Léalo en español

A rabid mother calls for care, injured people urges us to show solidarity

Ricardo Mayol-Bracero

Sep 22 out of 17

My heart is hurt with the loss caused by earthquakes and hurricanes.

On Tuesday, September 19, I called Puerto Rico, and I spoke with my sister, my mother, my son, my daughter and my brother. They were preparing to receive Hurricane Maria. Maria came as angry as Hurricane Irma, but worse, because she was going to enter from the southeast and cross the island diagonally to leave by the northwest; which she in fact did.

That same Tuesday, earth trembled in Mexico, and many buildings collapsed and many people died. Puerto Rico had not recovered from Hurricane Irma; Mexico had not recovered from the first earthquake, and now, both lands struggle with all their strength to get up on their feet.

Here I share in parallel the situation of both, my very own, countries.

History

Older people in Puerto Rico always retell how on September 13, 1928 Hurricane San Felipe devastated Puerto Rico. After 85 years, Maria is the first hurricane with the same strength to lash at the island.

When I lived in Mexico, everyone told me about the devastation of the earthquake on September 19, 1985. On the day of its thirty-second anniversary, the CDMX performed a national earthquake drill at 11:00 am; and who would imagine it? Two hours later, another earthquake, as devastating as the 85, shook the city.

Recent

Hurricane Irma, although she did not enter the island, she did leave her battered. This just a week ago, days after, Maria entered.

A week before, an earthquake shook Mexico, its epicenter was Chiapas. We felt it strongly in Guatemala; and days later, a 2nd earthquake shook the center of the country.

Without recovering

After Irma, there were still many people without water and without light, and this next one, with the name of woman, entered and punished the island.

Mexico, without recovering from the previous earthquake experienced another earthquake hurting it peace. We were still trying to develop a response for families affected by the destruction of a hill in the Ejido Constitución of Simojovel municipality, Chiapas, and the families of 2 students of the Theological Community of Mexico who lost their homes during the 1^st earthquake.

Devastation / Desolation

In Puerto Rico, houses were left destroyed, without ceilings, flooded, gates were ravished and turned into projectiles; hills came apart, electrical and water infrastructure disrupted, people in shelters, dead ...

In Mexico, collapsed buildings, shattered houses, people in the street, without roof ..., dead ... 20 children killed in a school, many more ...

Solidarity

I do not know how Puerto Rico is moving the solidarity force, because the communication network is broken.

From Mexico, Javier Ulloa tells me that civil society is very outraged by the government and the Red Cross because of corruption and neglect. That's why people are organizing their strength and acting directly. Churches very close to him and the Theological Community have become a Collection Center and are channeling the aid themselves to the hardest hit. Our young people are actors who articulate solidarity.

My closest ones

Water leaked into the house of my sister, wind blew the gate, many things caught in the wind hit her car, but she's fine. My children, too, got water in the house, but they're fine.

Those of the Baptist Seminary of Mexico are fine; Martina and her family are fine; Diego, Eber and all those closest to me are fine. The most beautiful thing is that many of them are fraternally taking action for their neighbors.

For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. (Romans 8:22)

This system no longer holds,

The peasants cannot stand,

cannot stand the workers,

cannot stand communities,

and cannot stand the Earth either

as San Francis said.

Pope Francisco