Enrique Molina is flooded by the anguish and uncertainty while he waits to hear about his son Julio César, who has been trapped since yesterday’s 7.1 magnitude earthquake, among the rubble of a collapsed building, in Hipódromo Condesa, Mexico City.
On Avenida Álvaro Obregón 286, where Molina’s office collapsed, he, along with relatives of other people yet to be found, remains alert to any signs emerging from the large piles of concrete, earth, and twisted iron.
“I am hoping to see him get out of here alive,” said the inhabitant of the Coyoacán delegation, who last saw his son on Tuesday morning at the Copilco Metro station.
He commented that Julio César, 22, is still studying Accounting at the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) and was working on the fourth floor of the building.
“I spoke to him yesterday. We talked about our days and then said goodbye before he left for his work,” said Molina, with tears in his eyes.
“We want to see our children alive,” Mrs. Catalina Flores, who describes Julius César as a very noble young man “and it helps us to have hopes and dreams.”
“I am a believer and I ask God help to fulfill all dreams. I feel in my heart that he is well,” she insisted.
Meanwhile, María Esther Simón is one of the people who managed to leave before much of the building collapsed with the quake.
“It’s horrible. You drop things and run … and you start thinking it’s all over for you and about your family, your children,” said Simón, who was wounded in the earthquake.
María Ester Simón was only at the office to take a training course on the second floor.
IVÁN SANTIAGO
CARLOS TREJO