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Family Tragedy…
To one side of the restaurant ¨El Portón de Carmelita¨ there is debris from what used to be the residence of the Morales family. Pieces of concrete, broken water pipes and wooden rafters are the remains of four generations of work. In front of this scene are Carmen and the machines that are removing waste from the homes that the 7.1 magnitude earthquake left behind in Jojutla, while dozens of people come and go.
I am one of the owners of this building that fell to the ground, but really the owners are pure family members. The earthquake affected us all. I lost my source of work, my sisters and I work with the business here (pointing to ¨El portal de Carmelita¨), it´s a fast food restaurant and we have houses that we inherited. We are the fourth generation to inherit them, so right now my cousins, siblings, and nephews and are owners too.¨ says Carmen on being asked about the building in ruins.
On the other side of the street is her family. Women contemplate the disaster, while the men join in to help their neighbors, whoever then can, to save the few belongings that didn´t suffer severe damage after the earthquake. Carmen tells us:
¨Really it´s sad to see in a blink of the eye that nothing is there. There were some pots full of food in the collapsed building, so many things, but we give thanks to the Lord that we are alive and with a better attitude to start again.¨
In ¨El Portal de Carmelita¨ they sold pozole, tacos, tostadas, chilaquiles, and other snacks and Mexican food. After the earthquake the restaurant was left damaged inside, leaving it unsalvageable, even when the outside didn´t seem that bad.
I only have what I´m wearing…
Carmen invites her relatives to talk with us. With genuine interest, her siblings and cousins come closer. They tell us that for the moment they are staying in their family’s homes outside of Jojutla. However, they note that the one who was most affected is Carmen, who not only lost her home, but also her business.
The men visibly show their anger in respect to government help. They note that Civil Protection has approached them to do a necessary inspection of their property. ¨We put up the caution tape ourselves so that no one would get too close, in case it falls¨. No one has gone to help them, they say.
A little more optimistic, Carmen mentions that on Wednesday, September 20th the President of the Republic visited Jojutla and passed through the affected area, and that he promised federal aid for reconstruction of her home and those of her neighbors. However, he didn´t tell them when. According to Carmen, he only stressed that Oaxaca and Chiapas would be prioritized while they evaluate the total damages in Morelos. The rest of her family is skeptical.
¨I only have what I´m currently wearing¨ says one of Carmen´s brothers upon being questioned about his belongings. The earthquake, they say, didn´t give them time for anything, they couldn´t save anything. Now, they are just waiting to remove the debris and see if there is something they can reuse. Many of them were outside Jojutla the 19th of September, only Carmen felt the quake and saw the years of work and effort crumble. Maybe this is the reason she is concentrating on the solution for the current situation, she, of all the family, lost the most. She doesn´t complain, on the contrary, she sends this message:
¨We need your help to survive, we don’t work for fun, we work for necessity¨. We don’t only ask for the Morales family, but for all the people that need and depend on their business, on their job.¨
The solidarity is present even among the victims. Carmen not only asks for herself and her family, but also for her neighbors. Her sister cries upon reminding us of the death of a blind adolescent that couldn´t get out of the house to save himself, getting trapped in between the walls and the roof of what was his house. Her brothers stop talking, they know that they must be strong to support their sisters.
We say goodbye to Carmen and she blesses us and thanks us for spending time with her and her family, as well as our interest in her case. As we walked away, she returned to her family standing in a line on the other side of the street, in front of them the ruins of what used to be her home.
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