Voices of Mexico no. 111

Our Voice

A black canvas with a white dot and tiny bright sparkles, or sometimes, simply the absence of color: that is the representation of the night. As an astronomical phenomenon, the night is simply the time when our side of the Earth stops receiving sunlight. But, beginning with what is written in Genesis, the concept of the nocturnal emerges from the chiaroscuro, from the double-sided binomial of lights and shadows, in which good is associated with the day, and bad, the night: “And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.” This dichotomy continues to prevail in the social imaginary.

Inverting the values associated with day and night, as Alejandra Pizarnik ventures, perhaps the night is life and the Sun, death, may not be enough to deconstruct prejudices and stereotypes, but it is undoubtedly a step that takes us closer to inhabiting the night. As one of our authors writes, this is a territory where things happen, where, just like during the day, part of life happens.