the American Plates are doing battle.
Twelve days later in the afternoon of the 19th I went upstairs to package some items which were to be sent to the U.S. . That room is 120 feet from the stairway. At 1:14 PM, as I turned to enter the hallway a powerful growling blast welled up out of the earth like an angry canonade and the world was instantaneously unstable and unfamiliar. It was a machine gun rapid tattoo,,, bap, bap, bap, bapping. Items above my desk were engaged in a savage dance. I remember in the calm that derives from panic that the noise came from the things about me envigorated with an energy from below. They danced involuntarily I could hear them all clogging. It wasn't the sound of the earthquake itself or at least I think that is the way it happened. I moved out the door to the hallway and glimpsed the employees in the parking lot. Looking down the length of the hotel I saw the entire building was now moving like a sea monster. I wanted to run but the earthquake tossed me about like a rag doll. I turned and saw a brick decorative crest on the house across the street tumble to the pavement and their 2500 liter water tank tip over creating a river that cascaded down the roof. In the distance the microwave tower swayed like a whip. All that I saw in the distance, and silence,,,, a restless earth in turmoil,,, the destruction,,, all this happened in silence. I couldn't hear the water tank vomiting its water, or the creaking of the microwave tower or even the mountains rupturing. It was a surreal ballet of dust and debris without a musical score.
The quake has since brought me in touch with two different hard hit communities and their residents. Tecomatlan 2 kilometers from where I live, and San Martin, but San Martin, the poorer of the two, which is planted upon a deeply folded mountainside suffered more damage. There is hardly an adobe house left standing. We went with other mostly young volunteers to help remove debris in these two communities. The air those days was silent for there was no electricity and free of pesty radios. The only voices came from the chains of people who passed the remnants of houses out into the street.
Monday the 1st of October 2017 I went with a group of citizens from Tenancingo to distribute food and water in San Martin. It was confusing at first organizing the distribution. The government still had not identified victims so we ambled in heavily laden trucks in the southern folds of the community. I was stunned. So many people had lost everything in an instant when the earth rattled their adobbe bricks like stacked dominoes. I talked to some of these residents,, saw the destruction,, and this almost two weeks after the quake. The government was absent. That is when I begn to write to everyone I knew asking for funds. I didn't have a plan. That was developed as the funds arrived. There are 150 or more houses destroyed or severely damaged in San Martin. However with the generosity of many we created a fund and created an idea to build three strong earthquake proof dormitories. It is a modest effort I know but we just couldn't help everyone.
Lines of people in San Martin waiting for food and water. Serving with this citizen's group is where I met many people from San Martin. We just completed our 5th monday distribution.
Destroyed houses or where they once were:
The Hernandez platform. The owner of this house, a woman, was very sick and in the hospital when the quake took her home. She died the day after never knowing she had lost all.
Another destroyed adobe San Martin
What is left of the house of Maria de Lourdes Gonzalez Millan
Leticia Estrada Gutierrez from San Martin standing in the ruins.
Tecomatlan
Tecomatlan
Tenancingo
Two images from Joquicingo close to Tenancingo:
Tenancingo
Tenancingo one of the towers on the basilica
Mario Jimenez Moreno and Vanessa Mejia Rogel
Paula Rogel Salazar
Mario and Vanessa's dormitory with stone foundation completed as of Nov 1st. Mario has also helped quite a lot in this effort.
Cirila's foundation being dug by hand by her son.
Paula's dormitory getting ready to start the block. These two masons Dimas and Raul are possible through donations.
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