Mexico, Leadership, Personal Authority

Let’s Go with Pancho Villa

¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa! was directed by Fernando de Fuentes and released in 1936. It is based on a novel by Rafael F. Muñoz. Six friends from the village of San Pablo, the Leones de San Pablo, join the División del Norte of Francisco Villa in 1914. After the battle of Torreón, the three survivors become Dorados, members of Villa’s elite troops.

Near the end, Villa orders Tiburcio Maya, the last of the friends still with him, to burn a sick comrade alive. Tiburcio kills the man first. Villa then tells him that he is no longer welcome in the army. Tiburcio goes back to San Pablo alone.

Tata

As president, Lázaro Cárdenas traveled through the states and met people directly. A text of the UNAM’s Colegio de Ciencias y Humanidades says that he “recorrió el país escuchando, discutiendo y atendiendo quejas, peticiones y protestas” (traveled the country listening to, discussing and attending to complaints, petitions and protests). He also opened the National Palace to groups of peasants to hear their petitions.

He was given the title Tata. In July 2023, a Purépecha community gave Claudia Sheinbaum the title Nana. Infobae reported that before her, only Cárdenas had received such a title.

The Most Trusted Institution

In the Edelman Trust Barometer 2026 for Mexico, 81 percent of employed respondents said they trust mi empleador, “my employer.” The Mexican report calls the employer “la institución con mayor nivel de confianza en México” (the institution with the highest level of trust in Mexico).

Trust in business in general was 66 percent, in NGOs 62 percent, in the media 57 percent and in government 43 percent. The question about the employer was asked only of people who work for an organization.

Leaving the Boss

In March 2023, Emprendedor.com reported a survey by the job site Computrabajo on why people in Mexico quit their jobs. The most common reason was malos jefes, bad bosses, named by 43 percent. The article sums it up: “4 de cada 10 trabajadores han renunciado a causa de un liderazgo negativo” (4 in 10 workers have resigned because of negative leadership).

The article does not give the size of the sample or the dates of the survey.

Villistas, Zapatistas, Carrancistas

The forces of the Mexican Revolution took their names from their leaders. The villistas followed Francisco Villa and his División del Norte. The zapatistas followed Emiliano Zapata in Morelos. The carrancistas followed Venustiano Carranza, the Primer Jefe, the First Chief. The obregonistas followed Álvaro Obregón.

A teaching text of UNAM describes General Saturnino Cedillo as passing from zapatista to villista and finally to obregonista.

Employees of Trust

Mexico’s Federal Labor Law has a legal category called trabajadores de confianza, “employees of trust.” Article 9 says the category depends on the nature of the work: direction, inspection, supervision and control of a general nature, and work related to the employer’s own personal affairs within the company.

Article 185 lets the employer end the employment of such a worker “if there is a reasonable motive for loss of trust,” even when it does not match the causes for dismissal listed in Article 47.