Their town wiped out by a mudslide, people of La Reina mourn
Dr. Claudia Lazo is asked: How many of your patients are depressed?
“All of them,” she answers.
“All of them. All of them. All of them. All of them. All of them.”
The patients at her modest rural health center suffer from solastalgia -- sadness and pain provoked by the loss of their environment. They’ve lost their physical homes and their psychological well-being.
On the night of Nov. 24, 2020, their town -- La Reina -- was wiped from the face of the earth.
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This story is part of a series, After the Deluge, produced with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
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Home to about 1,000 people, the town in western Honduras was hit by two powerful hurricanes within three weeks, natural disasters made far worse by local deforestation and climate change. La Reina was buried by a landslide.
No one died. But seven months later, La Reina’s people remain homeless, and adrift. They are alive, but their place in the world is gone -- the place where they lived, loved, dreamed, had children, grew coffee, corn and beans.
Here, they had invested their savings and money sent home from relatives in the United States, transforming a mountainside into a town of 300 homes. Nature has taken it all back.
Olga Ondina, 52, stands for a portrait at the site of her home which was destroyed by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras, Wednesday, June 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Olga Ondina, 52, suffers from insomnia, unable to sleep in an unfamiliar house. “I wake up at midnight and try to go to my old bathroom, but it isn’t there anymore,” she says.
She gathers red flowers from the site of the home where she raised her five children, to be displayed in the homes of relatives who have taken her family in.
“I realize I’m not at home, and I cry. My parents lived and died here, my children were born here. Today I came to cry.”
Julio Villanueva Melgar, 70, stands for a portrait among the remains of his home destroyed by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras, Wednesday, June 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Over the decades, Julio Villanueva Melgar, 70, raised a family and made a living in La Reina. Villanueva feels as if he’s been hurled into a new and more hostile universe.
“One becomes crazy, disoriented, you don’t fit in anymore.”
Orlando Perdomo, muscular from working the land for much of his 56 years, sits and spends the afternoon with a group of friends alongside a lake born of the same rainfall and landslide that devoured his hometown.
Orlando Perdomo, 56, stands for a portrait in his home damaged by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota, in the village of La Reina, Honduras, Sunday, June 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
“When the first cracks in the earth opened after Hurricane Mitch (in 1998), my father said the he wouldn’t live to see it, but that we would see the town disappear, that the future would bring death...”
Lazo has treated nearly all of La Reina’s people, and he’s seen a lot of tears.
“They sit in front of me and I ask them, ‘How are you?’ They start to cry.”
Their own actions are partly the cause of their predicament. For decades, the people of La Reina cut cedar and cinnamon trees from the highest slopes of surrounding mountains to expand their coffee plantations and get timber to build their homes.
The severed roots rotted, and no longer fixed the soil on the hillside. Pelted by days of intense rain from hurricanes Eta and Iota, the earth rose up and devoured La Reina within hours, burying its remains beneath tons of slick, slippery mud.
Twins Dulce Alejandra Mejia, right, and Genesis Mejia, 12, stand for a portrait on the roof of their neighbor's home devastated by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras, Saturday, June 26, 2021. Their parents live in Spain. Home to about 1,000 people, the town in western Honduras that was hit by two powerful hurricanes within three weeks, natural disasters made far worse by local deforestation and climate change. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Lazo cautions against blaming the victims. “They didn’t deforest the countryside because they wanted to, but because of poverty,” he says. “They needed to warm themselves, to build, and the country gave them no option other than cutting down the forest.”
Now, Lazo tries to piece these broken people together again. “Medicine can help some sleepless nights, but it doesn’t cure collective depression in a country with a humble, rural population without psychological or psychiatric services,” he says.
“How do you cure what cannot be cured?” the doctor asks.
Tomasa Rodriguez, 60, and her husband, Rufino Caballero, 63, stand for a portrait among the remains of their home destroyed by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras, Wednesday, June 23, 2021. "We had installed drinking water, the thieves took the taps. They took the toilet bowl," says Caballero. "We had opened a window in the wall, with glass, because it looked very dark. They stole our glass," says Rodriguez. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Glenda Herrera, 34, stands at the site of her home destroyed by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras, Tuesday, June 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
““That night we ran down, I saw how the hill was coming down, but I never imagined that it would destroy everything.”
Elvia Gutierrez, 46; her son, Jonathan Portillo, 6; and husband, Santos Portillo, 50, stand for a portrait at the site where their home was destroyed by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras, Wednesday, June 23, 2021. "The patio was beautiful, I had fun in a hammock. I put the school supplies on a table and drew and wrote," says Jonathan. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
“No one is going to be able to live here ever again.”
Alejandro Mejia, 80, and his wife, Petrona Caballero, 80, stand for a portrait at the site of their home destroyed by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras, Saturday, June 26, 2021. They had been living together here for 48 years. Mejia built his own house. "I made a wooden box. I threw mud with pine needles on it and let it sun and dry for six days, protecting it from the rain." Caballero says. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
“In one’s own home, one rests one’s thoughts. ... I feel a wound, an affliction in my chest. We will suffer from now on.”
From left, Melvin Alonso, 14; Guillermo Alonso, 54; Elvin Alonso, 6 months; Maria Orellana, 52; Genesis Alonso, 6; Yenny Alonso, 16; Areli Alonso, 22, and Orlin Alonso, 25, stand for a photo at the site where their home was destroyed by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras, Thursday, June 24, 2021. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
“We feel sad because we are homeless, but the important thing is that the whole family is alive.”
Nery Flores, 22, and his wife, Ada Castron, 19, stand with their son, Daniel Flores, 3, at the site of their home destroyed by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras, Saturday, June 26, 2021. No one died. But seven months later, La Reina’s people remain homeless, and adrift. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Martina Caballero, 63, stands for a portrait with her with her granddaughter, Heydi Rivera Caballero, 10, at the site of their home which was destroyed by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras, Thursday, June 24, 2021. Home to about 1,000 people, the town in western Honduras was hit by two powerful hurricanes within three weeks, natural disasters made far worse by local deforestation and climate change. La Reina was buried by a landslide. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Dilma Murillo, 63, sits on a rock holding an Izote flower at the site of her home destroyed by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras, Tuesday, June 22, 2021. On the night of Nov. 24, 2020, the town was wiped from the face of the earth. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Eleuterio Esquivel, 51, left, poses with his wife, Elsa Mejia, 40, and their twins, Ibis Esquivel, left, and Noel Esquivel, 7, at the site of their home destroyed by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras, Wednesday, June 23, 2021. Home to about 1,000 people, the town in western Honduras was hit by two powerful hurricanes within three weeks, natural disasters made far worse by local deforestation and climate change. La Reina was buried by a landslide. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Elmer Ramirez, 22, sits for a portrait at the site of his home destroyed by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras, Wednesday, June 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
“We made the decision for my wife to go to the United States because she was carrying the [five-month-old] baby and she could stay, but she had to make the whole trip nursing. Hopefully I can meet her in the near future in Miami. Our plan is to be able to build ourselves a house. Nobody leaves thinking of staying in the U.S. because our land is here.”
Text from AP News story, Their town wiped out by a mudslide, people of La Reina mourn, by Alberto Arce and Rodrigo Abd.
