The Family Plácido Domingo Lost in the 1985 Earthquake

The earthquake of September 19, 1985, is undoubtedly one of the most crucial events in the history of our country. For a minute and a half, Mexico City (CDMX) was shaken by an 8.1 magnitude earthquake, claiming the lives of at least 9,000 people, according to the Federal Government.

Multiple houses and buildings collapsed, including the Hotel Regis, the Televisa facilities, the Juárez Hospital, the Juárez apartment complex, the Medical Center, the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of the Navy, and the Nuevo León building in Tlatelolco, which we will discuss in more detail.

The collapse of this last structure had a profound impact on the life of Spanish opera singer Plácido Domingo, as he lost four family members that morning: an uncle, an aunt, a cousin, and his cousin’s son. “It was a true tragedy,” the tenor has said in interviews with various media outlets over the years.

In various interviews, Plácido Domingo recounted that on the morning of September 19, 1985, he was staying in a hotel in Chicago, United States, when he learned from his wife that an earthquake had struck Mexico.

At first, the tenor didn’t believe it had been such a strong earthquake. However, when he learned that the building where his family lived had collapsed, he ended up traveling urgently to Mexico City on a friend’s private plane, not only to find his relatives but also to offer all possible assistance in the rescue efforts.

The singer signed up as a volunteer to rescue people from the rubble of the Nuevo León building in Tlatelolco, while also searching for his relatives who lived there. He said he never lost hope of finding them alive, which is why he worked day and night to find them, until their deaths were sadly confirmed on September 28.

Domingo recalls the enormous solidarity and cooperation of all the individuals and groups, like Los Topos and the rescue dogs, during the 1985 earthquake, and asserts that nothing achieved that day would have been possible without the help of everyone who joined the brigades.