Papelito habla, “a little paper talks.” A 2025 lesson for the second year of secondary school, in the Nueva Escuela Mexicana materials of the Ministry of Public Education, takes the saying as its title.
Among its examples are spoken promises such as “¡Te doy mi palabra!” (I give you my word!). It explains that the value of such words has moved to the documents of everyday life, such as receipts and contracts.
Article 250 of Mexico’s Federal Penal Code punishes anyone who claims the standing of a professional without the legal title. The penalty is one to six years in prison and a fine.
The title rests on the cédula profesional, which the Ministry of Public Education issues through its Directorate General of Professions. The cédula is required in fields such as health, law, architecture and engineering.
In 2022, the linguists Flores Treviño and González Salinas published a study of the phrase no sé, “I don’t know,” in the journal Onomázein. They analyzed 12 interviews from a corpus of spoken Spanish recorded in Monterrey. The most frequent use of no sé was to soften what the speaker said.
The authors describe it as a strategy that protects “la imagen de ambos dialogantes” (the face of both speakers).
In 2017, the linguists José María Infante Bonfiglio and María Eugenia Flores Treviño, of the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, published “Los que dicen que sí sin decir sí” (Those who say yes without saying yes), a study of softened speech by Mexican politicians.
One example is a politician asked whether he would run for mayor again. He answered: “no me puedo destapar, si me destapo me voy a congelar” (I cannot uncover myself, if I uncover myself I will freeze). To uncover oneself is to declare a candidacy. “Eludir es un modo de soslayar las intenciones reales” (Evading is a way of sidestepping one’s real intentions), they write.