Mexico - understand-culture

Payment Deferrals

On March 25, 2020, Mexico’s banking regulator, the CNBV, announced that banks could defer payments of capital, interest or both for up to four months, with a possible extension of two more. The measure covered mortgages, consumer loans, credit cards and business loans that were current at the end of February 2020 and whose borrowers had lost income.

According to a CNBV study, deferred business loans made up 16 to 17 percent of the business loan portfolio between March and June 2020.

Shame

In Mexico, pena means shame or embarrassment. The 2001 edition of the dictionary of the Spanish Academy lists this sense for the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico. Me da pena means “I am embarrassed.” Qué pena means “how embarrassing.” Pena ajena is the embarrassment a person feels for someone else.

Postpone the Rent

On March 27, 2020, Claudia Sheinbaum, head of government of Mexico City, asked landlords to postpone the rent of tenants with lower incomes. “Es el llamado a la solidaridad con personas que tienen menores ingresos,” she said, a call for solidarity with people who have lower incomes. She compared the request with the banks, which had postponed payments by four months.

The request had no legal force.

Making Somebody Nobody

In El laberinto de la soledad, Octavio Paz recalls the answer of a maid who was asked who was in the next room: “No es nadie, señor, soy yo” (It is nobody, sir, it is me).

In the same chapter, “Máscaras mexicanas,” Paz describes el ninguneo: “El ninguneo es una operación que consiste en hacer de Alguien, Ninguno” (Ninguneo is an operation that consists of making Somebody into Nobody).

Not in a Position to Pay

On August 20, 1982, Finance Secretary Jesús Silva Herzog told the international financial community that Mexico “ya no estaba en condiciones de cubrir el servicio completo de su deuda externa,” was no longer in a position to cover the full service of its foreign debt. Earlier that month, the Bank of Mexico had only 180 million dollars left, against about 300 million dollars falling due within days.

According to the historian Carlos Marichal, of El Colegio de México, Mexico did not formally suspend payments. Its first moratorium lasted about six months, until January 1983.

The Workplace Standard on Psychosocial Risk

Since October 23, 2019, Mexican employers have had to comply with the official standard NOM-035-STPS-2018 on psychosocial risk at work. It defines workplace violence as acts of harassment or mistreatment that can harm a worker’s integrity or health. Mistreatment includes “insultos, burlas, humillaciones y/o ridiculizaciones” (insults, mockery, humiliation and/or ridicule).

One of the standard’s questionnaires asks workers about statements such as “Recibo críticas constantes a mi persona y/o trabajo” (I receive constant criticism of my person and/or my work).

Something Extra

A pilón is the small extra that a Mexican vendor adds to a purchase, such as one more quesadilla. An article in the journal of the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico defines it as “una cantidad extra de mercancía que el comerciante regala a su cliente en agradecimiento por su compra,” an extra quantity of goods that the vendor gives the customer in thanks for the purchase.

The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy lists a Mexican verb for the other side of the relationship. Amarchantarse means “hacerse cliente habitual de un comerciante,” to become a regular customer of a merchant.

Humiliating Punishment

On January 11, 2021, Mexico reformed its General Law on the Rights of Children and Adolescents and its Federal Civil Code to ban the corporal and humiliating punishment of children. Humiliating punishment is defined as any treatment that is “ofensivo, denigrante, desvalorizador, estigmatizante, ridiculizador y de menosprecio” (offensive, degrading, devaluing, stigmatizing, ridiculing and belittling).

Herod’s Law

Luis Estrada’s film La ley de Herodes (1999) is set in 1949. Juan Vargas, an honest clerk, is made mayor of the village of San Pedro de los Saguaros. His padrino político, his political godfather, is López, the private secretary of the governor. López advises him to use his power and gives him a gun. By the end of the film, Vargas is a federal deputy.

According to El Universal, the state film institute IMCINE tried to pull the film from the Acapulco film festival in November 1999. The film went on to win nine Ariel awards.