Mexico, Agreements - understand-culture

Gentlemen’s Agreement

On September 23, 2021, Mexico’s competition authority, COFECE, fined 17 clubs of the Liga MX, the Mexican Football Federation and eight individuals a total of 177.6 million pesos. COFECE found that the clubs had colluded to restrict the market for signing players.

The practice was a derecho de retención, a retention right, known as the pacto de caballeros, the gentlemen’s agreement. COFECE also found that the clubs had capped the salaries of players in the women’s league from November 2016 to May 2019.

Through Friends and Relatives

In August 2019, Mexico’s Labor Secretary, Luisa María Alcalde Luján, spoke at the ExpoEmpleo OCC job fair. According to Excélsior, she said that 56 percent of employed people in Mexico had found their job through personal contacts, friends or relatives. Only 25 percent of job seekers used private agencies or job boards.

Tandas

A tanda is a savings circle. A group of family members or acquaintances each pay a fixed sum every period, and in each round one member takes the whole pot. There is no bank and no legal backing.

In Mexico’s 2024 National Survey of Financial Inclusion, by INEGI and the banking regulator CNBV, 36.6 percent of adults aged 18 to 70 saved only in informal ways. El Universal reported participation in tandas at 20 percent, up from 18 percent in 2021. The newspaper did not state the base of that figure.

The Guarantor

To rent a home in Mexico City, a tenant is traditionally asked for an aval, a guarantor who owns property in the city or its metropolitan area and puts up the deeds. The custom is a rule of the market, not of the law. Landlords prefer a guarantor whose property is free of liens.

A tenant who has no such person can buy a póliza jurídica, a legal policy, for 30 to 50 percent of one month’s rent. In 2025, the magazine Expansión reported that a guarantor with property was increasingly hard to find.

The Vocabulary of Trust

Confianza means trust. It also means familiarity between people.

De confianza, a person one can rely on, or a close and intimate one.

En confianza, in private, between people who trust each other.

Agarrar confianza, to grow at ease with someone over time.

Pásale, con confianza, “come in, make yourself at home,” said to a guest.

Tomarse confianzas, to take liberties, to act with more familiarity than the relationship allows.

Better the Bad One You Know

Más vale malo por conocido que bueno por conocer. “Better the bad one you know than the good one you have yet to know.”

In February 2015, a telephone poll of 600 adults by the firm GCE asked Mexicans to match popular sayings with the political parties. 51 percent matched this one to the PRI.

Refusals in Mexican Spanish

In 2006, the linguist J. César Félix-Brasdefer published a study in the Journal of Pragmatics on how male speakers of Mexican Spanish refuse. He examined the effect of formality on their refusals and the link between politeness and protecting face.

In a study published in 2008, he observed 18 male Mexican students refusing a request, an invitation and a suggestion from a peer. They refused mainly in indirect ways, and they softened what they said.

Atole with the Finger

Mexican Spanish has several phrases for keeping someone content without delivering.

Dar atole con el dedo, “to give atole with the finger.” Atole is a warm corn drink. BBC Mundo, citing the Diccionario de mexicanismos of the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua, glosses the phrase as engañar, to deceive.

Dar el avión, “to give the airplane,” to brush someone off.

Dar largas, to keep putting off an answer.

To Talk Like Cantinflas

Cantinflear is a Spanish verb made from the name of Cantinflas, the Mexican comic actor Mario Moreno. The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy defines it as “hablar o actuar de forma disparatada e incongruente,” to speak or act in a nonsensical and incongruous way.

According to Excélsior, the Academy recognized the word in 1992. The newspaper quotes the definition with a further phrase, y sin decir nada, “and without saying anything.”

Fourteen Months of Rent

In the television comedy El Chavo del 8, Don Ramón never pays his rent. He owes Señor Barriga, the landlord, 14 months of rent. When the landlord comes, Don Ramón avoids him, sometimes by escaping through a window.