A Rallying Cry: Fuerza

The Job of Work comes to you this week live and in living color from the beautiful -- and damaged -- city of Santiago de Chile. Evidence of the huge earthquake that hit this country on February 27 abounds. While the streets are largely clear of debris, roofs, walls, windows and, in some cases, entire neighborhoods, have been destroyed. Older buildings, constructed before seismic standards were instituted here, appear to have taken the brunt of the enormous power of the initial 8.8 magnitude quake and the numerous aftershocks that followed.

And we haven't yet seen the coast, where the devastation is even more profound.

Like many modern cities, Santiago's older buildings and neighborhoods define its charm. More importantly, they define its history. As a close Chilean friend bemoaned while assessing the damage, "We have lost our past. Our history is gone."

We who live in and around San Francisco know exactly of what he speaks.

Yet, there is a bright side. Courage and conviction often are born from disaster. And nowhere is that more evident than here in Santiago. Indeed, the earthquakes and tsunamis have served to rally the people of this great city and country.

Their rallying cry: Fuerza. Strength.

The people of Chile are using the disaster as a catalyst -- a catalyst to accelerate change.

These photos, plus others like them, are being used widely to bolster national and civic pride, to replace fear and loss with strength and determination.

A national marketing campaign, if you will, to sell courage and conviction.

And it's working.

You see it in neighborhood clean-up efforts.

You see it as people assist others whose homes were damaged.

You see it in the care offered to the injured.

You see it in the support offered to those who lost loved ones.

You see it in the patronage of businesses disrupted by this natural disaster.

You see it in the drive to rebuild.

And, importantly, you see it in the determination people express as they talk of the progress their country has made during the last two decades -- a progress that, most would say, cannot be wasted.

Indeed, the people of Chile have endured a great deal during and since Allende. Their recent history has very dark periods. Not surprisingly, it's an era few here will discuss openly. Also, not surprisingly, it's a time most Chileans want to move beyond.

Even so, the biggest fear that exists in Chile is not that another earthquake will cause more damage. Or that there will be more loss of life.

No, the widespread fear here is that the rallying cry will, in the end, be ineffective. That it will lose its power. That Chileans will, too soon, go back to their pre-disaster routines. That the urgency produced by the earthquake will abate. That the passion to become one of the world's great countries will wane. That, ultimately, the destruction caused by the earthquakes and the tsunamis will have been for naught.

And that, most believe, would truly be a disaster.

Fuerza, Chile. Fuerza.