Mexico, Feedback, Trust and Candor

Masks

In El laberinto de la soledad, Octavio Paz describes a guarded face: “El mexicano se me aparece como un ser que se encierra y se preserva: máscara el rostro, máscara la sonrisa” (The Mexican appears to me as a being who shuts himself in and protects himself: the face a mask, the smile a mask).

Paz finds the same defense in popular speech. “El ideal de la ‘hombría’ consiste en no ‘rajarse’ nunca. Los que se ‘abren’ son cobardes” (The ideal of manliness consists in never “cracking open.” Those who “open up” are cowards). He explains rajarse as “permitir que el mundo exterior penetre en su intimidad” (to let the outside world into one’s intimacy).

The Fiesta

In the chapter “Todos Santos, Día de Muertos” of El laberinto de la soledad, Octavio Paz turns to the fiesta. In its ceremonies, national, local, of the guild or of the family, he writes, “el mexicano se abre al exterior” (the Mexican opens himself to the outside).

In the fiesta, according to Paz, “el mexicano no intenta regresar, sino salir de sí mismo, sobrepasarse” (the Mexican does not try to return, but to go out of himself, to surpass himself).

Children and Drunks

Los niños y los borrachos siempre dicen la verdad. “Children and drunks always tell the truth.” Excélsior used the saying to open a report about a boy who, in the middle of an interview, revealed that his father had been unfaithful with the boy’s godmother: “Bien dicen que los niños y los borrachos siempre dicen la verdad” (They are right when they say that children and drunks always tell the truth).

Outside the Office

In September 2018, Raciel Sosa wrote in Forbes México about silence in companies. “A menudo los colaboradores de una empresa no transmiten lo que piensan” (Often the employees of a company do not pass on what they think). Instead, he observed, “los empleados de una organización hablan de lo que les inquieta y preocupa, fuera de la oficina” (the employees of an organization talk about what troubles and worries them outside the office).

The Vocabulary of Trust

Confianza means trust. It also means familiarity between people.

De confianza, a person one can rely on, or a close and intimate one.

En confianza, in private, between people who trust each other.

Agarrar confianza, to grow at ease with someone over time.

Pásale, con confianza, “come in, make yourself at home,” said to a guest.

Tomarse confianzas, to take liberties, to act with more familiarity than the relationship allows.