From left, Marian Castron, 23; Maria Castron, 25; Jenny Castron, 19; and Omar Castron, 50, visit their home devastated by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras, on June 25, 2021. "We plan to return, but it will be impossible," says Omar. Home to about 1,000 people, the town in western Honduras was hit by two powerful hurricanes within three weeks, natural disasters made far worse by local deforestation and climate change. Image by Rodrigo Abd, Honduras.
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Dr. Claudia Lazo is asked: How many of your patients are depressed?
“All of them,” she answers.
“All of them. All of them. All of them. All of them. All of them.”
The patients at her modest rural health center suffer from solastalgia — sadness and pain provoked by the loss of their environment. They’ve lost their physical homes and their psychological well-being.
Home to about 1,000 people, the town in western Honduras was hit by two powerful hurricanes within three weeks, natural disasters made far worse by local deforestation and climate change. La Reina was buried by a landslide.
No one died. But seven months later, La Reina’s people remain homeless, and adrift. They are alive, but their place in the world is gone — the place where they lived, loved, dreamed, had children, grew coffee, corn and beans.
Here, they had invested their savings and money sent home from relatives in the United States, transforming a mountainside into a town of 300 homes. Nature has taken it all back.
Olga Ondina, 52, stands for a portrait on June 23, 2021, at the site of her home, which was destroyed by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras. Image by Rodrigo Abd, Honduras.
Olga Ondina, 52, suffers from insomnia, unable to sleep in an unfamiliar house. “I wake up at midnight and try to go to my old bathroom, but it isn’t there anymore,” she says.
She gathers red flowers from the site of the home where she raised her five children, to be displayed in the homes of relatives who have taken her family in. “I realize I’m not at home, and I cry. My parents lived and died here, my children were born here. Today I came to cry.”
Julio Villanueva Melgar, 70, stands for a portrait on June 23, 2021, among the remains of his home that was destroyed by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras. Image by Rodrigo Abd, Honduras.
Over the decades, Julio Villanueva Melgar, 70, raised a family and made a living in La Reina. Villanueva feels as if he’s been hurled into a new and more hostile universe.
“One becomes crazy, disoriented,” Villanueva says. “You don’t fit in anymore.”
Orlando Perdomo, muscular from working the land for much of his 56 years, sits and spends the afternoon with a group of friends alongside a lake born of the same rainfall and landslide that devoured his hometown.
Orlando Perdomo, 56, stands for a portrait on June 20, 2021, in his home damaged by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota, in the village of La Reina, Honduras. Image by Rodrigo Abd. Honduras.
“When the first cracks in the earth opened after Hurricane Mitch (in 1998), my father said he wouldn’t live to see it, but that we would see the town disappear, that the future would bring death,” Perdomo recalls.
Lazo has treated nearly all of La Reina’s people, and she’s seen a lot of tears.
“They sit in front of me and I ask them, ‘How are you?’ They start to cry.”
Their own actions are partly the cause of their predicament. For decades, the people of La Reina cut cedar and cinnamon trees from the highest slopes of surrounding mountains to expand their coffee plantations and get timber to build their homes.
The severed roots rotted, and no longer fixed the soil on the hillside. Pelted by days of intense rain from hurricanes Eta and Iota, the earth rose up and devoured La Reina within hours, burying its remains beneath tons of slick, slippery mud.
Twelve-year-old twins Dulce Alejandra Mejía, right, and Génesis Mejía stand on the roof of their neighbor's house on June 26, 2021. It was devastated by the hurricanes Eta and Iota in La Reina village, Honduras. The girls' parents live in Spain. Image by Rodrigo Abd, Honduras.
Lazo cautions against blaming the victims. “They didn’t deforest the countryside because they wanted to, but because of poverty,” she says. “They needed to warm themselves, to build, and the country gave them no option other than cutting down the forest.”
Now, Lazo tries to piece these broken people together again. “Medicine can help some sleepless nights, but it doesn’t cure collective depression in a country with a humble, rural population without psychological or psychiatric services.”
“How do you cure what cannot be cured?” the doctor asks.
Tomasa Rodriguez, 60, and her husband, Rufino Caballero, 63, pose for a picture on June 23, 2021, among the remains of their house, destroyed by the hurricanes Eta and Iota in La Reina village, Honduras. “We had installed drinking water, the thieves took the taps. They took the toilet bowl," Rufino told The Associated Press. “We had opened a window in the wall, with glass, because it looked very dark. They stole our glass," said Tomasa. Image by Rodrigo Abd. Honduras. Glenda Herrera, 34, stands at the site of her destroyed home on June 29, 2021. It was destroyed by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in La Reina, Honduras. "That night we ran down, I saw how the hill was coming down, but I never imagined that it would destroy everything." On June 23, 2021, Elvia Gutierrez, 46; her son, Jonathan Portillo, 6; and husband, Santos Portillo, 50, stand for a portrait at the site where their home was destroyed by the landslide in La Reina, Honduras. "The patio was beautiful, I had fun in a hammock. I put the school supplies on a table and drew and wrote," says Jonathan. "No one is going to be able to live here ever again," says his father. Image by Rodrigo Abd, Honduras. Alejandro Mejia, 80, and his wife, Petrona Caballero, 80, stand for a portrait on June 26, 2021, at the site of their home destroyed by the landslide in La Reina. They had been living together here for 48 years. Mejia built his own house. "I made a wooden box. I threw mud with pine needles on it and let it sun and dry for six days, protecting it from the rain." Caballero says, "In one's own home, one rests one's thoughts. ... I feel a wound, an affliction in my chest. We will suffer from now on." Image by Rodrigo Abd, Honduras. From left, Melvin Alonso, 14; Guillermo Alonso, 54; Elvin Alonso, 6 months; Maria Orellana, 52; Genesis Alonso, 6; Yenny Alonso, 16; Areli Alonso, 22; and Orlin Alonso, 25, stand for a photo on June 24, 2021, at the site where their home was destroyed by the landslide in La Reina, Honduras. "We feel sad because we are homeless, but the important thing is that the whole family is alive," says Guillermo. Image by Rodrigo Abd, Honduras. Nery Flores, 22, and his wife, Ada Castron, 19, stand with their son, Daniel Flores, 3, on June 26, 2021, at the site of their home destroyed by the landslide in La Reina, Honduras. Image by Rodrigo Abd, Honduras. On June 24, 2021, Martina Caballero, 63, stands for a portrait with her granddaughter, Heydi Rivera Caballero, 10, at the site of their home that was destroyed by the landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras. Image by Rodrigo Abd, Honduras. Dilma Murillo, 63, sits on a rock on June 22, 2021, holding an Izote flower at the site of her home destroyed by the landslide in the village of La Reina, Honduras. Image by Rodrigo Abd, Honduras. Eleuterio Esquivel, 51, left, stands with his wife, Elsa Mejia, 40, and their twins, Ibis Esquivel, left, and Noel Esquivel, 7, on June 23, 2021, at the site of their home destroyed by the La Reina landslide. Image by Rodrigo Abd, Honduras. Elmer Ramirez, 22, sits for a portrait on June 23, 2021, at the site of his home destroyed by the landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras. "We made the decision for my wife to go to the United States because she was carrying the [5-month-old] baby and she could stay, but she had to make the whole trip nursing. Hopefully, I can meet her in the near future in Miami. Our plan is to be able to build ourselves a house. Nobody leaves thinking of staying in the U.S. because our land is here."Image by Rodrigo Abd, Honduras.
