Tragedy strikes son. He ends up with his entire family in the community…See more

Your phone vibrated with that diabolical fury that only announces two things in this magical, surreal, and heart-pounding country: either it’s the earthquake that’s about to hit us (knock on wood), or A NATIONAL DISASTER of epic proportions that will freeze your blood. But it wasn’t your phone. It was your own biology, confused by digital morbidity. When you looked at the screen, you came across a headline truncated by Zuckerberg’s treacherous algorithm, a headline that seemed like a death sentence disguised as a home remedy:

“They found him and tried to rescue him, but this… See more”

Holy shit, dude! The color drained from your face faster than my dignity on a payday Friday. Your brain, trained by years of living on the edge of sensationalist crime news and IMSS urban legends, automatically completed the sentence with the worst-case scenario imaginable. Who did they find? Mexico’s last hope? Your dignity after the binge? Don’t play dumb! Your morbid mind thought the worst: “…but he was dead” or worse, “…but he was being devoured by binational culinary organized crime .” The mere thought made your stomach churn, but you couldn’t look away!

That incomplete “ but this… ” was the gateway to the hell of speculation and fear. Millions of Mexicans clicked on that damned link, hearts pounding, morbid curiosity and terror locked in a fierce battle in our minds. We wanted to know, but at the same time, we were absolutely terrified of encountering the graphic images, the news that would ruin our week and shatter what little faith we had left in our own longevity.