“ Move your stuff from the floor. If there’s an earthquake, you might step on them and fall." When I was a little girl, my mom repeated this phrase at least two times a week at night. We live in Peru, a country of major seismic activity. In a year, we might experience more than 500 tremors. I grew up used to earth's movements happening at any time. When they started in the middle of the night, my sisters and I would wake up to dad’s trembling voice saying: “Girls, go out!”. We would stand together in our living room with sleepy faces but racing heartbeats, waiting for the windows to stop shaking, and the ceiling lamps to slower their swinging. Funny thing is: while we grew older, my sisters and I kept repeating mom’s advice every time we were preparing for bedtime. We moved clothes, shoes, books, or anything that was blocking our way towards the door and said with Mami’s voice: “Move your stuff from the floor. If there’s an earthquake, you might step on them and fall....