Earthquake in Peru

Author: Victoria Maravi
Country: Peru



On Wednesday 15th August, the Peruvian cities of Ica, Chincha and Pisco were hit by a tremendous 7.9 - magnitude earthquake that lasted more than two minutes and killed more than 500 people.

The earthquake’s massiveness even reached the capital city of Lima, just when I had been alone at a friend’s house doing homework, but the impact was far less severe than on the southern cities. Many aftershocks kept coming on Thursday and Friday while people there tried to rescue others from the ruins and take them to the semi-collapsed hospitals that till now are full and cannot attend all the people necessary.

There were men buried in demolished churches, agonising in their shattered houses and sick ones that were left on the streets in these cold winter days due to lack of infrastructure shocked not only citizens of Lima, but people from all over the world. The UN sent at least $1 million and other international organisations shared some amount of money for our case. An infinite amount of supplies was sent daily since Friday 17th to help them, especially with winter clothes, tuna fish and milk cartons.

I have heard stories of citizens being afraid of going to buy food alone due to the possibility of their neighbours stealing their supplies, and even the mayor keeping all the charity surplus and not organising it adequately.

However, there have also been stories of minor heroes rescuing children from the ruins and paying for their medicine in hospitals, and almost everyone in Lima has given some of their material possessions to their Southern brothers, I believe. This has caught my interest, indeed. I cannot say that I am the most patriotic lady you will ever meet because, honestly, I do not like it here; I even preferred to read BBC News about the earthquake instead of a Peruvian newspaper. Still, these acts of unity that have been caused by this devastating natural accident have given me hope. I remember the poem “Mass”, written by Peruvian poet César Vallejo, that says the following:

“...Twenty, a hundred, a thousand, five hundred
thousand ran up to him, crying out:
'So much love and no way of countering death!’
But the corpse, alas! went on dying.

Millions of individuals stood round him,
with a common plea: ‘Stay here brother!’
But the corpse, alas! went on dying.

Then all the men on earth stood round him;
the sad corpse saw them, with emotion;
he got up slowly, embraced the first man;
began to walk…”

Ica, Pisco and Chincha have been this corpse. They have began to walk again, step by step, with the help of people from all around the world. We are a mass –as a matter of fact, the mass Vallejo writes about– and, although some may try, we cannot create acts of solidarity individually; we need all the men on earth. I believe the Communist Manifesto wanted to reflect this global comradeship that could provide our population with never-ending strength (of course, I am not saying that I am a Communist or that I support everything the Manifesto states).

To conclude with this article I must say that, even though many people have passed away, their deaths have brought unity to this conflictive world, and I celebrate that with a smile.

Image credit: www.bbc.co.uk