Yet these improvements have been limited, by and large, to the city’s central areas. In the case of Mexico City, the 1985 earthquake revealed the government’s disregard for the plight of the urban poor. “It is wonderful to work with Los Topos—true professionals in their field. It was followed by a 7.5 earthquake 36 hours later. Their fragile routines collapsed in the earthquake. That effort reached few survivors, focusing almost exclusively on distributing services to loyal PRI supporters. “After the earthquake, it’s a whole new story to be told,” says Boston University professor Susan Eckstein, who conducted research on the damnificado movement in the 1980s. In 1985, Mexico City was the world’s largest urban area. Mexico City earthquake … Los Topos Founder Héctor Méndez began his career in search and rescue 31 years ago, when the massive earthquake struck his city. Mexicans have a long history of modifying their housing stock – adding new floors or new rooms to accommodate an expanding family unit – making it more vulnerable to earthquake damage. Yet these settlements are systematically denied that enforcement. “It is still shaking a little,” she said into the camera. That approach was meant to discourage migrants from settling on the urban periphery. Guardian Cities will be reporting live from Mexico City in November. 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. Mexico City Earthquake of 1985 Three type of plates boundaries: In Mexico City on September 19,1985 a big earthquake happened, struck in the early morning at 7:19 am, was jolted by a magnitude of 8.0. This “party-movement,” led by PRI-defector Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, challenged the PRI in the 1988 election– the largest opposition in 70 years – and set in motion a reform process that brought more power to the local level and away from the PRI’s political castle. “We are more vulnerable precisely because of the high population density and the large quantity of high-risk settlements that proliferate in the metropolitan zone.”. “The movement died, as far as I can tell,” says Eckstein. About 67 destructive or powerful earthquakes occurred in 1985. To address these, the city must first discard its zero-tolerance approach to work proactively with its low-income communities to develop infrastructure, services and homes that are safe for residents in the long term. Resistance to the PRI and its single-party rule had been growing since the 1960s. Hundreds of activists – once shut out from the political system – migrated into the party, hoping to topple the PRI, bringing their pro-poor agenda with them in the process. The disaster preparedness exercise marked the 31st anniversary of the 8.1 magnitude earthquake that devastated the city September 19, 1985. In their distinctive orange uniforms, Los Topos stationed themselves on each of the 6 floors of the Scientology Church, directly across from Plaza de la Solidaridad. In 2002, the city government launched a public-private partnership with Carlos Slim’s nonprofit foundation, Fundación del Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de Mexico, to funnel resources into the downtown area. They have established monitoring systems to detect earthquakes before they arrive, new agencies to coordinate responses to a potential earthquake and they have raised crucial funds in case of future emergency. Central Mexico City has been rebuilt at great expense, while its peripheries remain dominated by poorly built informal settlements. The Solidarity Plaza in Mexico City’s El Centro is a simple monument. Cathedrals, hospitals, museums and other monuments to Mexican history were destroyed. “The dramatic experience of the earthquake of the September of 1985 switched on the light,” writes Pedro Moctezuma, an activist in Mexico City at the time, “to see the fragility and corruption of the system of construction and the political party apparatus.”. Just a few blocks away, the historic city centre, or El Centro, was in pieces. In their destruction, earthquakes expose more than the physical foundations of the city. Low-income residents, many of whom have been living in El Centro for generations, either faced soaring rents or saw an excellent opportunity to sell their hard-won property and pursue cheaper land on the city’s periphery. On Thursday night, Deputy Interior Minister Fernando Perez Correa told reporters that 1,825 bodies had been recovered from the rubble of the two earthquakes that rocked Mexico … Three decades later, however, El Centro bears almost no trace of this devastation. If you have any concerns regarding this press release, please contact the Author / Media Contact / Business of this press release. Residents of the city’s informal settlements were already travelling long distances each day to reach work. As the city sounded the seismic alarm at 11 a.m. announcing the drill, the Church carried out an orderly evacuation of everyone in the building, bringing them quickly and safely to the street. In the early fall of 1985, a severe earthquake struck Mexico City and the surrounding region. Its economic boom, known as the Mexican Miracle, encouraged heavy migration, and few politicians were eager to stem the flow of incoming labour with strict building codes or regulations. The effects of the quake were particularly devastating because of the type of ground upon which the city sits. Thirty years later, though, that plight remains. Images of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake are exhibited along Reforma Avenue this month, to mark the 30th anniversary of the disaster. One year later, under pressure from a strong and organised CUD, the government launched a major reconstruction effort, providing low-income, prefabricated housing to the displaced victims. “This back and forth between regular and irregular states,” the report notes, “reflects the reality that vulnerability-reducing regulations may not reach large classes of housing, nor will be effective long-term without continued enforcement.”. Yet modern Mexico City often seems indifferent to poverty and inequality, Last modified on Mon 3 Feb 2020 07.54 EST. And the damnificados got their housing, got their right to stay. MEXICO CITY -- A major earthquake 40 miles off Mexico's Pacific coast rocked the nation today, crumbling churches, hotels and office buildings as far as 250 miles away in Mexico City… Country Mexico Location Mexico City Brief Overview of the Disaster On September 19, 1985, at 7:19 a.m., Mexico City was struck by an earthquake that measured 8.1 on the Richter scale and lasted more than a minute and a half. Not long after, he founded Los Topos Aztecas, now known simply as Los Topos. “The earthquake provided a context in which poor people’s movements could really start to take hold.”. With more than 16 million residents, the city had been growing at a ludicrous rate – over 4% annually through the 1970s, with a growth rate of close to 40% in the city’s periphery. Over time, however, as the private investment in the area intensified – turning downtown into what many Mexicans call “Slimlandia” – many of the poor who had previously lived in the city centre began to migrate elsewhere. 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