In face of the devastation following the magnitude 7.1 earthquake affecting Mexico City and Morelos on September 19, 2017, I am re-reading Nada, nadie – Las voces del temblor, by Elena Poniatowska, and Carlos Monsiváis’ No sin nosotros.
Not only do the images of flattened buildings resemble historical accounts of the 1985 earthquake in an uncanny way, there are also (still) enough similarities regarding the overall political situation and social inequalities in Mexico, as captured by Poniatowska and Monsiváis three decades earlier. “Natural disasters can drive people toward political action. In 2017, the open ruins revealed the failure of the political parties which are good for nothing, the abyss between social classes, the inequality and injustice”, as Elena Poniatowska rightly observes in an article published in La Jornada in the days after the 2017 quake. For a similar reflection, read Juan Carlos Ortega Prado’s Las mismas impunidades que en 1985 (Article on proceso.mx, again, Spanish only). And again, there is a ray of hope in the widespread solidarity, mutual aid and common self-organization present throughout the metropolis as residents form brigades and human chains to remove rubble and support rescue missions, thousands of arquitects and students volunteering to review the integrity of buildings, and people collecting and delivering aid throughout the city and to neighbouring Morelos state, and so on. It seems as if in 1985, again there is no one, nowhere, in the words of Elena Poniatowska, who will remain unchanged by the 2017 Mexico City quake.
In case you wish to support aid after the recent earthquakes in Mexico, I would warmly recommend the following two trustworthy calls for donations:
1) The Fondo de Apoyo Autónomo // Autonomous Relief Fund, set up by Rancho Electrónico hackerspace and several other leftist autonomous collectives from Mexico City, to aid communities affected by the Sept 7 and Sept 19, 2017 earthquakes in Oaxaca, Puebla and Mexico City.
2) Another call was issued by Rosa Luxemburg Foundation’s Mexico office: http://www.rosalux.org.mx/articulo/solidaridad-y-apoyo-mexico-2017
(info in Spanish only). Thank you!