(Continued from page 36)

kets or cooking for the Independence Day celebration in La Pintada's little cobblestone square.
• Families gossiped. Children played at their parents' feet. Then, suddenly, the earth trembled.
• For a split second everyone thought it was one of the region's regular earthquakes. But then a tidal wave of dirt, rocks and trees exploded off the hill above the

(Continued on page 38)