Civity is more than connecting and belonging; it is a cultural change. Recently, I experienced civity even in the midst of tragedy.
In December 2022, my city was on fire. At 5 p.m., I could hear fire trucks and planes dropping water from the sky. My heart clenched to see how the fire advanced mercilessly toward the populated areas on my hill.
I live in Viña del Mar, a coastal city located about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from Santiago, the capital of Chile. Its particular design, in the shape of a horseshoe around a serene bay, makes it an ideal destination for tourists during the summer seasons – between December and March in the southern hemisphere.
Downtown is quite narrow, only a few flat kilometers between high hills and the sea. Honestly, you can see the sea from any of the more than ten hills that interconnect in this beautiful city.
But in December 2022, the hills of Viña del Mar became the stage for one of the greatest tragedies to hit our city in the last 10 years – a raging fire that left more than 3,000 families homeless, many injured, and close to four deceased.
It is chilling to see how just a couple of seconds can change your life forever. In the midst of my sorrow, fear, and frustration, as I watched neighboring hills burn in the middle of the dark night illuminated by flames, I decided to walk. I wanted to understand what was happening and thus be able to help. In the midst of all the pain, I knew I had to find a way to help.
In emergencies like these, it is important to keep traffic routes open so help can come, such as ambulances and firefighters. But in addition to the emergency response, help can also come in the form of prevention.
Between my hill and the one next to it is a vacant area – a ravine that runs from the top of the hill to the center of the city. Given the summer heat, the ravine was dry.
Flying sparks had formed three huge and uncontrollable fires. The authorities begged the population to evacuate due to the rapid advance of these fires.
As I walked, sparks began to fly toward my hill. I panicked. At that moment, I met more than 20 neighbors. We all began to clear the area with dry grass that separated us from the other hill, from the other source of the fire. In less than 10 minutes, the street was full of garbage bags of dry grass. Neighbors from all over the area joined forces to cut grass and put it in bags, while others used their water hoses to wet the entire creekbed.
At about midnight, all the houses that bordered the hillside were protected, thanks to the removal of dry grass and constant water on roofs and around houses.
It ended up being a unifying night – a civity night.
At the end of the work, many neighbors began to hug each other, and comments could be heard that, through tears, emphasized the importance of creating unity among neighbors. That way, for emergencies like these, support and relief action is more efficient and effective. Many neighbors recognized that we had never had the opportunity to meet or even greet the neighbor from the house next door. To the surprise of many, the hugs that night evolved into a beautiful group that today comes together regularly to strengthen the neighborhood.
Two months after the tragedy, the streets of my neighborhood are filled with smiles and greetings, friendly people remembering that a tragedy brought them together and helped them prevent something that could have been even more catastrophic. We decided to form a group for prevention and action against fires and crimes. Neighbors act as a community to help a victim on the road. And there are calendars and schedules to help us carry out the work of cleaning damaged sites and preventing possible sources of future fires.
We need a cultural change in which we understand that we all need each other and that it is necessary to build and practice the idea of belonging and inclusion. This can help us move through our communities with a more human, empathic, involved, and intentional sense, creating and strengthening this cultural change from our social roots. This is civity. You and I can both do civity.