Foreign Native

Convenience stores have come a long way in Mexico, expanding over the years so that now there are thousands of them all over the cities. To a certain extent, they have taken away custom from the traditional “tienditas,” the neighborhood shops that had already been losing ground to the big supermarket chains. Urban people do [...]

In Mexico there are two ways of letting people know that something isn’t working properly. No sirve, from the verb servir, literally means “it doesn’t serve,” or properly translated “it’s no use.” No funciona, means it’s not functioning, or is out of order. Often in Mexico people will say – or scrawl on a piece [...]