The scene on Avenue Chapultepec as the earthquake struck on Sept.19.
Former Dallasite describes his experience when a 7.1-magnitude earthquake hit México City this week
Jesus Chairez | Special Contributor
chairezstudio@gmail.com
EDITOR’S NOTE: As of Thursday morning, officials were saying that the earthquake that hit México City on Tuesday, Sept. 19, has killed at least 245 people. That number is likely to rise as search and rescue/recovery efforts continue. The Washington Blade reports that several buildings in Mexico City’s Roma and Condesa neighborhoods in which many LGBT people, including Dallas Voice contributor Jesus Chairez, live collapsed during the earthquake. It is the second deadly earthquake to hit Mexico in less than two weeks, and it happened on the 32nd anniversary of an 8.0-magnitude earthquake in 1985 that killed more than 5,000 people.
MEXICO CITY — The earthquake hit on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017, at 1:15 p.m., just as I was just stepping out of the subway station in the Roma Norte neighborhood, one of the neighborhoods hit hard by the 1985 earthquake. As I stepped out onto the street, I heard the earthquake alarms and immediately felt the earth move under my feet.
I and hundreds of others ran across Avenue Chapultepec, a major street. As we got to the median, I saw tall buildings swaying, dust flying from between them as they moved.
The buildings were making loud cracking, popping sounds. So I stayed in the open, away from those swaying buildings, afraid to move.
After the shaking stopped, there was dust everywhere — huge clouds of dust that looked like a West Texas dust storm. I saw big cracks in the sides of many buildings, along with some broken windows.
I started to walk but made it only half a block before I started smelling gas. I saw one building with flames coming from the roof, but it didn’t seem that the building itself was on fire, so I think maybe a gas tank had burst on the terrace.
The city had no power, so none of the traffic lights were working. It was one big, major traffic jam — bigger than normal, I mean.
I was able only to post one image on Facebook, letting friends know that we in México City were experiencing another earthquake before I lost the internet connection on my cell phone. I could neither make nor receive calls. And I was not able to see the news feeds of the real destruction happening only blocks away from where I was standing.
I walked pass a hospital and saw where the staff had taken their patients out to the street, some in wheelchairs and many still in their beds, with staff holding their IV bags.
When I was able to connect again to the internet, I saw that it was 7.1-magnitude quake and that the epicenter was only 70 miles away in Puebla. This news most troubled me because another former Dallasite — and my good friend — Moses Negreros, lives in Puebla City, Puebla now. I was able to call Moses at his work and was glad to hear that while he was shaken up, he was OK.
Then I called Moses’s lover in Dallas, Alex Pedraza, who hadn’t even learned of the earthquake by then because he isn’t allowed to use his cell phone at work.
Alex took a break so that he could go online to read about the earthquake, and he was stunned to see all the destruction in México City. He then called Moses, but a phone call is just not the same as hugs. (After several years of separation, these two hope to be together in México come January, when Alex finishes with his commitments in Dallas.)
After my calls, I was faced with the question of how to get home. The subway was closed; buses were running empty and not picking up new riders, and the taxi station managers told me they were not providing service. The only thing I could do was walk the six miles through the devastated city to my home.
Making it to my neighborhood in El Centro Historico, five hours after the earthquake hit, was a real joy. I was pleased to see my apartment building still standing with no visible cracks nor broken glass. Everything looked fine until I got to my apartment and walked into the living room.
A big, heavy bookcase had fallen leaving lots of books and many ceramic and glass ornaments that I had brought from Dallas now lying scattered and shattered on my marble floor.
The bookcase hit a wooden coffee table as it fell, breaking the glass tabletop and several other items on the table. I was heartbroken at the loss of the many mementos that I had carefully packed for my 1,200-mile move, all now broken beyond repair.
After reviewing the damage in my apartment, I called my neighbor Michael Parker Stainback, another former Dallasite, who was at home when the earthquake hit. He has lived in México City for the last 10 years, experiencing several earthquakes in that time. But this time, he said, it felt like his apartment building was going to come down around him.
Thankfully, the building still stands, and only one item in his home was broken. His cat, though, was still hiding out somewhere.
Michael said, “Not everyone can be out there in the bucket brigade, and at the same time, you’re sitting there and your heart aches, because you know how marvelous the Mexican people are and how marvelous and lucky and you are to live here.
México is a family, and México is a country with just a tremendous amount of heart, he added. It’s something that maybe a lot of Americans don’t think about much or maybe don’t know, but 98 percent of the people here are pure heart.
Michael is right. And with México’s big heart, we will get through this, together.
Jesus Chairez is a former Dallasite now living in Mexico City. He was the producer and host of North Texas first bilingual LGBT Latino radio show, Sin Fronteras on KNON 89.3 FM; from July 1993 to July 2005. His work has been published Queer Brown Voices, A Collection of Personal Narratives of Latina/o Activism. Chairez is a freelance writer/artist and can be reached at facebook.com/JesusChairez
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 22, 2017.
