Mexico, Agreements - understand-culture

The Cargo System

In many Mexican communities, the community fiesta is paid for by a mayordomo. The post is one of the cargos, unpaid posts of community service that rotate among the members of the community. The holder finances the fiesta, with its food, drink, music and fireworks.

In San Pablo del Monte, the mayordomo covers half the cost, and his componentes, his helpers, share the other half. The town’s mayordomías rotate every year among its barrios, so the turn of each barrio comes back after about ten years.

On Credit at the Corner Store

In 2021, ANPEC, the national association of small retailers, surveyed about 1,200 neighborhood grocery stores. According to the newspaper Por Esto!, 78 percent of the shopkeepers said that customers asked them for fiado, goods on credit. The share of customers asking for credit had roughly doubled, from about two in ten in early 2020 to about four in ten in the first half of 2021.

Today for You, Tomorrow for Me

Hoy por ti, mañana por mí. “Today for you, tomorrow for me.” The saying goes with a favor that is given now and may be returned later.

Una mano lava la otra, y las dos lavan la cara. “One hand washes the other, and both wash the face.”

The March of Loyalty

On February 9, 1913, during the Decena Trágica, the military revolt against President Francisco I. Madero, about 300 cadets of the Colegio Militar escorted the president from Chapultepec Castle to the National Palace. Eight days later, Madero and Vice President José María Pino Suárez were arrested.

Mexico commemorates the day every year as the Marcha de la Lealtad, the March of Loyalty. The Ministry of National Defense presents it as the army’s loyalty to a civilian and democratic mandate.

Villistas, Zapatistas, Carrancistas

The forces of the Mexican Revolution took their names from their leaders. The villistas followed Francisco Villa and his División del Norte. The zapatistas followed Emiliano Zapata in Morelos. The carrancistas followed Venustiano Carranza, the Primer Jefe, the First Chief. The obregonistas followed Álvaro Obregón.

A teaching text of UNAM describes General Saturnino Cedillo as passing from zapatista to villista and finally to obregonista.

Whoever Moves Is Not in the Photo

El que se mueve no sale en la foto. “Whoever moves does not come out in the photo.” A column in Quadratín attributes the line to Fidel Velázquez, who led the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) from 1941 until his death in 1997. The column gives no date for it.

The columnist reads it as advice to keep a low profile in order to stay in power.

Whatever Time You Say

“¿Qué hora es?” “La que usted diga, señor presidente.” “What time is it?” “Whatever time you say, Mr. President.” Mexican columnists quote the exchange as a well-known maxim. In 2020, a guest column in Expansión applied it to judges who follow the president.

The columns give no origin for it, and none ties it to a particular president. A variant ends la que usted mande, “whatever time you order.”

The Charge

La cargada, “the charge,” is the rush of politicians to declare support for whoever has been chosen as the next leader. The Diccionario del español de México of El Colegio de México defines it as a “congregación de oportunistas, sobre todo en el ámbito político,” a gathering of opportunists, above all in politics.

Article 34

Mexico’s law on the professional career service in the federal administration fills posts through open competition on merit. Its Article 34 allows an exception. In exceptional situations, a person can be appointed temporarily, without the recruitment procedure, under the responsibility of the head of the agency.

According to figures of the Ministry of Public Administration compiled in a UNAM journal, federal agencies made 4,451 appointments under Article 34 in 2019 and held 2,449 open competitions. In 2018, the figures were 2,665 appointments and 5,714 competitions.

The Charro

In 1947, the railway workers’ union broke with the official labor confederation, the CTM. On October 13, 1948, its executive committee suspended its secretary general, Jesús Díaz de León, for “querer dividir al sindicato en complicidad con el gobierno,” trying to divide the union in complicity with the government. The next day he took the union’s offices with the support of the army and the police. The Labor Ministry recognized him.

Díaz de León was known as El Charro for his charro dress. Charro became the name for a union leader imposed by the government, and charrismo sindical the name of the practice.