Smokin!
Here’s Popocatépetl at 8 AM Monday morning:
… and here is is yesterday, at just after 6 AM:
There are still those who believe that Popocatépetl is a living being, and when he starts belching, he is telling us something, and that human intervention is required.
As I wrote in Gods, Gachupines and Gringos:
Popocatépetl, the volcano, was a Náhutl god, but today Saint Gregory guards the volcano. Or maybe he lives there. Local people still bring the saint food and gifts to remind him to ask God to send the rain and good weather the farmers need for a good crop. When the volcano erupted in December 2000, one local man suggested that Saint Gregory was hungry… and maybe a few tortillas would solve the problem.
Somewhat in the spirit of that campesino, Estamos Joditos Mexicanos (and I’m not gonna translate that!) suggests another tidbit that might settle Don Goyo’s bout of indigestion.. or make him sick:
The Valley of Mexico is doomed. It is the scene of countless crimes against humanity for centuries as a center of power for numerous empires whose ruins are stacked like pancakes. Every so often, like the earthquake of 85, the gods punish the evil doers. The leaders are drunk with power but at the cost of an overpowering fatalism that worships death. And, Cortes thought he was lucky. One day, the ashes of Lowry’s Volcano will snuf out evil once and for all.