Dar la cara, “to give the face,” means to show oneself and answer for what one has done. Dar la cara por alguien means to answer for someone else. A person who hides from the consequences no da la cara.
After a defeat or a scandal, the coach or the official is expected to salir a dar la cara, to come out and face the public.
On July 18, 2016, at the ceremony where he signed the laws of the new National Anticorruption System, President Enrique Peña Nieto spoke about the Casa Blanca, the house that had caused a scandal. “Reconozco que cometí un error que lastimó a mi familia e indignó a la ciudadanía” (I recognize that I made a mistake that hurt my family and angered the public).
He added: “Por eso, con toda humildad, les pido perdón” (For this reason, with all humility, I ask your forgiveness).
In April 2016, a video showed the torture of a woman in Ajuchitlán del Progreso, Guerrero, by members of the armed forces and the Federal Police. The Secretary of National Defense, General Salvador Cienfuegos, spoke at Military Camp No. 1 in Mexico City. “Ofrezco una sentida disculpa a toda la sociedad” (I offer a heartfelt apology to all of society), he said, for an “inadmissible” event.
On November 30, 2022, Mexico was eliminated in the group stage of the World Cup in Qatar. At his press conference, coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino said: “Yo soy el responsable máximo de esta terrible decepción y frustración que tenemos” (I am the one most responsible for this terrible disappointment and frustration). He said he took “full responsibility for this great failure.”
He also said that his contract had expired when the referee blew the final whistle.
In February 2017, almost eleven years after their arrest, the Attorney General’s Office recognized that Jacinta Francisco Marcial and two other Indigenous women, Alberta Alcántara and Teresa González, were innocent. Jacinta had been freed in 2009. The office offered them a public apology on February 21, 2017, at the National Museum of Anthropology.
Jacinta’s daughter, Estela, ended her speech with the words “hasta que la dignidad se haga costumbre” (until dignity becomes a habit).
On December 1, 2018, the day he took office, President López Obrador stood in the Zócalo of Mexico City and repeated his commitment “no mentir, no robar y no traicionar al pueblo de México” (not to lie, not to steal and not to betray the people of Mexico).
In November 2020, his government made the three rules one of the principles of its Guía ética para la transformación, an ethical guide for the country.
In 2016, a citizen initiative promoted by the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO) proposed that public servants file three public declarations: of assets, of interests and of taxes. It became known as the Ley 3de3, the three-of-three law, and it was a proposal for a General Law of Administrative Responsibilities.
When Congress passed the law in June 2016, the Senate extended the obligation to any person or company that receives and spends public funds. After the President’s observations, the final law exempted private persons from filing the declarations.
Mexicans associate the phrase honrosa medianía, “honorable modesty,” with Benito Juárez. It expresses his view that public officials must live on the pay the law gives them. The exact wording varies between sources. One version, dated to 1852, when Juárez was governor of Oaxaca, reads: “Debemos vivir en la honrosa medianía que proporciona el pago que la ley nos señala” (We must live in the honorable modesty that the pay set by law provides).
The phrase returned to political debate with the austeridad republicana, the republican austerity, of President López Obrador.