Mexico - understand-culture

The Trackers of El Fuerte

In 2014, Mirna Nereida Medina Quiñónez began to search for her missing son, Roberto Corrales. In El Fuerte, Sinaloa, she led a group of searchers called Las Rastreadoras, the trackers. In September 2016, La Jornada reported that the group had grown from about 30 people to almost 300, and that it had found about 60 bodies in at least 50 graves. (Video in Spanish.)

She said: “Me hice rastreadora porque el gobierno no investiga y porque aquí la policía está metida en la mayoría de los casos” (I became a tracker because the government does not investigate, and because here the police are involved in most cases).

In April 2026, Uno TV reported that more than 200 search collectives were registered in 2024. Andrea Horcasitas of the Universidad Iberoamericana called it “una cifra conservadora” (a conservative figure).

Political Skulls

Calaveritas are short verses written for the Day of the Dead. In 2017, a secretariat of the national executive committee of the PRD, the Party of the Democratic Revolution, held a literary contest called Calaveritas políticas 2017, political skulls. Entries had to be political verses of “diez o doce estrofas de cuatro versos” (ten or twelve stanzas of four lines), and they could refer to political figures.

The jury judged creativity, originality, humor and rhyme. The prizes were 3,000, 2,000 and 1,000 pesos.

Godparents of the Fifteenth Birthday

At a Mexican fiesta de quince años, the party for a girl’s fifteenth birthday, separate padrinos and madrinas, godfathers and godmothers, take charge of parts of the celebration. In the UNAM journal Decires, Lorena Favier lists godparents for the religious service, the dress, the medal, the crown, the shoes, the cake, the photographs, the keepsakes and the invitations. They are often chosen among relatives, friends and neighbors.

“Se puede apadrinar prácticamente todo en una fiesta de quince años” (Practically everything at a fifteenth birthday party can be sponsored), she writes. In a 2018 thesis on the quince años in Necaxa, Puebla, the padrinos de velación pay for the Mass and decorate the church. A dress there costs from 8,000 to 15,000 pesos, and sometimes up to 20,000.

Three for One

In 2002, the federal government began a program for clubs of Mexican migrants. The clubs chose the localities and the projects in their home regions. The federal government, the state, the municipality and the club then paid for each project together.

The finance ministry of Oaxaca describes the rule: “Por cada peso que aportan los migrantes, los gobiernos Federal, Estatal y Municipal ponen 3 pesos” (For each peso the migrants contribute, the federal, state and municipal governments put in 3 pesos).

The program became known as the Programa 3×1 para Migrantes, three for one for migrants. It received no funds for 2020, and the federal budget structure dropped it that year.

Women Who Pay for Each Other

In 2023, Expansión described a group of 20 women in Santa Cruz, Etla, in Oaxaca. Together they hold one loan of about 400,000 pesos from Compartamos Banco, which they divide among themselves. The group commits to weekly payments, “y si alguien se atrasa: todos pagan esa deuda” (and if someone falls behind, everyone pays that debt). (Video in Spanish.)

Gentera, the parent company of Compartamos Banco, says it offers loans that are “principalmente grupales” (mainly group loans). In its 2022 annual report, its product Crédito Mujer had 1,749,106 clients in Mexico, about two thirds of Gentera’s clients there.

The Vocabulary of Godparents and Friends

El que tiene padrinos se bautiza, “the one who has godparents gets baptized.” Sin padrino, no hay bautizo, “without a godfather, there is no baptism.” Herón Pérez Martínez of El Colegio de Michoacán records both in his studies of the Mexican refranero, the body of popular sayings. He calls the padrino “pariente social muy apreciado en la cultura popular mexicana” (a social relative highly valued in Mexican popular culture).

Cuatismo, from cuate, friend, is the tendency to favor friends, above all at work, according to the Diccionario del español de México of El Colegio de México. A recomendado is a person who comes with a recommendation. The dictionary’s example reads: “Son recomendados del ministro o parientes del subsecretario o amigotes del presidente” (They are people recommended by the minister, or relatives of the undersecretary, or cronies of the president).

The President’s Plan

Article 4 of Mexico’s Planning Law states: “Es responsabilidad del Ejecutivo Federal conducir la planeación nacional del desarrollo” (It is the responsibility of the federal executive to lead national development planning). Under Article 21, the president sends the Plan Nacional de Desarrollo, the national development plan, to the Chamber of Deputies by the last working day of February of the year after taking office.

The ministries and agencies then write their own programs. Article 30 gives them six months after the publication of the plan.

The Six-Year Plan

In December 1933, the convention of the ruling National Revolutionary Party (PNR) in Querétaro approved a Plan Sexenal, a plan for the six-year presidential term of 1934 to 1940. Lázaro Cárdenas was the party’s candidate for president. According to INEHRM, the government’s institute for historical studies, the plan was the platform of his candidacy.

Cárdenas won the election of July 1, 1934, and took office on December 1, 1934. Sources give the date of the plan’s approval as December 6 or December 7, 1933.

Waiting for the Line

Tirar línea, soltar línea, recibir línea: to throw the line, to release the line, to receive the line. The Diccionario del español de México of El Colegio de México defines the popular expressions as telling someone how to behave or which guidelines to follow, or listening to such guidelines and obeying them.

The dictionary gives two examples. “El director general nos tiró línea sobre qué hacer en caso de huelga” (The director general gave us the line on what to do in case of a strike). “Estaban ahí nomás, esperando recibir línea del diputado” (They were just standing there, waiting to receive the line from the deputy).

Having Acuerdo

In Mexican offices, an acuerdo is also a meeting. The Diccionario del español de México defines it as a “reunión de funcionarios de una institución en la que se resuelven problemas o se conviene algo sobre ellos” (meeting of officials of an institution in which problems are resolved or something is agreed about them). The dictionary gives the phrases tener acuerdo and estar en acuerdo.

The internal regulations of the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection, of 2019, make this a duty at each level. The minister must acordar, agree, with the president. The undersecretaries must “acordar con el Secretario los asuntos relevantes de su competencia” (agree with the minister on the relevant matters within their competence).

The heads of units must “acordar con su superior jerárquico la resolución de los asuntos relevantes a su cargo” (agree with their hierarchical superior on the resolution of the relevant matters in their charge).