Mexico, Decision-Making - understand-culture

The Convent Kitchen

In the most popular legend of mole poblano, told by Uno TV, a viceroy paid an unexpected visit to a convent in Puebla. The nuns “improvisaron un platillo con lo que tenían a la mano” (improvised a dish with what they had at hand): dried chiles, spices, stale bread, seeds, chocolate and more. México Desconocido places the legend in the Convent of Santa Rosa and names the nun Sor Andrea de la Asunción and the year 1685.

The food magazine Grupo Animal says that these accounts should be taken as anecdotes, “sin ningún rigor histórico” (without any historical rigor). It cites Ricardo Muñoz Zurita, who calls the Santa Rosa origin “sólo leyendas” (only legends).

Nachos

In 1943, a group of wives of US military personnel came into the Club Victoria restaurant in Piedras Negras, Coahuila. According to México Desconocido, the kitchen did not have the ingredients for the usual menu. Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya took tortillas cut into triangles and fried, added cheese and strips of chile, and put them in the oven.

An Extra Car

In 1989, Mexico City introduced Hoy No Circula, “today it does not drive.” The program bans most drivers from using their cars one weekday a week, according to the last digit of the license plate. Chilango writes that “mucha gente, que no quería quedarse sin coche, optó por comprar un auto extra, aunque fuera viejito” (many people, who did not want to be left without a car, chose to buy an extra one, even an old one).

In 2008, Lucas Davis published a study of the program in the Journal of Political Economy. He reports that evidence from additional sources indicates that the restrictions led to more vehicles in circulation and to a shift toward high-emission vehicles.

The Banner from Atotonilco

The conspirators of Querétaro planned to begin their uprising in December 1810, according to México Desconocido. Their plan was discovered in September. When Miguel Hidalgo learned of it, he began the movement in Dolores, on September 16.

On the march, at the sanctuary of Atotonilco, Hidalgo took a banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe, according to INEHRM, the government’s institute for historical studies. A history booklet on the government portal gob.mx says that the movement gathered under this emblem, which “se dice” (it is said) came from the parish of Atotonilco.

The Controlled Accident

David Alfaro Siqueiros called one of his techniques accidente controlado, the controlled accident. Nitrocellulose lacquers, “también llamadas piroxilinas” (also called pyroxylins), played a central part in it. They were used for car paint and nail varnish. He threw the paint with a brocha de aire, an air brush. Jackson Pollock attended an experimental workshop held in New York.

In 2015, a UNAM team led by Roberto Zenit explained the physics behind the technique, a fluid phenomenon called the Rayleigh-Taylor instability.

Eight from the City

In July 2024, Expansión reported that Claudia Sheinbaum would bring eight people from her time as head of government of Mexico City into her federal cabinet.

Among them were Rosa Icela Rodríguez, her first secretary of government in the capital, and Omar García Harfuch, whom she named the city’s security secretary in 2019. Ernestina Godoy had led the city’s prosecutor’s office. Jesús Esteva had run its public works ministry since the start of her administration in December 2018.

Avoiding Disagreement in Puebla

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).

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.

No Waiting Rooms

In January 1935, President Lázaro Cárdenas visited Morelos. The newspaper El Nacional wrote that people there had found “un medio todavía más eficaz y más rápido que el telégrafo para la formulación de sus quejas” (a means even more effective and faster than the telegraph for making their complaints). “Ni antesalas, ni trámites, ni oficinas” (No waiting rooms, no paperwork, no offices).

At the end of the month, the paper printed a box titled “¡Cómo ver al Presidente!” (How to see the President!) for the thousands who wanted to bring him their complaints. The historian Jacqueline Covo concludes that the box showed “que más vale pasar por los intermediarios” (that it is better to go through the intermediaries).

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.