WestWords
By Marvin West
His Bio

Not much to fear except fear itself

Mexico makes great television -- and I'm not talking about Pedro and Pancho cartoons.

When a bus misses a curve and tumbles into a ravine or loses a race with a train, the bloody mess becomes international news for a few minutes. Theme is wild and crazy drivers and reckless risks.

The Oaxaca teachers' strike that went on forever and political protests in Mexico City were absurd but dramatic theater. Hotel murders, drug shootouts and an occasional beheading ramped up ratings and scared the heck out of CNN viewers who were considering a week in Cancun.

Almost everybody agrees Mexico is an exciting country but many aren't sure whether that is good or bad. We think we know.

Paranoia is a popular movement. Concerned Canadians and anxious Americans have been warning us about Mexican dangers for 11 consecutive years. In the beginning, it was don't drive at night and beware of bandits behind every bush, contaminated drinking water, police shakedowns, deadly scorpions and the inevitable collapse of the peso.

The next level was keep your hand on whatever remains of your wallet and watch out for dishonest officers of charities and social organizations. Some feared nuclear chilies, others a Mexican backlash to U.S. resistance to illegal immigration.

Many TV shows later, the warnings were about damp, dark gringo prisons without windows or doors, hidden topes that jump up and kill mufflers, leftist radicals, pickpockets, professional kidnappers, exploding fireworks factories and little boys in grocery store parking lots who help transfer your carrots and Bimbo bread from cart to car but steal the sliced ham and chunk cheese.

Latest warning, included in a Happy New Year card delayed 27 days by the Mexican postal system, was very unsettling. It quoted an authoritative TV type saying to watch out for Mexican earthquakes!

Do what? Earthquakes? I'm entirely too old to run. Where do you hide? This is too far out. What brought this on?

You need to know that the cheerful greeting-warning was addressed to a certified survivor of the 1989 World Series earthquake in San Francisco. I've been there and done that, on an October evening, Candlestick Park, a shocking experience and an immediate leap to the conclusion that the stadium would surely fall.

It didn't.

But, instead of writing about the Giants versus the Oakland A's in baseball, I saw freeway overpasses that collapsed and heard moans you'd expect on a battlefield. I backed away from a ruptured fuel line that ignited and lit up the night. For a little while, it was holy terror.

Careful of Mexican earthquakes? Come to think of it, this country does have a history. It happens to be parked atop one of the world's most seismologically active regions. Admit it, you had no idea that I knew or could spell the word "seismologically."

I missed the big earthquake in 1985, the one they're still talking about, centered off Acapulco, that killed untold thousands in Mexico City, more than 175 miles away. That one toppled buildings and covered up good people with tons and tons of bad rubble.

Being in the newspaper business, I noted the fallout, conflicting numbers on deaths and damages, anger at government over what was considered a slow and negative response. Instead of rescue squads, Mexico sent soldiers to discourage looting.

Estimates ranged from $9 to $12 billion in physical losses. Dead is dead but one of the saddest discoveries was folded hospital wings that buried the already hurt and helpless.

One of the good stories was a few hungry souls rescued from the wreckage up to 10 days later. Another was Nancy Reagan, wife of the U.S. president, showed up with a helping hand -- that held one million dollars.

Beware of Mexico earthquakes? Never really thought much about the threat. I saw the awful damage to the Melaque hotel, a pile of bricks, twisted steel and broken concrete, leftovers from the 1995 coastal shakeup. I only saw pictures of the mess made by the 1999 Oaxaca earthquake, centered between Huatulco and Puerto Escondido. The reports said brief but very intense.

We've heard the dishes rattle and felt occasional vibrations around Lake Chapala but didn't know enough to be scared. In 2003, we were in Barra de Navidad, a little too close for comfort, when the quake off the coast of Colima killed 24.

I'm not tossing aside this sincere warning to watch out for Mexican earthquakes but I don't know how to do it and I'm really busy avoiding. . .

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(Marvin West, mostly retired after just 42 years with Scripps Howard newspapers, is senior partner in an international communications consulting company. This column is from his forthcoming book, "Mexico? What you doing in Mexico?" He invites )

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