When the clouds threatened to completely cover the sky of Torreón (Coahuila), the countdown to the totality of the eclipse in the Urban Forest, the largest park in the city and the headquarters chosen by NASA to broadcast the phenomenon, was filled with pessimism. The party of thousands of enthusiasts who had been waiting for hours for the moment when the Moon would completely cover the Sun was diluted into a murmur. “If it continues like this, we won't see anything,” complained a woman who had installed her telescope hours ago. “Come on, come on, good energy!”, responded a man to encourage his children. Half an hour before totality, a series of applause and cheers revived the aspirations of scientists, amateur astronomers and tourists: the Sun, half covered by the Moon, was once again appearing through a clearing. It was the beginning of a roller coaster of emotions that took over the 50,000 people who, from all over the world, gathered in Torreón to witness how a total eclipse caused darkness in broad daylight, the most striking astronomical phenomenon in the world. all and the first visible in the country for more than three decades.
The echoes of the 1991 eclipse, the last one to darken Mexico and one of the longest in centuries, guided thousands to the cities located in the strip of totality, an area 200 kilometers wide where the Moon will completely cover the Sun. Four hours before the start of the eclipse, Thalía Olvera, a 37-year-old girl, already occupies a place in the Urban Forest. The park, a space of green areas with an artificial lake, is the headquarters of the city's Planetarium, which has been immersed in preparations for the great eclipse for at least a year. The organizers have placed ropes with glasses so that the hundreds of residents, tourists and astronomy fans who have come here can see the phenomenon safely. “We were the first to arrive, me and my cousin arrived at 3 in the morning, we were at the entrance waiting. There was no one,” she explains as she adjusts the tripod of a newly unpacked telescope she bought for the occasion. “The last eclipse was in '91, I was almost five years old and he was barely two. We saw it in the patio of my house, my dad was also there… I remember that the sky turned pink, it started to get dark and then the light came back again. The next eclipse of this type will be in 30 or 40 years. I am going to turn 38 and who knows if I will experience a third eclipse again,” says Olvera.
Before crossing the bridge that is one of the main entrances to the park, dozens of informal stands offer t-shirts, key chains and all kinds of commemorative objects of the astronomical phenomenon. On one side lies the González García family, a young couple with two minor children, who are waiting for the start of the eclipse sitting on the grass. They have traveled about 1,000 kilometers from Mexico City to witness the moment in which the Moon comes completely between sunlight and the Earth, giving way to a night of just a few minutes.
Just like Thalía, María Fernanda García (43 years old) also alludes to the memory of the last eclipse to justify the reason for her trip. “The initiative belonged to everyone because we saw the one in 1991, so we were looking forward to this one. I was about 11 years old, and the truth is that I loved it. There wasn't the technology we have today, but I remember a lot that my dad bought some glasses, that the glasses appeared in the newspaper, that we saw the reflection in the water when it was complete,” describes the woman who, like the rest of the family, Wear commemorative t-shirts for this April 8th. “We also did it for them, because it is the first, and perhaps the last that we are going to see,” Javier González (43 years old) slips in a double gesture that begins by looking at his children, and ends reflectively referring to him and his wife.
The outreach efforts of the Torreón Planetarium, the coverage of the local media for months and the designation of NASA to broadcast the eclipse from the city served as a springboard to relaunch Torreón as a tourist destination and, in the process, change the perception that It remained during the first two decades of the current century, when organized crime marked the daily life of the city. “Today is a historic day, very special for the Laguneros,” is repeated through the park's loudspeakers. According to some tourists, the campaign that includes the distribution of thousands of glasses to see the eclipse with the printed image of the state government, seems to be bearing fruit. “When I heard it [el Estado de Coahuila] It came to mind as desert and insecurity, but as we toured the city we realized that it is very friendly, a very beautiful State. Even though it is dry and desert, it is wonderful,” explains Javier González about the city.
“We have been waiting for this moment for 33 years, since July 11, 1991,” explains elated Sergio Huanaco (70 years old), an astronomy professor who left Torreón more than half a century ago to pursue his dream of studying space sciences. The expert proudly shows off to the public his personal collection of meteorites, 380 remains of extraterrestrial rocks that he has accumulated over more than three decades. Huanaco is eagerly waiting for the next curious people to come to the table where he displays his collection to explain to them about its origin and, in the process, give instructions for safely viewing the eclipse. From his perspective, he defends that even with the brevity of the eclipse, these are moments that make fans and change lives. “Today many professions will be discovered. And many young people are going to come out of here who will be the scientists of the next generation,” he exclaims, convinced. As happened in 1970 and 1991, the generation under 30 years old in the country already has its own solar eclipse. Mexico will not witness the same astronomical phenomenon again until March 2052. Then the memories of April 2024, when day turned into night for four minutes, will once again gather thousands of enthusiasts to witness the shadow of the Moon, and the children of today, some who have become scientists, will once again raise their eyes and look at the sky in amazement.
Mazatlán, between the Sinaloa band and the eclipse on the seashore
Yubelca Mendoza and her partner have been waiting for this date for five months. The young Nicaraguan, living in Mexico City, raises her eyes to the sky with her special glasses at around 10 a.m. this Monday to follow minute by minute a spectacle that will not be repeated in the country in 28 years. . She and hundreds of other people have gone since early in the morning to the Sister Cities park, adjacent to the tourist boardwalk and in the heart of the city, to witness the astronomical phenomenon firsthand. “I have always been a fan of astronomy, last year we saw last year's annular eclipse in Mexico City, it has always been my passion and having the opportunity to live in a country where it was going to be perfect was something great. We are experiencing something that will go down in history, I feel a lot of expectation, excitement,” said the 28-year-old, with a smile on her face.
This morning the Mazatlán park became an astronomical observatory for tourists, foreigners, outsiders, sky specialists and city residents. Among the bustle of visitors, the chords of the symphony orchestra sneak in at one end of the park, enlivening the beginning of the eclipse with songs from iconic films such as ET The Extraterrestrial and Star Wars. From the stand, the organizers advise attendees to be patient and never look at the sun directly, only with special glasses or visors.
At around 11:09 a.m. the eclipse reached its peak in Mazatlán. The euphoria of hundreds of people turned into shouts and applause while an unprecedented darkness sheltered the beaches of this point in the Mexican Pacific for minutes. For four minutes, all eyes were directed to the disk of light in the sky. The orchestra stopped playing and only the waves accompanied the expressions of joy and astonishment.
Once the horizon began to light up again, people burst into applause and a band singing the Sinaloense song set the tone for a party that spread along the entire boardwalk. “I didn't want to come, but when I saw it I felt beautiful, so much energy, I didn't see the one from 1991 because before they scared you a lot, they told you it hurt your eyes, but now that I experienced it, it was incredible,” Sandra explained. Reyes, 62 years old, originally from Tijuana.
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