Marlene Santana, 69, spent nearly four days trapped under the rubble of her home in La Guaira, Venezuela, after the double earthquake that shook the country on June 24. Her four-story house had even withstood the feared 1999 landslide. This time it was not so lucky.
A team of rescuers from El Salvador found her alive among the concrete debris. When she was finally able to speak, she did not ask for water or help for her missing relatives. She asked for a Coca-Cola. President Nayib Bukele recounted the moment on his social media, and the doctors had to explain to her that before any drink she needed intravenous fluids.
Today Marlene is recovering in a hospital while she waits for news of her husband, her daughter, and her sister, who were with her when the earth shook. In the midst of a tragedy that has already claimed more than 1,700 lives, that small craving became a symbol that, even under the rubble, one still clings to the simple things in life.