Mexico 19S: Turning Point or Starting Point?

Abstract

19S

Dear readers, I should have written this Editorial at the beginning of September, but the procrastination that often affects us led me to postpone sitting down in front of a blank page for several weeks—until 19S struck Mexico City. Now that I’m writing these lines, it’s impossible not to address the topic. To ignore it would be to disrespect the millions of people affected by the earthquake, the effects of which we are still processing.

In recent days, I’ve read dozens of editorials in the media that approach the topic from various perspectives. I’ll attempt to do so with sensitivity, without downplaying the importance of the lessons to be learned, and by situating some of the manuscripts featured in this issue of the Revista Digital Universitaria (RDU) within a framework of utility and optimism.

It’s fascinating how Charles Darwin captured in a few lines the brutal impact of just a few seconds on people’s lives and how this deep sense of insecurity emerges—a feeling that, as the quote states, “would never have arisen with hours of reflection.”

In a brief interval, the context of countless lives changed radically, and each day we ask ourselves how we can contribute our grain of sand to the vast horizon of possible actions. I firmly believe that educational and academic institutions, like ours, are in an ideal position to provide ideas and actions that foster a return to that fleeting and fluid state we call, for lack of a better word, “normalcy.”