An albur is a Mexican play on words with a double meaning. An article from the Autonomous University of the State of Hidalgo describes it as a way to “codificar mensajes a dos niveles” (code messages on two levels), so that the listener may grasp one level or both. The article names Tepito, in Mexico City, as the model of albur culture.
In an exchange of albures, “pierde quien calla o se tarda en contestar” (whoever falls silent or is slow to answer loses).
On September 15, 1960, Armando Jiménez published Picardía mexicana, a book that dealt openly with the albur and with the way Mexicans speak. It had four new editions in its first year. According to Excélsior, it was reprinted without interruption until 2007, “alcanzando más de 150 reediciones” (reaching more than 150 reprints).
Under the PRI, the president chose his successor in secret and revealed him later. The cartoonist Abel Quezada is credited with creating the figure of el tapado, “the covered one.” His best-known cartoon shows a hooded man smoking, with the line “El tapado fuma Elegantes” (The covered one smokes Elegantes).
While the name stayed covered, the press read the signs. In 2017, the political writer Carlos Castillo described how the media “interpretan señales, gestos y guiños” (interpret signals, gestures and winks) to guess the choice.
¿Cómo nos arreglamos? “How do we settle this?” Lo dejo a su criterio, “I leave it to your judgment,” from a traffic officer. Acéiteme la mano, “oil my hand.” Ayúdame a ayudarte, “help me to help you.” Each phrase asks for a bribe, or offers one, without naming it.
A buen entendedor, pocas palabras. “For one who understands well, few words.” A study of sayings in Decires, a journal of UNAM, notes that refranes are often expressed “parcialmente por razones de un estilo sugerente” (only in part, for the sake of a suggestive style). Their sense “se da siempre por sentado” (is always taken for granted).
In 2022, the linguists Flores Treviño and González Salinas published a study of the phrase no sé, “I don’t know,” in the journal Onomázein. They analyzed 12 interviews from a corpus of spoken Spanish recorded in Monterrey. The most frequent use of no sé was to soften what the speaker said.
The authors describe it as a strategy that protects “la imagen de ambos dialogantes” (the face of both speakers).
Article 37 of Mexico’s Federal Tax Code gives the tax authorities three months to answer a request. If no answer is notified in that time, the taxpayer may treat the silence as a refusal. Lawyers call this negativa ficta, an implied refusal.
The silence then counts as a decision, and the taxpayer can file a legal challenge against it.
In 2012, Gala Karina Villaseñor García tested how 123 Mexican university students understood replies to requests, for a master’s thesis at UNAM. Some replies came at once. Others came after a silence of 1.2 seconds.
The result: “un silencio antes de una respuesta negativa intensifica la noción de rechazo” (a silence before a negative answer intensifies the sense of refusal). The study also tested silence as the only reply.
In 2017, the linguists José María Infante Bonfiglio and María Eugenia Flores Treviño, of the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, published “Los que dicen que sí sin decir sí” (Those who say yes without saying yes), a study of softened speech by Mexican politicians.
One example is a politician asked whether he would run for mayor again. He answered: “no me puedo destapar, si me destapo me voy a congelar” (I cannot uncover myself, if I uncover myself I will freeze). To uncover oneself is to declare a candidacy. “Eludir es un modo de soslayar las intenciones reales” (Evading is a way of sidestepping one’s real intentions), they write.
In September 2022, the Excélsior columnist Francisco Garfias read meaning in a seating plan. At the annual report of the governor of the State of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum and Ricardo Monreal, rivals for the Morena presidential nomination, sat in the front row. Adán Augusto López sat between them. Garfias called them “hermanos enemigos” (enemy brothers) and summed up the scene: “Muy cerca físicamente, muy lejos políticamente” (Very close physically, very far politically).