Culture Snippets: Mexico

‘Culture snippets’ is our way of sharing snippets of insights into different countries. If you want to chat about how you can use these insights to inform your product and business decisions, feel free to get in touch.

Mexican culture prizes warmth and a sense of connectedness in social relations. It discourages bluntness. Many believed this was due to its rich pre-hispanic cultures. Saying No directly seems too strong, hence the saying "When 'si' means 'we’ll see'" (e.g. Saying yes to friend's weddings then find some excuses days/hours before or simply don't turn up makes it hard to plan for weddings in Mexico).

Trust is at the heart of Mexico’s challenges. People have strong relations with family and neighbours but don't trust the government, banks, police or strangers.

This is part of the reasons why cash (& cash-based payment methods, e.g. convenience-store payments) remains a widely employed or preferred form of payment, and it’s why keeping cash at home is still common among lower-income people.

Mexicans use the word ‘guardar’ (to keep) instead of ‘ahorrar’ (to save). For low-income families, savings is seen as something beyond their reach, unattainable. Instead, they KEEP or put money away for different projects, daily expenses and emergencies.

The Mexican law currently allows retirement funds (Affore) to be used in 2 cases: To pay for weddings and when the worker is unemployed. It means many Mexicans drain their retirement funds before retired.

Photos: Taken when we were on the ground helping our clients to understand more about their customers and markets in this country.