“Es momento de que los políticos guarden silencio,” posted by Nueva Alianza Hidalgo Oficial on March 8, 2018 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAcWVrueWaw&feature=youtu.be).
Pablo Cordero: 19 August 2018
Pablo tells me his inclination is to say that the fists-up gesture was effective, and the reaction after one or two days was immediate. If you saw fists going up, you would copy the action and stop making noise. Nobody made jokes about it or deliberately defied the norms. “At least in the Alvaro Obregon building, where I was, all the signals and rules were established organically, arising from need and practical decisions, and people were very organized around that area; people camped out around the rescue zone, and I think most people were aware of the rules very quickly.” Pablo concurs with the other interviewees in the impression that it was the overall organization that helped the silence gesture become more efficient in accomplishing its purpose. He also reflects on the meanings that developed later around it: “It became a symbol of that particular day, of the effort expended together to save people. I saw it a lot in children’s drawings, portraying their experience of the earthquake, and I think it’s going to remain present in our language for a good while. It was a very serious thing; nobody joked about it! And you know how we Mexicans are, we joke about everything, but nobody made jokes about the fists up. The only idiots were politicians. With the political campaigns at their peak, one party, Nueva Alianza, used the sign in a spot as a way to say “tell the old politicians to shut up,” but they have been heavily criticized; the population thinks it is insulting to use that gesture in a political campaign.”