Mexico, Credibility - understand-culture

Three Books

On December 3, 2011, at the Guadalajara International Book Fair, Enrique Peña Nieto, then seeking the presidency, was asked to name three books that had marked his life. He mixed up titles and authors. He attributed La silla del águila to Enrique Krauze. Its author is Carlos Fuentes. He corrected himself on Twitter, and he was a popular topic on social media for days.

On October 16, 2001, at the International Congress of the Spanish Language in Valladolid, President Vicente Fox named the Argentine writer as “Jorge Luis Borgues.” The slip still appears on lists of presidential blunders.

Merolico

In popular speech, Chilango notes, the word merolico is linked to “una persona muy habladora” (a very talkative person).

According to México Desconocido, the word comes from Juan Rafael de Meraulyock, who arrived in Mexico in 1879 and sold remedies. He “pregonaba tener bálsamos para curar todos los padecimientos conocidos y por conocer” (proclaimed that he had balms to cure every ailment known and yet to be known). This origin rests on popular history, and the spelling of his name varies.

Twenty-Seven Years of 24 Horas

Televisa’s newscast 24 Horas stayed on the air for 27 years, from September 1970 to January 1998. El Universal calls its presenter, Jacobo Zabludovsky, the first journalist to have a newscast in prime time on Televisa.

Contests of the Spoken Word

In 2026, the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) holds an inter-polytechnic declamation contest named after the poet Juana de Ibarbourou. Its stated aim is “fomentar e impulsar la comunicación oral de la comunidad estudiantil del IPN” (to foster and promote oral communication in the IPN’s student community).

The newspaper El Universal organizes a Contest of Oratory and Public Debate with state rounds. In 2019, a student of the Universidad de las Américas Puebla won the Puebla round.

Today

In the presidential campaign of 2000, Vicente Fox had a day that became known as the martes negro, the black Tuesday. Expansión describes it as the day “cuando Fox sólo atinaba a responder con un monosílabo” (when Fox could only manage to answer with a single syllable).

According to Expansión, a marketing strategy turned the black Tuesday into a martes de la suerte, a lucky Tuesday. Within three days of campaign messages, hoy, “today,” became Fox’s campaign cry. It replaced the earlier ya, “now.”

Levers and Good Trees

For a study published in 2009, two researchers asked 500 adults in Aguascalientes about 60 popular sayings related to corruption. One was Más vale tener palancas que dinero, “it is better to have levers than money.” 83 percent of respondents linked it to corruption.

Another was El que a buen árbol se arrima, buena sombra le cobija, “whoever draws close to a good tree is sheltered by good shade.” 76 percent said they had used it.

The Gesticulator

Rodolfo Usigli wrote El gesticulador in 1938. César Rubio, an unemployed professor, has the same name as a missing hero of the Revolution. A professor from Harvard mistakes him for the hero, and Rubio plays along.

The National Institute of Fine Arts dates the premiere to 1947, at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. The chronology of the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes also records an earlier staging in Chihuahua, on December 1, 1944.

Claiming Influence

Article 221 of Mexico’s Federal Penal Code defines the crime of tráfico de influencia, influence peddling. It also covers the private person who, without legal authority to take part in a public matter, “afirme tener influencia” (claims to have influence) over the officials who decide it. The penalty is two to six years in prison and a fine.

The Bone

In Mexican political talk, a government post can be called a hueso, a “bone.” A column in El Siglo de Torreón describes politicians who “se dan codazos, trompadas y zancadillas en defensa del hueso” (elbow, punch and trip each other in defense of the bone).

Chilango’s satirical Manual del político mexicano speaks of “el poder del hueso,” the power of the bone. It explains that a politician’s “amistades son más bien alianzas, y los favores vienen incluidos en el paquete” (friendships are rather alliances, and the favors come included in the package).

Seventy-Two Months

Article 23 of Mexico’s law on credit information companies requires the credit bureaus to keep a person’s credit history “al menos durante un plazo de setenta y dos meses” (for a period of at least seventy-two months). N+ explains that debts above 1,000 UDIS are removed after six years in the database of the Buró de Crédito.

A person with unpaid debts is said to estar en el Buró, to be in the bureau. N+ and Xataka both remind readers that the bureau “no es una lista negra” (is not a blacklist).