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).