Respecting Mexico's Culture

Professional consultants to foreign entrepreneurs in Mexico agree that a major cause of business failure is an inability to adapt to the culture. Aside from business failures, retirees often move back to the U.S. for the same reasons of incompatibility. What is it that makes the culture so difficult to transcend for some and not for others? I can respond to that question with personal experiences and those of my clients.

Moving to Ensenada for me was relatively easy, culturally speaking, since I am a first generation U.S. Hispanic. However, I quickly learned that although I speak Spanish and share some cultural heritage I am very Gringo in the way I view work and interpersonal relations. In brief, I had a lot to learn in order to assimilate properly and survive in business. The following are personal experiences and those of my clients regarding culture clash.

It is important to realize that Mexico's culture is much more conservative than the culture North of the border. Moving to Mexico from my home in Berkeley, I continued a twenty year exercise routine of running daily. I sweat profusely and as a result ran shirtless winter and summer. I trained this way all over the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico and nobody cared. For months, as I ran through the streets of Ensenada, men whistled and taunted me while young women also whistled and shouted things like "oh baby".

I assumed all the fuss was over the fact that I was a runner in a country where jogging had not reached popular acceptance. I was met with similar reactions, or worse, in the U.S. when I became a pioneer long distance runner in the sixties. My ugliest experience was with a couple of rednecks in Crossett Arkansas who ran me off the road with their pickup truck.. However, all that changed as jogging became popular in the seventies.

Running the streets of Ensenada I responded the same way to Mexicano hecklers as I always had to others in the past. I returned their jeers with epithets or simply gave "the finger". Women hecklers, who I assumed were shouting approval of my body, I responded to with a grateful smile or a gracias. Mentioning this boorish behavior to my Mexicana girlfriend she informed me that my assumptions were incorrect. In fact it was not a reaction to my running but a negative response to my public nudity. The next day, wearing a tank top, the catcalls stopped: I had been the uncivilized barbarian.

As a businessman in the U.S. a common way to release my stress of things gone wrong was to curse or explode emotionally. I noticed that when I did this around employees in Mexico their reaction was a look of shock mixed with bemused curiosity; as if maybe I had lost all control. Colleagues in the U.S. realized this was merely a way of "blowing off steam". Mexicanos are cool in their reaction to stress and things gone wrong. We as Northamericans tend to react "hotly". In an argument with my wife, a native of Ensenada, raising my voice stops communication; it is unacceptable behavior to her and most Mexicanos.

A client of mine, a brash, sarcastic, New Yorker started a data entry business in Ensenada that quickly became successful. Ensenada was ideal for his business: low paid (by U.S. standards), computer literate and bilingual employees were readily available from the student labor pool found in the four universities that exist in this town. Also, Ensenada's proximity to the border made it easy to transport computer discs to the U.S. duty free. Within three months the business went from three data entry people to forty, working three shifts to accommodate the student's class schedules. My client easily won contracts from corporations and large non profit organizations who needed to convert massive paper archives to computer memory.

Myself, and my client's gringo supervisor, counseled Mr. New York that his shouting at employees and use of sarcasm was degrading and could result in negative consequences for the business. He did not change his behavior and the employees got even. In addition to the data they were supposed to enter for the clients they added their own bits of commentary: profanity disparaging my client's mother and what they were sure was his birth out of wedlock. In addition to sabotaging the work it was very embarrassing to my client who had to explain why his employees would insult him in this way.

The business was shut down before it's first year anniversary by the tax man. The middle aged, male gringo supervisor blew the whistle on him for cheating on tax returns. This was in retaliation for firing the supervisor's student boyfriend in a rude manner.

The Cortesia

"Gracias" and "por favor" (please) are the phrases that always accompany asking an employee, or anyone, to do something. "Con su permiso" (with your permission) is always used when excusing yourself from a social or work world encounter. Mexican are trained to be very polite and formal in their discourse. When entering a room, whether in a public place with strangers or with people you know, you always address those present with buenos dias, buenas tardes or buenas noches. Northamericans typically enter a room of strangers without saying anything and often do the same with friends; maybe we will grunt a hi or hello. We are very casual and that informality is perceived by Mexicanos as crude; a lack of gentility and breeding in social intercourse.

Our communication style is informal and we often don't appreciate how important formalities are to Mexicanos. In addition to being polite, being humble is also a cultural virtue. A Mexicano will rarely talk about his house, it is always su casa, your house. Modesty and humility are expected of educated and well bred Mexicanos. When discussing someone who is likable, Mexicanos will often refer to that person as "muy sensillo" - very simple.

U.S. folks are taught that a little bragging doesn't hurt; whether we are bragging about ourselves or others. We have a saying, "If you don't blow your own horn someone will use it as a spittoon". In Mexico, if you brag about yourself or flatter the person you are talking to it is embarrassing. The Mexicano saying is: "hechando demasiada crema al taco", putting too much cream on the taco. I believe this differing view of modesty accounts for Gringos being the world's greatest salesmen while Mexicanos are slow to accept sales and marketing in their culture.

Another aspect of LA CORTESIA, that baffles Northamericans, is the avoidance of conflict. We are trained to be assertive. To express what we believe and what we want or don't want from another person. The Mexicano avoids conflict or displeasing the other person in order to preserve and respect graciousness; which is culturally more important that being candid and direct. As a result the U.S. businessman often believes he has succeeded in convincing a Mexicano to accept a proposal when in fact the Mexicano is just being polite and telling the person what he or she wants to hear.

When phone calls go unanswered or an appointment not kept, the Gringo believes the Mexicano is being flaky, dishonest or irresponsible. In fact, it is just a polite way of avoiding a confrontation or an open refusal to your offer which is considered rude behavior.

I can usually predict, within the first interview, whether or not a foreigner will succeed culturally in Mexico. If the person exhibits traits of being inflexible, impatient, domineering or arrogant trouble is ahead. If the prospective client has a superior attitude towards Mexico and is quick to criticize - FORGET IT!

Mexico is not everybody's cultural cup of tea and the quicker that is realized the better. However, if you are willing to learn from Mexicanos about civility the payoff is enormous. I feel I am a better person for having assimilated into this culture and I still have a lot to learn. Inside, I will always be the cocky, street tough Oakland homeboy. What has changed is that I monitor that behavior with the graciousness this ancient and beautiful culture has taught me. I want people to think of me as: "muy sensillo". In our souls I think we are all simple people. We just need the cultural training to exhibit that in our social discourse. But if you can't "get off it", if you think your attitude is you don't go into business in Mexico.