226 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1946 
ticed—the earth began to tremble. With each succeeding day the 
tremors increased, both in number and in violence. Subterranean 
noises, too, could be heard with increasing frequency and intensity; 
they seemed to be centered in the area of Cuiyutziro and Quitzocho. 
These seemingly unnatural] manifestations kept the inhabitants in con- 
stant turmoil and fear. The earth tremors became so frequent and so 
violent that it was feared the great church of Parangaricutiro, with its 
massive walls of masonry more than a meter thick, would collapse. As 
a precaution, the sacred image of the church, El Senor de los Milagros, 
famous throughout the region for its miraculous powers, was placed 
in the main plaza, near the village cross, and by a strange coincidence 
faced directly toward the spot where the volcano would appear. 
FEBRUARY 20, 1943 
February 20 was clear and calm. Dionisio Pulido left his village of 
Paricutin to prepare his farm “Cuiyttziro” for the coming sowing. 
With him he took his oxen and his plow. He was accompanied by 
his wife Paula and his son, who would watch the sheep, and Demetrio 
Toral (who died a short time ago in Calzontzin) to help with the 
plowing. 
In the afternoon, after midday, I joined my wife and son, who were watching 
the sheep, and inquired if anything new had occurred, since for 2 weeks we had 
felt strong temblores in the region. Paula replied, yes, that she had heard noise 
and thunder underground. Scarcely had she finished speaking when I, myself, 
heard a noise, like thunder during a rainstorm, but I could not explain it, for 
the sky above was clear and the day was so peaceful, as it is in February. 
At 4 o’clock I left my wife to set fire to a pile of branches which Demetrio _ 
and I and another, whose name [I cannot remember, had gathered. I went to 
burn the branches when I noticed that at a cueva,’? which was situated on one of 
the knolls of my farm, a fissure had opened, and I noticed that this fissure, as 
I followed it with my eye, was long and passed from where I stood, through the 
hole, and continued in the direction of the Cerro de Canijuata, where Canijuata 
joins the Mesa of Cocojara. Here is something new and strange, thought I, and 
I searched the ground for marks to see whether or not it had opened in the 
night but could find none; and I saw that it was a kind of fissure that had only 
a depth of half a meter. I set about to ignite the branches again, when I felt 
a thunder, the trees trembled, and I turned to speak to Paula; and it was then 
I saw how, in the hole the ground swelled and raised itself—2 or 2144 meters 
high—and a kind of smoke or fine dust—gray, like ashes—began to rise up in a 
portion of the crack that I had not previously seen, near the resumidero. Im- 
mediately more smoke began to rise, with a hiss or whistle, loud and continuous, 
and there was a smell of sulfur. I then became greatly frightened and tried to 
help unyoke one of the ox teams. I hardly knew what to do, so stunned was I 
before this, not knowing what to think or what to do and not able to find my 
wife or my son or my animals. Finally my wits returned and I recalled the 
sacred Sefor de los Milagros, which was in the church in San Juan (Parangari- 
2 Variously referred to by Pulido as a cueva (cave or grotto), resumidero (a hole or 
crevice, into which water disappears during the rainy season), or agujero (a hole). 
