Over 200 people were killed — and many more lives devastated — during yesterday’s magnitude-7.1 earthquake in Mexico City. “06880” reader Alejandro Garcia writes:
As a Mexican living in Westport, I’ve been humbled over the last few hours by the displays of concern from local friends regarding yesterday’s earthquake.
Our family has been part of Westport for just over 3 years, and the quality of the human relationships we have now is beyond my biggest expectations.
Alejandro Garcia
As I type this, the death toll stands at 225 and counting. I am blessed to report my close ones are fine, but a high school classmate did lose a 19-year-old nephew at his college. Above all, everyone is still terrified.
For those of you who are not in Mexican social media networks, you are not aware of the incredible displays of solidarity I have been witness to from afar. People are selflessly working around the clock as volunteers. Some of them are lifting rubble, others are preparing and delivering food. Others have opened up their homes for strangers to sleep in, wash up.
I witnessed this as a teenager in a similar earthquake in 1985, 32 years to the day yesterday. The quality of a society or a human being is most visible in moments of adversity, so this solidarity makes me extremely proud of my roots, as much as I love and call Westport and the USA home now. It brings tears to my eyes.
Mexicans are resilient. We will pull through. Nobody is asking for handouts. That is not our style. I have nonetheless been asked by several people how they can help. If you are so inclined, I have vetted through my contacts what the best ways are. There are a couple of options:
- Go to comoayudar.mx, and set the “Filtrar por locacion” filter to global. My apologies; it is only in Spanish. There is a list of organizations that take PayPal. Any amount makes a difference.
- Amazon has partnered with the local Red Cross. RC created a wish list that can be fulfilled through Amazon. The beauty of this is that it is updated by the local Red Cross in real time, as it detects needs. It can’t be more targeted than this. Go to Amazon.com.mx.
Above all, thank you for the human solidarity. May you and your families never need to face this level of human suffering.
Mexicans helped each other in the hours after Tuesday’s devastating earthquake. Now it’s time for Westporters to help too.
