There are a lot of articles about earthquakes, soft soil, and Mexico City. Their common subtext is "dumb/silly Mexicans should know better!"
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Even though they were repeatedly warned against doing so by the Aztec, the Spanish built their own capital on what used to be Lake Texcoco.
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The story of how we got Mexico City is relatively recent history. It's the result of violent/foolish colonization, based on racist hatred.
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Look at the buildings that were destroyed in Mexico City *and* the buildings that weren't: Catholic churches damaged. Aztec pyramids intact.
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So many white writers are pointing out that Mexico City was built on soft soil. But they fail to mention that colonization made it that way.
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"Mexico City is like building on Jello!" they write. How did it get that way? Bc Europeans destroyed a lake like they destroyed a people.
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Writing about earthquakes/soft soil/Mexico City without explicitly writing about colonization is a second erasure, a legacy of colonization.
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When your subtext is that Mexicans are dumb/silly for building in Mexico City, you're reifying the violence of colonization.
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*Fellow writers, and white ones especially: please don't steal my thread to write a new article as if you knew this all along. Thank you.
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End of conversation
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And then consecrated it to Catholic saints, who presumably would protect city. The ROMANS knew not to build on sand.
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Hey, they figured their god was stronger...
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