Alejandro Marquina didn’t spring into panic. Like any level-headed journalist, he focused on the news.
He was at the end of his shift as a news writer at WSVN-7 when he saw the news alert at 6:10 p.m. Wednesday, June 24: Earthquake in Venezuela.
“ I was really calm when I saw that because I was like, ‘Okay, a lot of earthquakes have happened in Venezuela before [and in] most of them, no one dies, nothing happens, thankfully," he told WLRN.
Being from Venezuela and still having family there, he texted his parents the news and asked them to check in with their loved ones back home. Not out of deep worry, per se, since the level of the catastrophe was then unknown — and unimaginable — but as a reminder that, despite the miles of ocean between them, Marquina and his parents keep them front of mind.
Less than five minutes later, the newsroom got another wire. Twin earthquakes: 7.1 and 7.4 magnitude.
The sense of calm evaporated. “Everything changed in my head,” he said.
The panic began.
“ I call my grandfather, no answer. I call my grandmother, no answer. I call my aunt, no answer. I text in the group chat, no answer at all,” Marquina, 22, a journalism student at Florida International University, recounted to WLRN.
The sense of urgency only heightened when he saw the first video of a building collapsing in Caracas.
After making it home, his mom told him one of his aunts called. She and his maternal grandmother were okay.
One by one they were accounting for people.
A voice message came from his godfather, Richard, his dad’s cousin. Richard, his wife and kid were okay, “but my mom and my dad died. Their building collapsed,” Richard said in the message, Marquina said.
“I think I've never seen my dad cry of sadness. He's a really strong man,” Marquina said. “ He literally collapsed saying, ‘No, no way. There's no way this is happening.’"
The news of their deaths rocked Marquina’s sense of reality — “what if this happened to my grandfather?”
With no way to reach him directly, they had to search contacts for old friends from back home. Eventually, one such friend checked on him on behalf of Marquina’s family.
His grandfather, Luis, was alive.
“ I thought that day I wasn't gonna see him again,” Marquina said through tears. “It was a scary night.”
His brothers Humberto and Egidio, as well as his wife, Zoraida, died.
That nightmare continued into the next day. Rescues were slowly underway all over La Guaira, a coastal city in northern Venezuela less than 20 miles from Caracas. Three of his family members were found under the rubble of an apartment building. Two of them were rescued.
“ For hours they were underneath the rubble, but they take them out,” Marquina said. “They were able to rescue them. It was a miracle.”
But the third family member, his great aunt Yolanda, died before rescuers reached her. Her sister, Claret, died, too.
In total, five of his family members died. They were all from his dad’s side.
“ These are — were — people that I literally had spent my childhood with,” Marquina said.
The official death toll of the disaster has risen to more than 6,000 people. More than 16,000 were injured and some 1,000 buildings were damaged or reduced to rubble.
Marquina didn’t lose anyone on his mom’s side, but loved ones lost their home.
His mom’s brother, his uncle Ramses, had been preparing to watch the Brazil vs. Scotland World Cup game at home with his wife. The shaking began, and as it intensified, the walls crumbled around them.
“He grabs his wife, he hugs her, and he tells her, ‘We're gonna die here. We're gonna die here, but we're gonna die together,’” Marquina remembered his uncle recounting.
Ramses and his wife survived only because they jumped from their apartment on the second floor.
“ It's a normal day and then everything's gone,” Marquina said.
‘The best memories I have’
As the scale of the catastrophe has grown, La Guaira has become a graveyard of trapped souls, far from the coastal paradise Marquina knew as a kid.
He was born in La Guaira, but he moved with his family to the state of Miranda as a kid. Still, they visited every week.
“My memories in La Guaira are probably the best memories I have,” Marquina said. He was always with his cousins, aunts and uncles. “I was around people that were always happy. Even with all the struggle, we always managed to have a party.”
READ MORE: On La Guaira's beaches, Venezuela quake survivors improvise showers and toilets amid water shortages
However, the political upheaval and economic crisis motivated his parents to leave the country.
Marquina, his parents and older sister moved to South Florida in 2015. He lives in Doral, the biggest hub for Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S.
A week before the earthquakes, Marquina’s great aunt Yolanda had sent him a message congratulating for one of his work achievements, but he only came to see it after she was gone.
He teared up thinking of her absence and what was left unsaid. He’s taken it as a life lesson, he said, as he’s staying in contact with family now more than ever.
“This changed me,” he said.
Getting back to life
When he talks now to his grandfather Luis by phone, he tries to distract him from the tragedy that befell their family and Venezuela. During the World Cup final, they bonded over Spain’s win.
It's those little moments of connection that present themselves like tiny beacons of faith, even as Marquina struggles with feeling guilty over not being there with them.
“Many people died, many people are still suffering and you're not there to help them,” he said.
But Marquina is finding ways to help from here. He started a GoFundMe for victims that collected nearly $2,000, he’s sent his family supplies and has been volunteering.
Marquina has always loved telling stories about Venezuela. He feels more motivated now to keep pursuing his passion.
“I told myself we have to do something,” Marquina said. “Now I'm trying to get back to my normal life and help them in any way I can.”
