The 1985 Mexico City earthquake, remembered

Mexico City on Sunday marked 25 years since a powerful earthquake devastated the Mexican capital, killing thousands and sparking a grassroots civilian rescue effort that helped lead to the demise of the one-party state.

The magnitude 8.1 quake shook Mexico City at 7:19 a.m. on Sept. 19, 1985, lasting between three and five minutes. It toppled hundreds of buildings across the densely settled former lake bed, including several hospitals. An estimated 10,000 people were killed, and tens of thousands were injured or left homeless.  Many children were orphaned.

Here's a YouTube clip of live Televisa newscast footage as the quake hits, where the anchor attempts to remain calm, telling viewers, "It's shaking just a teensy bit. Don't be scared."

The quake, which struck on Mexico's Pacific coast, exposed a crippling ineptitude in the response of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. The government seemed unprepared and unable to organize itself to respond to the quake, so ordinary people did it themselves.

There were prominent victims, such as famed rocker Rodrigo "Rockdrigo" Gonzalez, and miraculous rescues, such as the three "miracle babies" who were pulled alive from the crumbled Juarez Hospital a full seven days after the quake (link in Spanish).

The quake also exposed the endemic corruption that had come to define the PRI state. Bribery and lax oversight allowed buildings to be erected without proper earthquake safety measures. In another manner, the earthquake jolted the press in Mexico. Without a state apparatus functioning properly in the aftermath, journalists were left to fill the role of transmitting vital information as well as the growing grievances of the survivors, as this YouTube video clip demonstrates (in Spanish)

Mexico City then experienced an exodus. Many middle- and upper-class families, seeing the city almost destroyed and unable to function, relocated to provincial cities and towns or to the United States.

Three years later, a rumbling electoral revolt suggested the PRI would finally lose power, partly because of  outrage over the earthquake response. But another PRI candidate, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, aided by almost certain vote fraud, won over leftist Cuauhtemoc Cardenas when "the system went silent," or, as most Mexicans remember it, when "the system crashed" (link in Spanish). The PRI was finally booted from power in 2000.

On Sunday, President Felipe Calderon oversaw a solemn flag ceremony on the Zocalo plaza, and Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard dedicated a 25th anniversary plaque for the quake's victims at Solidarity Plaza, a small square near the Alameda Central where the Regis Hotel once stood. The famous hotel was destroyed in the earthquake.

Many of the civil rescue and neighborhood survival groups formed after the quake are still active today. One squad, Los Topos, participated in the rescue effort after Haiti's earthquake early this year (link in Spanish). Today, the city held its annual earthquake-preparedness drill, timed each year for the quake's anniversary (link in Spanish).

El Universal has an interactive multimedia gallery of quake images, audio and graphics. And here's a photo archive by the U.S. Geological Survey.

For readers interested in learning more about the 1985 earthquake, check out the books "No sin nosotros," by Carlos Monsivais; "Nada, Nadie. Las Voces del Temblor," by Elena Poniatowska; and more recently in English, the earthquake-related sections of "El Monstruo" by John Ross.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Top, a collapsed building in the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey / Center: The collapsed Regis Hotel in downtown Mexico City. Credit: Agence France-Presse file / Bottom: Hard hats and candles at a memorial plaque for victims of the 1985 earthquake. Credit: Associated Press

Comments

[Elizabeth FLORES]

There is a famous organization called "Los Topos de Tlatelolco", who became very famous after self-organizing a rescue brigade. In these 25 years they have become professional rescuers and have been called to help all over the world. Here is their facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Los-Topos-Mexicanos/172595019985. and wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topos_de_Tlatelolco
Hope this helps :).

[Jim C.]

I was in a hospital in Mexico City at the time of the temblor––lying on my back in the morning, very sick with typhoid fever. I got out of that bed like a shot (having lived in San Francisco and being aware of earthquakes) and braced myself in the doorway of the closet in my room. And the building just kept shaking and shaking, and I had to push out with my arms to keep from being thrown around in that doorway. And, of course, all the time was listening for the cracks of doom…which did not come. I was very lucky. Had to stay in the hospital and gather strength for a few days then, recovering from the typhoid fever, and so couldn't go help with rescue efforts. Very sad, it was, later, to see the buildings with childrens' toys and clothing peeking out from the piles.

[sharkey]

There was a man who survived 7 days under the rubble of a building. He resorted to drinking his own urine to survive. After that he never complained about another bad cup of coffee.

[mejam]

I will be in Mexico City Oct 16-24, with a group of US college students studying social movements. We would very much like to meet with representatives of any of the neighborhood groups to discuss their work after the earthquake and today.
Could you leave me a message on this comments page?