In a 2015 column in Letras Libres, the novelist Enrique Serna wrote that “mucha gente prefiere pasar por ignorante que negar en seco” (many people prefer to pass for ignorant rather than refuse flatly). He named no sabría decirle, “I would not know how to tell you,” and mande usted, “at your command,” as “fórmulas de vasallaje” (formulas of vassalage).