Person-2-Person - September, 2019

Two years ago, following the Puebla earthquake in Mexico, near Mexico City, an amazing story emerged of a survivor, a twelve-year-old girl named Frida Sofia, who was buried under the remains of the Enrique Rebsámen school. Rescuers said they knew she was alive because she had wiggled her fingers.

For two days, the story of Frida Sofia captured the hearts, minds, and imaginations of the entire country of Mexico. Television channels broadcast continuous updates on the progress of the rescuers, filled with small details, such as rescue workers feeding Frida Sofia milk through plastic tubes.

But over time the story began to unravel. None of Frida Sofia’s family members came to the school. None of the surviving students or staff knew anyone with that name. Finally, on the third day, the news broke that Frida Sofia didn’t exist—and had never existed. There was no student at Enrique Rebsámen school named Frida Sofia, and there never had been. Navy assistant secretary Enrique Sarmiento announced that, “We want to emphasize that we have no knowledge about the report that emerged with the name of a girl. We do not believe—we are sure—it was not a reality.”

The result was anger. Mexican magazine editor Esteban Illades summed it up by saying, “People are angry. Frida was the story.” And of course, there were those who remembered the story of a nine-year-boy named Monchito, who was the focus of a similar rescue attempt following the Mexico City earthquake in 1985. At that time, authorities revealed that Monchito had also never existed.

We don’t know how the story of Frida Sofia came to be, although we can guess: Rumors often take on a life of their own, and hope is a powerful thing. The story of Frida Sofia demonstrated that things weren’t as bleak as they seemed. As editor Illades said, “Frida was the story.” Professor Duncan Watts, of Columbia University in New York, points out that rumors “satisfy our emotional needs.” The Internet site “Social Psych Online” notes six reasons we spread rumors: Uncertainty, anxiety, perception that the information is important, belief in the information, to help self-image, and to improve social status.

Some or all of these factors may have been present in creating the story of Frida Sofia. There was abundant uncertainty and anxiety following the earthquake. Information about a survivor would have been considered to be important. The public would have had a need to believe, and public officials might have felt the need to preserve their own status by keeping hope alive.

The earliest disciples had their own experience with someone who had been buried and presumed lost, their teacher, Jesus. Those who hadn’t fled had watched him die horribly on the cross. They had taken his body and buried it in a borrowed tomb. And like the people who waited breathlessly for news of Frida Sofia, they spent three days waiting (Luke 9:21-22, 18:31-33).

When the women returned from Jesus’ grave with the news that he had been raised from the dead, they “told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.” (Luke 24:10b-11 ESV). In other words, the apostles dismissed the resurrection as a rumor. But Peter went to the tomb to see for himself (vs. 12). And later, Jesus himself appeared among them (vs. 36-48). As Esteban Illades might have said, “Jesus was the story.” And Jesus continues to be the story today and forever (Heb. 13:8). Jesus can be your story and mine too.

“And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.’ And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.” (Luke 24:5-9 ESV.)