Amor con amor se paga. “Love is repaid with love.” On November 27, 2022, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador led a march through Mexico City from the Ángel de la Independencia to the Zócalo. According to EFE, “Amor con amor se paga,” he said at the start of his speech.
The First Job
In December 2022, Expansión reported on a national survey of graduates by the Universidad del Valle de México. Of the graduates surveyed, 34.7 percent had found their first job through a relative, a friend or an acquaintance. The headline credited the jobs to palancas, “levers.”
Camarillas
In 2012, the historian José Alfredo Gómez Estrada published Lealtades divididas. Camarillas y poder en México, 1913-1932 (Divided Loyalties. Camarillas and Power in Mexico).
A review in a Mexican history journal sums up his account of the camarillas: “son grupos pequeños unidos por relaciones densas, en los cuales hay un líder que desempeña el papel de mentor” (they are small groups bound by dense relationships, in which a leader plays the role of mentor).
“El intercambio de favores y recompensas entre líder y discípulos los transformó en fuertes lazos de lealtad” (The exchange of favors and rewards between leader and disciples turned them into strong bonds of loyalty).
Chocolate Cars
Autos chocolate are cars brought into Mexico from the United States without legal import papers. On January 19, 2022, the federal government published a decree to regularize them. The procedure cost 2,500 pesos and was to be open “hasta el 20 de julio de 2022” (until July 20, 2022). (Video in Spanish.)
The program went on well past that date. In January 2026, La Razón reported finance ministry figures: “se han legalizado un total de 2 millones 987 mil 839 vehículos” (a total of 2,987,839 vehicles have been legalized), with 7,302 million pesos collected.
Forgiven Taxes
In May 2019, Margarita Ríos-Farjat, head of the tax administration SAT, gave the total of taxes forgiven between 2007 and 2018. At current value, the condonations came to 400,902 million pesos, for 153,530 taxpayers. On May 20, 2019, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador signed a decree ending them. (Video in Spanish.)
On March 6, 2020, the Diario Oficial published a reform of Article 28 of the Constitution “en materia de condonación de impuestos” (on the forgiveness of taxes). The article now lists the condonation of taxes among the things it prohibits.
Twenty-Four Million Buildings
In October 2025, INSUS, the federal institute for land regularization, reported “alrededor de 24 millones de edificaciones potencialmente irregulares” (around 24 million potentially irregular buildings) in Mexico. According to Vanguardia, 93.5 percent came from sales without regularization and 6.5 percent from land invasions.
The institute added that “solo el 63 por ciento de ellas son aptas para regularización” (only 63 percent of them are suitable for regularization).
Called Early to Start Late
“Las reuniones, las citas, los compromisos fijados de antemano suelen empezar con una hora de retraso” (Meetings, appointments and commitments fixed in advance usually start an hour late). José E. Sánchez, a researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) in Tapachula, wrote this in the center’s magazine Ecofronteras.
He added that the person who arrives on time is surprised to wait an hour for the start, because the meeting is called earlier so that it can start an hour later.
Without a Board
In 2016, the consulting firm KPMG surveyed more than 200 directors and senior executives of family businesses in Mexico. Only 45 percent of the respondents had a governing body such as a board of directors.
Only 30 percent of the boards included independent members in their meetings. KPMG described “decisiones más o menos unilaterales tomadas por los dueños y directores” (more or less unilateral decisions taken by the owners and directors).
Thank You Yes or Thank You No
In Mexico, a plain gracias in answer to an offer can mean yes or no. In a guide published by Mexico News Daily in November 2024, Sarah DeVries describes her way around this. She asks: ¿Gracias “sí” o gracias “no”? The answer, she writes, is “almost always ‘Gracias, no.'”
The same guide lists other polite ways to decline. A lo mejor, “probably.” Déjame ver or déjame checar, “let me see” or “let me check.” Estamos en contacto, “we’ll be in touch.”
The Arrangements of 1929
On June 21, 1929, the Mexican government and the Catholic bishops reached the agreements that ended the Cristero War. They are known as los arreglos, the arrangements. The chief broker was the United States ambassador, Dwight Morrow. His main ally was a priest, Father John J. Burke of the National Catholic Welfare Conference.
The laws that had led to the suspension of public worship stayed in force. According to Bishop Pascual Díaz, one of the negotiators, the government committed to apply them “con una interpretación benévola” (with a benevolent interpretation).