Mexico, Quality, Presentation - understand-culture

The Love of Form

In “Máscaras mexicanas,” a chapter of El laberinto de la soledad, Octavio Paz writes that the pre-eminence of the closed over the open shows itself not only as impassivity and distrust, irony and wariness, but “como el amor a la forma” (as the love of form).

He continues: “La doble influencia indígena y española se conjugan en nuestra predilección por la ceremonia, las fórmulas y el orden” (The double Indigenous and Spanish influence come together in our preference for ceremony, formulas and order).

The Vocabulary of a Good Impression

A detalle, a detail, is a small part that adorns or completes the look of something, as in arreglar una casa con muchos detalles, to fix up a house with many details. It is also a gesture of delicacy, courtesy or attention: “Tuvo el detalle de hablarme para desearme feliz viaje” (He had the detalle of calling me to wish me a good trip). A detallista cares about details.

Arreglarse, to fix oneself up, means to take care of one’s appearance “para lucir bien o tener buena presentación” (to look good or to have a good presentation). Lucirse, to shine, means to win the attention and esteem of others with a successful performance: “Los alumnos se lucieron ante el inspector” (The pupils shone before the inspector).

Estar de manteles largos, “to be in long tablecloths,” means to prepare a meal with luxury and abundance to celebrate an event. Estrenar is to use something new for the first time. México Desconocido writes of New Year’s Eve: “Es común que todos estrenemos ropa para vernos guapos” (It is common for all of us to wear new clothes to look good).

Even in Silk

Aunque la mona se vista de seda, mona queda. “Even if the monkey dresses in silk, she is still a monkey.”

A lesson on Mexican sayings in the Nueva Escuela Mexicana materials of the Ministry of Public Education explains it: “Significa que cada uno es como es, y no podemos ocultar o cambiar con mejoras meramente externas” (It means that each one is as one is, and we cannot hide or change it with merely external improvements).

Chiles in Walnut Sauce

According to the best-known story, the nuns of the convent of Santa Mónica in Puebla created chiles en nogada, stuffed chiles in a walnut sauce, in 1821 for Agustín de Iturbide. They decorated the dish in the three colors of the Trigarante Army, green, white and red. (Video in Spanish.)

The story is uncertain. Excélsior writes that it is not known which version is true. México Desconocido cites the historian Merlo Juárez, who says that the dish existed before 1821 and was not created specifically for Iturbide.

A Life Without Beauty

On June 3, 1980, Luis Barragán accepted the Pritzker Prize at Dumbarton Oaks in the United States. He was its second winner. In his speech he named the words that had disappeared from architecture publications. The first was belleza, beauty.

People have always honored beauty, he said, “ya en la humilde herramienta, ya en los egregios templos y palacios” (in the humble tool as in the great temples and palaces). “La vida privada de belleza no merece llamarse humana” (Life deprived of beauty does not deserve to be called human).