Mexico’s consumer protection agency, Profeco, runs the Buró Comercial. According to Expansión, it is a website that shows which companies have a registered adhesion contract, and “también si han tenido quejas u otros procedimientos” (also whether they have had complaints or other proceedings).
Like a Dog
President José López Portillo promised to defend the peso “como un perro,” like a dog. Excélsior dates the phrase to August 17, 1981. Expansión places it before his last government report, without giving a date.
The crisis that followed, Expansión writes, helped “devaluar en más de 400% el valor de nuestra moneda” (devalue our currency by more than 400 percent).
One Hundred Commitments
On December 1, 2018, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador made 100 commitments in the Zócalo. A year later, he said he had fulfilled 89 of them.
On September 1, 2021, he said: “De los 100 compromisos que hice en el Zócalo hemos cumplido la gran mayoría 98, sólo tenemos pendientes dos” (Of the 100 commitments I made in the Zócalo, we have fulfilled the great majority, 98. Only two are pending). These counts are his own. No independent count was found.
Build a Reputation
Cría fama y échate a dormir, “build a reputation and lie down to sleep.” El Imparcial explains that the saying “hace referencia a la reputación” (refers to reputation) and to how hard it is to change an image once someone has created it.
The newspaper notes that the saying comes from Spanish tradition. It can be used as a warning or with irony.
The Wells of Baján
On March 21, 1811, at Acatita de Baján in Coahuila, the royalist officer Ignacio Elizondo captured Miguel Hidalgo, Ignacio Allende and other insurgent leaders. He had pretended that he wanted to join them. In his own report, he describes a reception “con apariencia de un recibimiento obsequioso” (with the appearance of an obliging welcome).
The historical calendar of Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission reads: “Allende fue traicionado por el teniente coronel Ignacio Elizondo en Acatita de Baján, Coahuila” (Allende was betrayed by Lieutenant Colonel Ignacio Elizondo at Acatita de Baján, Coahuila).
Chinameca
In 1919, Jesús Guajardo pretended to break with General Pablo González in order to win the trust of Emiliano Zapata. México Desconocido writes that he gained it “con visitas, pláticas y pruebas de colaboración” (with visits, talks and proofs of collaboration). On April 10, 1919, Zapata came to the gate of the Hacienda de Chinameca, in Morelos, and was shot.
According to México Desconocido, Guajardo received “50 mil pesos en monedas de oro” (50,000 pesos in gold coins).
Smuggling and Betrayal
Contrabando y traición, “smuggling and betrayal,” is the title song of a Los Tigres del Norte album, written by Ángel González. Sopitas dates the album to 1974, and Posta to 1973. The song tells of Emilio Varela and Camelia la Texana, a smuggling couple. Emilio wants to leave Camelia for his true love in San Francisco. Feeling betrayed, Camelia kills him and flees with the money.
Sopitas calls it one of the most important songs of the group’s career, a song that gave “un nuevo auge a los corridos mexicanos” (a new boom to Mexican corridos).
Justice and Grace
A los amigos, justicia y gracia. “For friends, justice and grace.”
A los enemigos, la ley a secas. “For enemies, the law and nothing more.”
Some Mexican columnists attribute the phrase to Benito Juárez. In Forbes México, one columnist calls it “probablemente apócrifo” (probably apocryphal). No source found names its real author.
Malinchismo
Malinchismo takes its name from La Malinche, the interpreter of Hernán Cortés. The Diccionario del español de México defines it as the inclination “a preferir lo extranjero o al extranjero” (to prefer what is foreign, or the foreigner).
BBC Mundo writes of La Malinche: “En el imaginario colectivo de México, aún hoy es vista como la mayor traidora de la historia del país” (In Mexico’s collective imagination, she is still seen today as the greatest traitor in the country’s history).
Five Letters of Reference
For the election of judges by popular vote, Article 96 of the Constitution asks candidates for the Supreme Court for an essay and for five letters of reference. They must send “cinco cartas de referencia de sus vecinos, colegas o personas que respalden su idoneidad para desempeñar el cargo” (five letters of reference from their neighbors, colleagues or persons who vouch for their suitability for the office). The call for candidates repeated the requirement.
In November 2024, Magistrate Maribel Méndez de Lara, of the evaluation committee of the Legislative Branch, said that the committees would check the letters by telephone with the people who had signed them.