Diego Luna leads earthquake aid
Mexico City native helps countrymen help each other
“Rogue One,” “Flatliners” star was in his native Mexico City when disaster struck hard
Diego Luna was in his native Mexico City when a magni
tude-7.1 earthquake rocked the capital last Tuesday.
The Rogue One and Flatliners star was taking part in a photo shoot when the photographer’s studio began to shake violently.
“The whole building started moving,” Luna, 37, tells USA TODAY. “I lived through 1985, which was a big, big earthquake. So I was pretty calm. I came out of the studio, and I realized that everything in the building was moving. The concrete looked like gelatin.”
When the shaking stopped, the destruction started, with structures collapsing nearby.
“As soon as it ended, I heard a noise like I had never heard in my life — a building collapsing half a block away from where we were,” Luna says. “We ran to the street. And we see a gigantic cloud of dust. I am just remembering this. It’s horrible.”
What makes Luna truly emotional discussing the quake, with its death toll now at 325, is the way his fellow citizens rushed to help.
“The beautiful part of this was people were not running from the cloud. People were running to the cloud, running there to try to rescue someone and see what could be done,” says Luna.
The disaster came 32 years to the day after the magnitude-8.1 quake that devastated Mexico City in 1985, killing an estimated
9,500 people and destroying about 100,000 homes. Luna says Mexico took major lessons from that disaster.
“We learned that when something like this happens, it’s you that has to go and do something about it,” he says.
Among his efforts, Luna has started raising money through Omaze with fellow Mexican actor Gael García Bernal. The campaign already has pulled in more than $300,000 from more than 5,000 backers. But a thankful Luna says more is needed.
Rescue efforts continue for people who may have survived the earthquake but are trapped in buildings. “There’s still hope in finding people alive,” he says.
And there’s a compelling need to help the mass of survivors.
“The losses are huge. It’s hundreds of thousands of people that lost everything in a minute,” Luna says. “The problem is, we live in a poor country. There’s a need to bring the most basic stuff to all of these people. The needs are fantastic.”
But he’s heartened by what he sees from his countrymen on the ground.
“This makes all of us responsible for the life, the health and the happiness of others,” says Luna. “Once you understand that, it’s clear that my responsibility is not just about me or my kids. It’s about my community. It’s about my neighbors. That fraternity, that love and compassion is very strong and powerful. We’re seeing a lot of that in Mexico.”