Mexico Insight

We know, from our web site statistics and the many letters we receive, that there exists a healthy thirst for contemporary knowledge about Mexico. We also know that there are many people with knowledge about Mexico who, to now, have not been able to share it effectively and be properly rewarded for the time and [...]

Mexicana, until now Mexico’s largest airline by revenues and passenger numbers, has announced that the company will cease all flight operations as of 12-noon local time on Saturday, August 28th. The company’s regional and ‘low cost’ carriers, Mexicana Link and Mexicana Click, are also affected by the close-down. The announcement has come one week after the airline’s [...]

Following the announcement that Mexicana, Mexico’s largest airline, filed for bankruptcy protection, the company this week began to suspend flights, including some on key international routes connecting Mexico City to Canada, South America and Europe. The suspended flights include those connecting Mexico City to Madrid, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Bogotá and Costa Rica, as [...]

Cia. Mexicana de Aviacion, Mexico’s largest airline as measured by sales and passenger numbers filed for bankruptcy in Mexico City and for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in New York yesterday after it failed to reach a deal with trade unions to cut costs. It proposed to cut salaries for pilots and crew—some reports suggest that 40% [...]

The US Federal Aviation Authority, responsible for overseeing the adequacy of laws, procedures and day-to-day operations of airlines by government authorities, has downgraded Mexico to a ‘Category 2’ status following a routine safety review in January of this year. Unofficial reports state that the US agency has become frustrated with the lack of tangible response [...]

Getting to know Mexico well and becoming intimately involved in the country and its ways is a skill that can only be truly developed with the experience of having lived here for a good while, and taking the necessary care to observe, acknowledge and learn about the local environment you have adopted as your home, [...]

When you are living in Mexico, one of the most important day-to-day skills you’ll need to develop is that of making contacts and networking in your local community.  Contacts fall into two broad categories; social contacts and trade & business contacts. In social terms, Mexico is an easy place to meet and make new friends [...]

Negotiation and barter are woven into the fabric of Mexican culture. In 1520, Hernan Cortes wrote to Emperor Carlos V of Spain describing a city with “many plazas, where there are continuous markets and dealings in buying and selling”. Since at least Aztec times, Mexicans have been devout traders. Five hundred years later, whether you’re [...]

For a variety of reasons, which include bureaucracy, ceremony and cultural habit, some situations which develop in Mexico can appear quite frustrating to unwary foreigners. Sometimes it’s because one is “used to” things, especially supposedly simple things, happening differently (usually more quickly) than they might do here. Sometimes, the lack of something you really need [...]

In this series of articles we will examine five essential skills any budding expat considering Mexico should develop, whether the move is for living, working or retirement, full-time or part-time. In this first article, we examine possibly the most essential skill of all: learning the local language. Even if you plan to live in an [...]