In 2017, the linguist Niktelol Palacios of El Colegio de México published a study of softened speech in Puebla in the journal Anuario de Letras. Lingüística y Filología. It drew on the PRESEEA corpus of Puebla, among speakers with little formal education.
The study names one aim of the softening devices that these speakers use: “se trata de evitar al máximo el desacuerdo” (the point is to avoid disagreement as far as possible).
Hoy no se fía, mañana sí. “No credit today, tomorrow yes.” The Mexico City magazine Chilango, in an article on the signs and cries of street markets, calls this sign “famoso” (famous).
The same article opens by naming a blunter version among the best-known cries and signs of the markets of Mexico City: Hoy no fío, mañana tampoco, “No credit today, and none tomorrow either.”
In Mexico, a plain gracias in answer to an offer can mean yes or no. In a guide published by Mexico News Daily in November 2024, Sarah DeVries describes her way around this. She asks: ¿Gracias “sí” o gracias “no”? The answer, she writes, is “almost always ‘Gracias, no.'”
The same guide lists other polite ways to decline. A lo mejor, “probably.” Déjame ver or déjame checar, “let me see” or “let me check.” Estamos en contacto, “we’ll be in touch.”
For almost 150 years, Mexican civil weddings included a reading of the Epístola de Melchor Ocampo, part of the Civil Marriage Law of July 23, 1859. It tells the couple: “nunca se dirán injurias, porque las injurias entre los casados deshonran al que las vierte” (they will never insult each other, because insults between spouses dishonor the one who utters them).
In March 2006, the Chamber of Deputies approved a resolution that urged the states to stop the reading. In 2007, Expansión reported that in some places the text was still read.
On February 25, 2025, at her morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke about Donald Trump’s statements on tariffs against Mexico. “Siempre hay que tener cabeza fría y no tomar las frases aisladas” (One must always keep a cool head and not take phrases in isolation), she said.
On March 7, 2025, Expansión described her strategy toward Trump as one “basada en la cabeza fría, la moderación y la no confrontación” (based on a cool head, moderation and non-confrontation).
On Friday, November 7, 2014, Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam gave a press conference on the missing students of Ayotzinapa. As he closed it, he said: “Muchas gracias. Ya me cansé” (Thank you very much. I am tired).
Within a week, Expansión called #YaMeCansé the hashtag that gathered the public anger over Ayotzinapa. Protests were also held in the United States, Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain and the Netherlands. On November 10, Murillo Karam explained: “Soy tan humano como cualquiera, y también me canso” (I am as human as anyone, and I also get tired).
On November 26, 2022, Argentina beat Mexico 2 to 0 at the World Cup in Qatar. A video from the Argentine dressing room then showed Lionel Messi’s foot moving a Mexican jersey on the floor.
The boxer Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez wrote: “¿Vieron a Messi limpiando el piso con nuestra playera y bandera?” (Did you see Messi cleaning the floor with our jersey and flag?). He added: “¡Que le pida a Dios que no me lo encuentre!” (He had better pray to God that I do not run into him!).
On November 30, Canelo apologized. “Me dejé llevar por la pasión y el amor que siento por mi país” (I let the passion and love I feel for my country carry me away), he wrote. Messi called it “un malentendido” (a misunderstanding).
On July 15, 1867, after the defeat of the French intervention and the execution of Maximilian, President Benito Juárez issued a manifesto to the nation in Mexico City. It contains this sentence: “Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz” (Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace).
¡Ay, Jalisco, no te rajes! (Jalisco, don’t back down!) is a 1941 film directed by Joselito Rodríguez and starring Jorge Negrete. The film site Sensacine México calls the title “una frase nacional” (a national phrase) and “una declaración de carácter” (a declaration of character).
Rajarse is one of the Mexicanisms recognized by the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua. It means “retractarse, o faltar a una promesa” (to back down, or to break a promise).
In lucha libre, a wrestler can put his mask at stake in a bout. “En caso de perder, un luchador no puede volver a portar su distintivo” (In case of losing, a wrestler cannot wear his emblem again), writes México Desconocido. The magazine adds: “En vida El Santo jamás perdió su máscara durante una pelea” (In his lifetime El Santo never lost his mask in a fight).
El Santo died on February 5, 1984. He was buried with his mask.