Name: In quake's aftermath, many Mexicans ask: Now what?
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In quake's aftermath, many Mexicans ask: Now what? 

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MEXICO CITY — A few days ago, Orlando Vega Paz stood quietly as an ambulance drove away with a body pulled from the rubble of a nearby apartment building. Exhausted, he reached for his cellphone and scrolled through a WhatsApp chat group formed by construction workers.On Tuesday, two weeks after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, the second in &nbsp;September, Vega Paz and others were still looking for the last victims from the crumbled modern building on Alvaro Obregon in Colonia La Roma.“We’re not leaving until we find every survivor,” he said. “Or, we pull out the last body.”The two earthquakes killed nearly 400 people, with the second coming 32 years to the day of a quake that killed nearly 10,000 in Mexico City. In the aftermath of the 1985 disaster, a civil society was born that years later helped usher in democratic changes, eventually dismantling the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.Today, Mexicans have rarely seemed so united in solidarity, and certainly never so connected via social media. But as tens of thousands of volunteers resume their daily lives, a question resonates: Now what?Many Mexicans are now asking how to harness the momentum for a young generation with a short attention span and new set of pressing challenges ahead, including a presidential election less than a year from now. Experts are divided about the possibility of a political awakening in a nation where the vast majority of citizens, according to polls in both the United States and Mexico, already view politics and their leaders dismally.The sentiment is underscored by a survey released last month by the Pew Research Center that showed 85 percent of respondents dissatisfied with the course of Mexico because of rising political corruption, drug-related violence and an increasingly complicated relationship with the United States.The Pew survey also showed that 65 percent of Mexicans hold an unfavorable view of the United States, which represents the highest percentage since Pew began surveying the country in 2002. In 2015, 66 percent of Mexicans had a generally positive view of the United States.Breaking NewsGet the latest breaking news from North Texas and beyond.“The 2017 earthquake might come to mean the end of what in 1985 was new: democracy,” said Carlos Bravo, a historian at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics in Mexico City, or CIDE, pointing to rising corruption, impunity and unfavorable views of the U.S.“Nineteen eighty-five, in many ways, represented a spring, where 2017 might become, alas, the beginning of a winter," he added. "What was new in 1985 has become the old in 2017. What in 1985 was a source of courage, of inspiration, is now a motive of scorn and disappointment.”Not everyone is as pessimistic.“There is no turning back to the so-called ‘normal,'’’ countered Sergio Castañeda Silva, a historian at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, or ITAM, who joined tens of thousands as a volunteer. “Let’s see how the normalcy looks like in the days, weeks to come, but it will be different. People are even more pissed off now.”As life returns to normal, the issue consuming most Mexicans will be next July’s presidential elections. The outcome will affect bilateral issues including migration, economic ties with Texas, future investment and overall&nbsp;U.S.-Mexico cooperation on issues ranging from the drug war to border security, both along northern and southern Mexico.Mexican politicians are picking up on a populist streak among voters, fueled by anger toward President Donald Trump’s stated plans for a border wall and the uncertainty of NAFTA’s future. They hope to replace President Enrique Peña Nieto in next summer’s election with anyone but his ruling PRI, the Pew survey shows.Leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is considered the front-runner. The PRI’s favorability rating has almost been halved since 2013, from 49 percent to 27 percent, according to Pew.Major opposition parties like PAN and PRD have gained popularity since 2015, and Lopez Obrador's relatively new opposition party, MORENA, is viewed more favorably than either the PRI or PRD, at 37 percent.The quake has already turned political. &nbsp;Major parties, including the PRI and MORENA, have pledged to donate money from their coffers to victims, an unusual move since much of the monies are taxpayer funds, said political consultant Miguel Toro.Toro said Mexicans are already so apathetic that the quake’s political impact may be "minimal at best.”“Being informed is an essential part of being a citizen,” he said,&nbsp;“and Mexicans need to show the same passion and interest for daily politics that they showed trying to help out during the earthquake. I just don’t see that happening.”Esteban Illades, 31, is working to counter that. Illades is an author and editor of the Mexican magazine Nexos and lives in one of the hardest hit neighborhoods, La Condesa. Since the quake, Illades has felt a renewed sense of mission, holding politicians accountable, speaking truth to power. Daily, he's taken to social media exposing corruption in the wake of the earthquakes, helping readers decipher fake news and urging citizens to maintain the momentum and push for new building codes.“Before the earthquake the main question was how we could turn the country around, and we didn't have an answer back then,” he said. “Perhaps now that current events are forcing us to help each other out, maybe this solidarity could hold out. But that may be a long shot.”Just blocks away was Vega Paz, the construction worker. He was already looking ahead, convinced something greater was born amid the rubble.“We were all impacted,” he said. “I want to believe something good will come out of this tragedy.”

MEXICO CITY — A few days ago, Orlando Vega Paz stood quietly as an ambulance drove away with a body pulled from the rubble of a nearby apartment building. Exhausted, he reached for his cellphone and scrolled through a WhatsApp chat group formed by construction workers.On Tuesday, two weeks after a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, the second in &nbsp;September, Vega Paz and others were still looking for the last victims from the crumbled modern building on Alvaro Obregon in Colonia La Roma.“We’re not leaving until we find every survivor,” he said. “Or, we pull out the last body.”The two earthquakes...

In quake's aftermath, many Mexicans ask: Now what?

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