“Don Goyo is angry because he has not received his offering”. At the foot of the Popocatepetl volcano, which is experiencing a resurgence of activity, the inhabitants remain on the lookout against a background of old beliefs around the “mountain that smokes” in central Mexico.
Friday, the massif which culminates at 5,452 meters was still agitated: “frequent tremors of low to moderate intensity, associated with continuous emissions of gas, water vapor and ash”, according to the last bulletin authorities.
Put in place on Sunday, Alert Level 3 has been maintained. It is the threshold which precedes a possible evacuation of the inhabitants and signs indicate the roads to be taken.
Resident of San Andres Calpan, a locality located about 25 km from the “mountain that smokes”, Eufemia de Jesus Ramos, 65, does not plan to leave.
“We have our animals. If we leave, the thieves take advantage of it,” the trader who sells poultry on the market told AFP on Thursday.
In fact, neither she nor her family budged in December 2000 when authorities ordered the evacuation of some 50,000 people at risk of an eruption.
“We’ve been used to it since 1994. We’re no longer afraid,” slips Eufemia, referring to the year when “Popo” woke up after 70 years of lethargy.
In the background, at times, the clouds dissipate and reveal the “Popo” -also called Don Goyo- and its fumarole releases.
All week, the volcano has spat ash into the suburbs of Puebla, the capital of the state of the same name, 80 km southeast of Mexico City.
Domingo de los Santos, 45, a pig seller, says he will leave in the event of a red alert: “With regret, the animals would stay behind us. If necessary, we grab a bag and we s ‘going away’.
The renewed activity of the volcano – as in 1994, 1997, 2000…. – has also awakened legends and beliefs that persist in the Valley of Mexico, a plateau perched at more than 2,000 m in the middle of volcanic massifs.
According to a Mesoamerican account, the Popocatepetl, also called “Don Goyo”, was a warrior in love with the white woman (the “Iztaccíhuatl”), the name of the nearby mountain which adjoins it at 5,215 m.
But the father of the “Izta” preferred another colossus, the peak of Orizaba (Citlaltépetl in Náhuatl), the roof of Mexico from the top of its 5,636 meters.
“The Orizaba woodpecker was a traitor,” said Isabel, 54, from the village of Xalitzintla. “He cut off the head at Popocatepetl, hence the formation of the crater.”
The volcano is also known as “Gregorio Chino Popocatépetl”, recalls the elders of Xalitzintla.
On March 12, the feast day of Saint Gregory the Great, a tribute is paid to him, a kind of birthday party.
Last year, hundreds of devotees climbed the sides of the volcano to offer tequila, mezcal, flowers, and birthday songs…
This year, the authorities banned the procession.
“Don Goyo is angry because he has not received his offerings,” said José Luis, a 55-year-old shopkeeper, with conviction.
“We have already asked Don Goyo to wait until next year,” said the mayor of neighboring San Nicolas de Los Ranchos, Gumaro Sandre Popoca.
More rationally, the volcano is monitored night and day by scientists from the National Center for Disaster Prevention (Cenapred).
“We did not observe the presence of a lava dome”, they wrote after an overflight of “Popo” on Friday, noting that the “main crater” has filled with fragments of magma.
Scientists predict the continuation of “similar activity” with “frequent and variable amplitude” shaking and “occasionally strong” explosions.
They predict further “ash emissions”, as well as the release of “incandescent fragments” within the 12 km exclusion radius set up around the volcano.
For all practical purposes, they recommend to the inhabitants “not to go up towards the crater”… the offerings must still wait.
27/05/2023 09:02:44 – San Andrés Calpan (Mexique) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
