8: Day of the Dead

The Day of the Dead is celebrated in many Latino communities around the world on November 1st. In Santiago Atitlán this year, this day was particularly sad because many families were remembering loved ones who had just passed away during the hurricane.

Concepción and her husband, Diego, asked us to accompany them to Panabaj to honor the death of their three children. Concepción was just barely recuperating from the injuries she received the morning she escaped the landslide, so the walking was slow. Diego showed us where important places in their community used to be and lead us to where their house once stood. It was the first time Patricia and I had actually seen the site of the landslide. Where there had once been a large community neighborhood was now over ten feet of drying mud. Following the mudflat with our eye up the hill we saw a huge gash in the forest where the landslide had gone crashing through.

A tree and a latrine were the only things left of Concepción and Diego's house. Under the tree was a large vase of white and yellow flowers to honor the dead. Diego searched through the rubble for materials he could salvage to build a little protective shelter over the altar and then lit several candles beneath the flower vase. Neighbors, drawn by Concepción's sobs of sorrow, came to offer the family comfort. They stood in silence as we did, sharing in this family's sadness.

As the minutes turned to hours I had much time to ponder this disaster. In the news, these sorts of disasters are always referred to as natural because they are caused by the environment rather than by humans. However, this is only partially true. Think about some of the "natural" disasters you've heard about recently; for example, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Hurricane Stan in Guatemala. In these examples the people most affected by these disasters were minority groups - African Americans in New Orleans and Tz'utujil Maya in Panabaj.

Why is this true when these minority groups are only a small part of the entire population? There has been a long history in many countries of prejudice and discrimination against indigenous communities and people of different races from their own. For centuries, these people have been exploited by those in power. The rich and powerful have taken away their land and their freedom, forced them to work without decent pay and barred them from education, positions in government and equal rights. Because of this history, then, it is not surprising that the majority of poor people today are indigenous or people of color.

You might still be wondering: "But why are poor people more affected by natural disasters? The environment doesn't know if someone is rich or poor."

The answer is that the poor are often obligated to live in places that are not as environmentally safe as the rich. The rich, with their money and influence over governments, usually buy land in better areas. For example, most of the big businesses and middle class neighborhoods in New Orleans were built on higher ground than many African American neighborhoods. In Guatemala, it was known that there was a risk that the volcano could cause a landslide over the community of Panabaj. But what other option did these families have? Attracted by the beauty of Lago Atitlán so many wealthy Guatemalans and rich foreigners had bought up the land around their community that Panabaj was the only place most families could afford to live.

It's also true that the rich have the money to build stronger houses, find a way to escape the natural disaster and rebuild after the disaster is over.

So, next time when you hear the phrase "natural disaster," don't be fooled by the media. The movements of the weather and the earth may be natural, but the suffering of the poor is not.