When+the+Earth+Began+to+Rumble

It’s funny how things happen when you least expect it. Last year I traveled to South America to live with my mother’s family in Temuco, Chile. It was one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen, and those 4 weeks were filled with a thousand sparkling moments, which will live fresh in my memory for years. I will never forget the color of the Andes Mountains and how the smell of salt stung my nostrils as I walked along the pacific coast, where the clumps of salt rolled upon the cold rocky shores of Araucania. Memories that thrilled me, memories that touched me, memories that filled me with a new found love for the family I had met for the first time, and memories which scared me --- like the time that the earth began to rumble.

On January 2nd 2011, about a mile outside of the city in which I was living, Temuco, Chile, a 7.1 earthquake shook the ground on which I stood. I will never forget the sound. I remember it was a Sunday, and I was coming back from church with my Abuela and family. I had walked into my room upon entering the small and quaint little house on Tanquiue road, when the earth from under me seemed to jerk forward. It was as if someone pulled a rug out from underneath my heels, causing me to stumble and catch myself on the plaster walls of the room, only the rug in this case was the ground. I felt my heart beat faster and faster each breath I took, and then I saw them. The walls. It must have been two seconds after the first jolt when a wave moved up the wall, like the rolling waves of the sea. Then there was shaking. Lots of shaking. I remember hearing screams and a large voice booming through the walls of the house shouting “TERREMOTO!! TERREMOTO!! VAMOS AFUERA, EMILIA!!! EMILIA!!!!” (EARTHQUAKE!! EARTHQUAKE!! GO OUTSIDE, EMILIA!!!EMILIA!!!!!)

I stumbled through halls of the house, grasping the shaking walls, which vibrated, against my palms when I finally made it outside. I’ll never forget the sound. It was as a monster was living beneath the earthquake, and had just woken up. For the ungodly deep voice of the earth was rumbling and moaning and I tried to focus on my surrounding, which were shaking and hissing. The way things moved made me question whether or not every object had an internal heartbeat, because everything was pulsing. The only way I can describe it is to ask you to think about a time you almost fainted, or a time you became dizzy. Remember how right before the wave of unconsciousness or sickness washed over you? How your vision narrowed, everything fuzzed over, and it was like every object pulsed like the wings of a hummingbird? 5 minutes. 5 minutes of humming bird pulsing. 5 minutes of holding my cousin to my chest. 5 minutes of growling earth. 5 minutes, and then – silence.