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).
Article 42 of the Law of Discipline of the Army, Air Force and National Guard covers complaints. “El militar que tenga alguna queja en relación con las disposiciones superiores” (The member of the military who has a complaint about orders from above) “podrá acudir ante el superior inmediato” (may go to the immediate superior).
If the superior does not deal with it, the complaint can go higher, step by step, “hasta el Presidente de la República, si es necesario” (up to the President of the Republic, if necessary). The article was added in 2004.
Under the PRI, the president chose his successor in secret and revealed him later. The cartoonist Abel Quezada is credited with creating the figure of el tapado, “the covered one.” His best-known cartoon shows a hooded man smoking, with the line “El tapado fuma Elegantes” (The covered one smokes Elegantes).
While the name stayed covered, the press read the signs. In 2017, the political writer Carlos Castillo described how the media “interpretan señales, gestos y guiños” (interpret signals, gestures and winks) to guess the choice.
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.
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.
Hoy por ti, mañana por mí. “Today for you, tomorrow for me.” The saying goes with a favor that is given now and may be returned later.
Una mano lava la otra, y las dos lavan la cara. “One hand washes the other, and both wash the face.”
In 2019, BBC Mundo asked Mexican scholars why it is hard for Mexicans to say no. Alí Albarrán of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at UNAM said: “Decir que no a alguien que te está ofreciendo algo de buena voluntad es considerado una ofensa” (Saying no to someone who offers something in good will is considered an offense). The anthropologist Roger Bartra said that “it is not very polite to say no openly.”
The article describes the common solution: “para no decir no, dicen que sí, pero no ponen un plazo” (to avoid saying no, they say yes, but they set no date).