About 50 miles away in Santa Cruz, the February 27th earthquake knocked a 3-storey apartment building down to 2 storeys, where 23 people died. Damage in the region can be seen everywhere you turn.

 

Lolol is in the heart of Chile's wine making region. Grapevines cover much of the landscape. The Lolol Hacienda, now operated as a restaurant by the Mujica family was bought in 1891 by Don Mujica and since then his descended family has grown. Now more than 100 strong.

 

It was here on Feb 27th where the relatives gathered for Emilia's baptism celebration.

 

Mujica family always likes to have a good time, because they celebrate everything a lot grandly. So the christening of young Emilia, for instance, was a marvelous chance to meet here, because only within the family members you can count 60 or 80 people and all in a party mood.

 

It's late summer in Chile and a Friday night. Everyone was outside, eating, drinking and dancing into the early morning hours. And the 8.8 earthquake struck. When the shaking stopped, parts of the building behind them had fallen apart. Miraculously, no one was inside. But next door, an uncle, 64-year-old Nano Mujica was inside his home. It collapsed on top of him. He did not survive.

 

"He was such a warm man, very kind, simple but very honest and real, so yes, it is a real pain of the soul. "

 

"This earthquake has been very strong here. I believe all these houses all over this region were built to resist certain degree of earthquake. But this one beat it all in every degree and destroyed them all. Practically all my cousins, my uncles, my godfathers, they all have lost their houses, they all live in tents now. And so are all the neighbours. “

 

"This is the house where my father raised us 7 brothers. I'm the 4th born. Here you can appreciate the results of the earthquake in the house. They're a big family. Each one has lots of sons. And that's bonded us, giving us the strength to keep going. How can I put it, because I am very touched. How can I explain? Everyone is helping out, cooperating with all their hearts. Dad, you have to rebuild the house, they say, and the brothers agree. "

 

Now the family is together again, not for celebration, but to clean up what's left.

 

"It's been very sad, this thing. We are...but we don't know what to do. We're left with no house. This house is lost. It's all broken. The roof tiles, if you look at it from the outside, there's not one roof tile in place. This house is through, is over. "

 

"I somehow blocked that night. It is the fear, the anguish, so very special. "

 

"I just wanted Emilia's baptisms to be here, at our house with a little chapel. Because all my family is going to be here and Emilia is the first great grand daughter. My grandfather was so proud."

 

"To have lost our cousin Nano, we all got together yesterday. We had a very beautiful mass in front of the very house that destroyed him. And all the cousins were there. We couldn't stop saying hi to everyone. It was very emotional. Maybe the house will fall to the floor, but we'll still be in love with the place. You can treasure these old big farmhouses, but everyone understands this thing falls apart sometimes, and when they do, it seems that the family gets even more unified. "

 

"This tight-knit Chilean family has new memories, both sad and joyous, and it has a story to pass to the new generations about how one little infant, through fate, saved the Mujica from an even worse outcome in their country's devastating earthquake."