Teaching Life
How a 7.1 Magnitude Earthquake Couldn’t Stop the Teachers of Morelos, Mexico
MAY 7, 2018
On September 19, 2017, Nancy Mateos Núñez was giving a painting class to her 6-year-old students in Narciso Mendonza’s school in the village of El Jicarero, Mexico. Some of the children were painting their houses and families, others were painting rivers, lakes or mountains. It was 1:14 PM and the earth began to tremble. Only a few minutes had passed since the annual drill performed on September 19th in memory of the earthquake of 1985. That afternoon, classes had just resumed when the earthquake struck.
Fortunately, Nancy was teaching her class outside of the classroom when the 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit Mexico. “My students are among the youngest of the school, so they were very, very scared at that moment. They grabbed at my pants trying to be safe.” The chaos after the tremor was such that two girls went into shock
The seconds seemed hours during the tremor, but the teacher’s mind only thought of one thing: her students. “It does not matter if it’s your fault or if it’s a natural catastrophe, they are your responsibility and their parents have left them to your care” Nancy says during a break between classes. Only when the quake passed Nancy realised that her 6-year-old son is also a student at school and when he went to look for him he was already at her side. “I’m fine mom, do not worry” Angel said, his son, seeing his mother busy counting children and making sure everyone was safe.
The moments of terror passed and when Nancy could look up she was aware of what had happened. All the students and teacher were fine. But the school was broken. “I love my school, I’ve been a director for 4 years and a teacher for 4. When I saw the buildings on the ground, it broke my soul to see all our efforts broken into pieces.”
“We soon realised that our state, Morelos, had been one of the most affected in all of Mexico and that in Jojutla, the closest city, almost 2,600 houses were on the ground,” says Nancy. All the teachers had to make great efforts at that time. We spent three weeks teaching in the street for fear that the buildings would collapse.The fears of Nancy and the rest of the teachers were confirmed when the government architects confirmed that the school was not safe anymore and had to be demolished.
Then they were moved to a Temporary Learning Center where they have been for the past six months. “We’re very thankful for it, but we need to move forward and rebuild our school. There are more than 150 students in a small space, we only have two bathrooms and the aluminum roofs turn into an oven the classes with the more than 40 degrees celsius that we have in Morelos. The children are still afraid. The walls of the TLC are so thin that when a big truck passes everything vibrates and some children cry or run away thinking that it is a new earthquake” Nancy says.
Paula Citlali Martínez also gets scared every time some of the aftershocks shake the earth. ‘It’s hard to forget what happened on September 19. For us, Morelos is a safe area where earthquakes are not very harmful but now our perception has changed in a certain way” says Paula, who started teaching at the Narciso Mendoza school with only 23 years old. ‘It was very difficult for us as women and young teachers to start in this community. It has taken us 7 years to earn the respect of parents”.
The majority of the children that are studying primary school in El Jicarero or similar areas in Mexico will be working once they are 15 or 16 years old. This fact make the work of teachers like Nancy and Citlali even more important.
“Unfortunately for many of these children this is the only opportunity they will have, that’s why we have a great opportunity to not only teach them in an academic way but also with values that they will use it not only in their jobs but also in there lives. And the best way to teach for that is with our example” Citlali says.
The father of Citlatli was a well-known teacher from Morelos and it was he who inspired her to continue with her vocation to teach. When she was 18 she went to study for becoming a teacher in a Escuela Normal of Puebla called ‘Miguel Castujo de Alatriste’.’There are many satisfactions and rewards for working surrounded by children, but for me the biggest one is teaching children to read or write. Many of them thank you and that is priceless.”
The illusions of Nancy, Citlali and the other teachers became reality when in December the Project Development Team of All Hands And Hearts arrived at the Narciso Mendoza School with a 7 month rebuilding project. “All the teachers are grateful to the dozens of volunteers who have come from all over the world, but we not only wanted to feel grateful, we also wanted to help in the reconstruction” explains Nancy. That’s why the teachers have been working with the volunteers of All Hands And Hearts several Saturdays sharing hours of construction work under the hard sun of Morelos.
“We had to be very flexible, it was fortunate that all the teachers were young because we had to face many changes. We have been teaching outside of school for more than 6 months with many difficulties. But that this earthquake has taught us a lot, a lot about solidarity, about us and about life. When everyone leaves, we will stay here enjoying this new school that we will take care of as a house. We are going to help rebuild it.”
FOOTNOTES
Photo & Story Credit: Pablo Miranzo for All Hands and Hearts