Deivi Delfín, a 15-year-old, describes the persistent terror of living through multiple major earthquakes in a span of just a few months. Along with his 17-year-old brother, Winder, Deivi survived devastating tremors in Venezuela that destroyed their La Guaira home and claimed the lives of their mother, grandmother, and younger brother, Moissés. After spending nearly a month searching the wreckage to recover their loved ones, the brothers moved to Cali, Colombia, to join their father, Deivid.
Tragedy followed them to their new home. Only three days after arriving in Cali, the family experienced another massive earthquake, with magnitude 7.4, which devastated parts of Colombia. Having already endured the trauma of the Venezuelan disaster, the teenagers reacted with unsettling calm during the second event, comforting their father by reminding him they had already faced such destruction.
The brothers, who lost their childhood innocence while crawling through concrete debris to locate their family members, now hope to build a stable future in Colombia. Their story highlights the profound toll of natural disasters on displaced families, as they attempt to reconcile their recent losses with the ongoing threat of seismic activity in their new environment.
