What do these testimonies tell us about the ways ordinary people responded to the catastrophe? Did it change their perceptions of the post-revolutionary government and the economic miracle?
The testimonies imply that ordinary people had a different opinion on the catastrophe. They believed that the people who lost their lives during the catastrophe were but only victims of human error and nothing to do with the natural cause or rather the earthquake. They responded with bitterness that the poor construction of buildings caused the deaths due to corruption in the society and that the government was inefficient, giving less concern about the lives of the people staying and working in those poorly made buildings (Poniatowska, 83). There was the incapacity of criminals within, and therefore the people believed it was wrong to say that the loss of lives was due to earthquakes. The people had this critical response to the system by questioning the government with high levels of fraud. The ordinary people took it as an awakening call in that they claimed that the causes of the social problems in Mexico were beyond the earthquake. Ordinary people started calling out for change to refuse to stay in buildings that are poorly constructed.
The catastrophe changed the perceptions of the post evolutionary and the economic miracle in a manner that led to people despising the hope that had been built earlier on. This is because, during the catastrophe, in the industrial sector, the employers and factory managers were only concerned about their assets, for instance, machines in the factories (Poniatowska 145). The employee’s welfare and lives were the least in of concerns in the rescue process. Women who provide most of the labor in the textile industry, for instance, suffered the most. This shows how difficult the economic miracle would have happened, especially after the destruction of property and the incapacitation of the labor force.
Reference
Poniatowska, Elena. Nothing, Nobody: The Voices of the Mexico City Earthquake. Temple University Press, 2010.