40 Years of the Devastating Mexico City Earthquake: “More than the Buildings that Collapsed, I Remember the Screams of Terrified People.”

Report Issue

Please complete the required fields.

Your Name

Email

Reason (required)
This post contains broken linksPost has incorrect informationPost has spamCopyright IssueOther

Description

Submit

This September 19th marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most devastating earthquakes to hit Mexico City.

Residents of Mexico City remember it well: at 7:19 a.m., they felt the end of the world for just over a minute. Houses and buildings shook, people screamed, ran out into their yards or streets, and others climbed onto rooftops.

Gabino Lezama is an architect who lived through the 8.1 magnitude earthquake that struck Mexico City on September 19, 1985, at 7:19 a.m. That earthquake was the most catastrophic in the Mexican capital to date, with more than 200 buildings collapsed and an official death toll of around 3,000 that has been disputed for years.

As chief civil works supervisor in the Benito Juárez municipality, in the south-central part of the city, Lezama took on the task of recording the damage caused by the earthquake in that district by taking a hundred photographs.

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the devastating earthquake that struck the Mexican capital, we present Lezama’s testimony and the images he took of the catastrophe.

Suddenly, I felt a very strong jolt and heard the house crashing, as if it were hitting each other.

I remember my grandmother shouting “Blessed Jesus!” and my little sisters screaming too. My first reaction was to check on everyone; my other siblings were already on their way to school.

At first, I didn’t realize how long the earthquake lasted, but it felt like it lasted five minutes.

My phone died; it was a totally different world than now with cell phones. My parents were fine, and I decided to go to work.

I had felt the earthquake was very strong, but I didn’t realize how powerful it was. I wasn’t expecting it until I got out.

There was a sea of ​​people on the street, many trying to communicate with their loved ones. Since there wasn’t much transportation, people were walking everywhere.

I was able to take a trolley bus, but halfway through, I couldn’t make it, and I saw many collapsed buildings.

I walked to work and saw more disaster, many people walking in the street, scared like me, amazed… it was a feeling of anxiety, uncertainty… we had never seen anything like this before.

More than the impact of the collapsed buildings, it was the screams of the people. The terrified screams.

“Is anyone here?”

At that time, we civilians didn’t know what to do. There were no instructions on what to do during an earthquake, not standing next to things that could fall, or anything like that—there wasn’t that culture. There were no drills.

Without telephones, there was a terrible sense of uncertainty. The first thing you wanted to know was about your own people, but there was no way to communicate. So it was either moving or contacting someone who knew something.

When we went out with the crews, we spoke to people, and there were many empathetic people, the vast majority, but others didn’t.

Some, even if they had suffered damage themselves, helped their neighbors. But others, perhaps very selfishly, only cared about saving their belongings.

But I saw more empathetic people, willing to help. People took the emergency into their own hands.

First, there were brigades of volunteers who came to pull people out alive. “Is anyone here? Is anyone here?” And if they answered or made noise, everyone started digging to get people out.

You end up getting to know the people when these kinds of emergencies happen.

We lived in the Benito Juárez district building for about two weeks, washing ourselves halfway in the office bathroom to be there 24/7, receiving people and channeling aid. And while we were there, they brought us food without asking for anything in return, so we could keep working.

The city was turned upside down and turned into a human tide of people who dedicated themselves to the rescue efforts.