Acapulco.— Isaías Leonel Nava Rojas is part of the first tragic toll of 27 victims caused by Hurricane Otis in its devastating passage through this port and reported by the federal government. The little boy was six years old and died in his house in the CNC neighborhood, one of the most populated in the municipality, when he was buried by a mudslide when the cyclone hit with its maximum intensity.
His mother, Ángela Rojas Sacristán, says that she was alone in her house—made of wood—and tried to save him, but only managed to save Abraham, her youngest son. “He was trapped between mud and dirt, I couldn’t save him,” laments the young woman through tears as she looked at the white coffin that they were able to obtain, because the local funeral homes are closed.
Since the boy’s parents were left with nothing, the wake was held in a house in the Voz de la Montaña neighborhood that they lent them for shelter. Ángela relates that her son was happy because this week he was going to participate in a typical dance from the Montaña de Guerrero, at the Otilio Montaño school in the Zapata neighborhood, where he was in his first year.
“We had already bought him his hat and suit. She was going to dance and I was happy because she was already going to primary school, she only entered in August,” says the young woman, who was injured in her left cheekbone.
“Goodbye, my cool little boy,” said Josué Isaías Nava Rodríguez, father of the minor, who reproached himself for not having been present to save him, since on the day of the hurricane he was stranded in the taxi he works. “Forgive me, dad, I failed you,” he cried while hugging his son’s coffin.
At noon, family and friends who attended the wake said goodbye to him singing: “Rest, my love. Rest, my good. Rest, champion. That everything is fine,” while one of the attendees played the guitar in a ceremony in which the authorities left them alone.
After singing to him, they carried the minor’s coffin in a public transport van, with white balloons, to bury him in the Sinai Pantheon, located in the upper part of the port of Acapulco.
Alma Rosa Rodríguez Reyes, grandmother of Isaías Leonel, remembers that her grandson was happy, very happy at home, where they played with his brother Abraham.
“My daughter-in-law was screaming, she was locked in and no one could come out to help her, and my son was in the taxi; He was stuck there and when he arrived he was shouting: ‘Mom, mom, help me!’ I heard and got up as best I could, and I couldn’t walk anywhere, because everywhere there were poles, cables, I don’t know how I got there.
“When I arrived there were already many people helping my son, but the child could not be seen; he was buried. He was stuck, as if he wanted to leave the door of his room, half of his body going outside and the other half going inside, the storm came from the hill and there he stayed,” details the grandmother.
When we arrived at the cemetery, there were other minors who were also victims of Otis waiting to be buried. They were Rodolfo Said Reyes Cristino, five years old; José Guadalupe Guerrero, 10 years old, and Jesús Antonio Mujica Cristino, who was about to turn two years old.
All three died when they were crushed while they slept.
“We had a wooden house and the neighbor made a fence with tires and earth, like a wall. We were lying down, the ground softened and we fell.
“The children were buried and so was I; They could take me out, but not them because they were beyond the bed,” says the mother of the three minors, Jesús Natividad Mujica Flores, while she was preparing the grave to bury her children.
“None of the materials matter to me, they matter to me, because things come and go, but life no longer returns,” the woman laments.
Lucía Fabiel López, grandmother of the minors, through tears, is left with the memory that it was her grandchildren who received her when she arrived home from work. She claims that they went to the Public Ministry, but they did not support her for her death certificate and all of her expenses have been borne by her family.
They are some of the victims of the tragedy in Acapulco, which today buries its dead, alone, without support from the authorities and, in some cases, without any record or paper; Otis destroyed everything.
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2023-10-27 23:01:01
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