Risk, inequality and discrimination. Five decades after the tragedy of Cyclone Liza

Abstract

On the night of September 30, 1976, shrouded in darkness and cut off from electricity and communication, migrant families living in several new neighborhoods of a booming northern city took shelter, awaiting an outcome they could not have possibly imagined. Cyclone Liza —which had formed five days earlier in the Pacific Ocean— reached Category 4 status on the Saffir-Simpson scale and dumped more tan a year´s worth of average rainfall in just a few hours, yet the storm´s eye never actually made landfall in the area. The event might have remained merely a difficult post-storm experiencie, but a piece of state-built infrastructure —paradoxically intended to protect lives— collapsed due to structural flaws: it was constructed of sand and earth, lacking any foundation. Over time, this disaster has come to be regarded as the most shocking hurricane-related event on record, with human intervention identified as the primary cause. This study draws on fifty years of empirical observation and firsthand accounts-spanning the period from the tragedy itself, through a painful era neglect, discrimination, and political dismissal (as other issues dominated the national agenda), to the eventual, dignified public recognition of the victims and the anonymous héroes of that tragic night. The narrative contrasts the general lack of interest in documenting the event —or in highlighting it as a grave error stemming from unequal treatment— with the decisión by the Congress of Baja California Sur to honor those who perished as a result of a systemic approach to economic and social progress.