In El laberinto de la soledad, Octavio Paz recalls the answer of a maid who was asked who was in the next room: “No es nadie, señor, soy yo” (It is nobody, sir, it is me).
In the same chapter, “Máscaras mexicanas,” Paz describes el ninguneo: “El ninguneo es una operación que consiste en hacer de Alguien, Ninguno” (Ninguneo is an operation that consists of making Somebody into Nobody).