Sobremesa is the time spent talking at the table after a meal is over. Mexico News Daily calls it “a cultural tradition ingrained in Mexican culture.” A guest who gets up and leaves as soon as the food is finished will seem rude.
At a business meal, the article notes, “the sobremesa can be the weightiest part.”
On September 25, 2023, the business columnist Mauricio Candiani asked in El Financiero: “¿Invitarías a tu jefe a cenar a tu casa?” (Would you invite your boss to dinner at your home?). His answer was yes, “pero nunca forzada o conveniencieramente” (but never forced or for convenience). “Soy partidario de la socialización en casa” (I am in favor of socializing at home).
At work, he argued, it pays “construir puentes de armonía, confianza y entendimiento” (to build bridges of harmony, trust and understanding). He also drew a line: “Una cosa es gozar de un jefe cercano y otra es confundir cercanía con amistad” (It is one thing to enjoy a close boss and another to confuse closeness with friendship).
On December 1, 1946, Miguel Alemán Valdés became president of Mexico. He was a civilian and a law graduate of UNAM. According to México Desconocido, official protocol used his academic degree “como título de su investidura” (as the title of his office).
Many politicians then began to use licenciado as a title of prestige. Mi licenciado became “sinónimo de poder” (a synonym for power) in politics, the law and the bureaucracy. From there the use spread to the rest of society.
In Mexico, a university degree becomes a form of address. Licenciado or licenciada is used for “anyone who has a degree in any number of fields,” one guide explains. Engineers are addressed as ingeniero or ingeniera, and teachers, university professors included, as maestro or maestra. Another guide notes that calling someone simply Ingeniero is “completely acceptable” even when the speaker knows the person’s first name.
Article 250 of Mexico’s Federal Penal Code punishes anyone who claims the standing of a professional without the legal title. The penalty is one to six years in prison and a fine.
The title rests on the cédula profesional, which the Ministry of Public Education issues through its Directorate General of Professions. The cédula is required in fields such as health, law, architecture and engineering.
During the 2006 presidential campaign, President Vicente Fox criticized Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s plan to lower fuel prices. At an event in Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, López Obrador answered: “Cállate, chachalaca” (Shut up, chachalaca). The chachalaca is a noisy bird.
According to Expansión, many analysts later counted the remark among the mistakes of his campaign.
“Cuando llegues, o te vayas, saluda a todos” (When you arrive, or when you leave, greet everyone). This was one rule in a 2013 Chilango list on how to behave in the office.
The greeting is often physical. A 2025 Chilango column describes it: between women, a single kiss on the right cheek, and between men, a hug with a pat on the back.
“El respeto nos ayuda a vivir en armonía” (Respect helps us live in harmony) is a first-grade lesson of the Ministry of Public Education. It teaches children “frases de cortesía para saludar y despedirse” (courtesy phrases for greeting and saying goodbye). It also explains that “en español, los niños generalmente hablan a las personas mayores de ‘usted'” (in Spanish, children generally address older people as usted).
In August 2019, Mexico’s Labor Secretary, Luisa María Alcalde Luján, spoke at the ExpoEmpleo OCC job fair. According to Excélsior, she said that 56 percent of employed people in Mexico had found their job through personal contacts, friends or relatives. Only 25 percent of job seekers used private agencies or job boards.
To rent a home in Mexico City, a tenant is traditionally asked for an aval, a guarantor who owns property in the city or its metropolitan area and puts up the deeds. The custom is a rule of the market, not of the law. Landlords prefer a guarantor whose property is free of liens.
A tenant who has no such person can buy a póliza jurídica, a legal policy, for 30 to 50 percent of one month’s rent. In 2025, the magazine Expansión reported that a guarantor with property was increasingly hard to find.