Víctor was eight years old when day turned into night on July 11, 1991. He remembers it very well: his father placed a tub of water in the patio so that the family, who lived in the Emiliano Zapata neighborhood, in Cuautla, could enjoy of the show without risking your eyesight.
More than three decades later, Víctor Flores will do his best to appreciate the solar eclipse on April 8, although at that time he will be working. According to Time and Date, the solar eclipse will reach its peak in Morelos at 12:13 in the afternoon.
This astronomical event, announced in the old fourth-grade Geography book in Mexican schools, will allow Mexicans to appreciate the darkening of the day caused by the interposition of the Moon between the Earth and the Sun, a phenomenon that will only be repeated again. until the year 2052.
“I lived in the Emiliano Zapata neighborhood and my father put a tub of water and told us that we couldn’t see up, but with the tub we could see the eclipse reflected. You could see the sun, and how it was covered. I was eight years old , but it did look very cool and now I have the opportunity to see it again, because next time I won’t be there,” says Víctor, with a smile.
Cuautlenses wait for the eclipse
Víctor is not the only Cuautlense who hopes to remember the times gone by with the solar equipment this April 8. In 1991, Minera Pérez lived in Mexico City and appreciated it because she was afraid.
She didn’t even dare to do it from a bathtub, as several people observed, but she thinks she’s ready to do it now:
“It got very dark and the darkness did take a while. I didn’t see it, because it scared my eyesight. They say that even water can damage your eyesight, so I saw it on the news,” Minerva remembers.
That afternoon, Jacobo Zabludozky reported on the solar eclipse on television. The journalist showed how the animals at the Chapultepec Zoo went to sleep at noon and made it clear that the next eclipse would not occur until 2024. It seemed like a distant date then, but the day has arrived.
“Tomorrow we will be working at that time, but we will take the time to see it,” says Minerva.
Jesús Padilla, who also lived in the country’s capital, now has two dogs at home and will be attentive to their reactions. In ’91, his cats and his dog confused day with night and went to sleep during the seven minutes that the phenomenon lasted:
“We had two Siamese cats and a Great Dane dog. The eclipse came and the first one to go to sleep was the dog. The cats didn’t know what to do, but one climbed onto my mom’s shoulder. She put him on her mattress. They were delighted with life, resting,” recalls the pianist.
In Morelos, this Monday’s eclipse, which will begin at 10:54 in the morning, will last two hours and 41 minutes, concluding around 1:35 p.m.
