They talk about a type of person who understands or recognises the meaning of the phrase ‘nothing is certain’. This person understands or recognises their nepantla – that they are in between spaces, times, destinations, life and death – and so they recognise their indeterminacy, instability and radical uncertainty, what Mexistentialists call zozobra. In short, they are sure of one thing: that ‘nada es seguro’. That’s my father.
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My father’s attitude to certainty is not his alone. It is a worldview forged in the crucible of history and experience, and articulated for us by Mexican existentialists with concepts like accidentality, zozobra, relajo and nepantla – concepts that capture the contingency and vulnerability of human life. In pronouncing that ‘nothing is certain’, my father is merely echoing the teachings of experience, while simultaneously preparing himself for what may come. That he easily channels philosophers in critical life moments does not surprise me.
After all, he is a product of a historical circumstance that is not unlike those of the philosophers who came before him: although catastrophic, it is powerful and empowering. And we could say the same about the great majority of us, Mexican or not: we are products of a history that, while it may be traumatic and painful, can also be powerful and empowering.