Mexico, Hierarchy - understand-culture

Dinner with the Boss

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).

Licenciado

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.

Titles Instead of Names

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.

Usted Outside the Family

The linguist Cristal Cepeda has studied the use of usted in Mexico and other Latin American countries. She told Mexico News Daily that usted is used “with older people and authority figures, especially outside the family context.”

In Mexico City, tú is now “the most frequent, but not categorical, form of address.”

Bonds at Work

In February 2026, the job site OCC surveyed 2,930 workers in Mexico for its Termómetro Laboral. “Un 59% de los participantes indicó que sí ha generado vínculos con alguien de su espacio de trabajo” (59 percent of participants said they had formed a bond with someone at work). Of these, 29 percent had formed a close friendship. Seventy-one percent said that a friendship with the boss is possible without harm to the work.

Forty-one percent had formed no bond at work.

Usted for Elders

“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).

The Paperwork Coyote

In Mexico, a coyote de trámites is “el intermediario informal que se ofrece a resolver gestiones ante oficinas de gobierno” (the informal middleman who offers to sort out procedures at government offices), according to Cultura Colectiva. The coyote does this for money. In formal language, the same person is a gestor informal.

Obeyed and Not Complied With

Spanish colonial law gave officials a way to stop a royal order for a time. A royal declaration of 1509 says such orders “primero deben ser obedecidas y no cumplidas, y después consultadas” (must first be obeyed and not complied with, and then consulted on). The Recopilación of 1567 uses a similar formula: “que la tal carta sea obedecida y no cumplida.”

Between 1571 and 1574, the authorities of Mexico City, doctors included, applied the formula obedézcase pero no se cumpla, “let it be obeyed but not carried out,” in a dispute over medical practice. A study of the case sums it up: “obedecieron pero no cumplieron” (they obeyed but did not comply).

Strictly Personal

In 2019, the first year of López Obrador’s government, a series of senior officials resigned. Simón Levy, undersecretary of tourism, called his resignation “estrictamente personal” (strictly personal) and “irrevocable.” When Patricia Bugarín left as undersecretary of security, her ministry spoke of reasons that were “estrictamente personales.”

Two officials broke with this. On May 21, Germán Martínez left the IMSS, the social security institute, and called excessive savings in health “inhumano.” On July 9, Finance Secretary Carlos Urzúa wrote in his letter of resignation: “Discrepancias en materia económica hubo muchas” (There were many disagreements on economic matters).

Through Friends and Relatives

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.