Villagers stay cool as Popo gets hot
Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, December 19, 2000
The New York Times
MEXICO CITY — Every thousand years or so, the great Popocatepetl explodes with killing force, and as it rumbled and puffed this weekend, government officials monitoring geophysicists’ instruments pleaded with thousands of villagers under the volcano to flee.
Few did. People fought to stay put, even after Popo erupted violently throughout Monday night and Tuesday morning, flinging glowing 5-foot rocks for miles, in what is believed to be its biggest bang in more than a millennium. They felt strongly that the volcano — their volcano, revered as the god of rain and giver of rich soil — was more benevolent a force than their government.
"The people in the villages consider Popo a friendly volcano, the beating heart of the land," said Homero Aridjis, a poet, former diplomat and president of PEN, the international writers association. "It’s our Indian beliefs against European science."
Maybe they were right. Though the mountain is hurling incandescent bombs, potentially threatening everyone for 20 miles around, it has killed no one yet. But this clash of human nature against nature is an old story. And since the volcano still is capable of an immense explosion, it is far from over.
Scientists and the government continued to warn that there could be a full-blown eruption, with rivers of lava pouring down the slopes. The volcano is visible from Mexico City, a metropolis of 18 million people 40 miles to the northwest.
All day Monday and Tuesday, government sound trucks went through villages near the volcano blaring warnings, church bells rang out danger and army commanders appeared with evacuation orders. But thousands resisted the call. Vicente Jimenez, a 26-year-old corn farmer from Santiago Xanitzintla, about seven miles from the flaming crater, heard all the alarms and was unmoved.
"We never left," he said on Tuesday. "We don’t feel comfortable leaving our homes and everything we own in the hands of the authorities. For many people, leaving was hard enough, but leaving our homes in the hands of the police is even harder."
A fellow farmer who stayed behind, Adolfo Castro, 55, said: "This is a very old village. The church is important to us, and there was no one guarding it. There are antiquities inside that go back centuries."
An army commander charged with carrying out an evacuation on Tuesday shook his head. "It’s too late to be fighting with these people," he said. "They’ve shut themselves in behind four locks. They are older people who will never leave."
More than 20,000 people appeared to have turned down the government’s offers of transportation, food and shelter.
