Why Mexicans Think & Behave the Way They Do!: The Cultural Factors that Created the Character & Personality of the Mexican People!

by Boyé Lafayette De Mente

Mexico's traditional values and morals were forged in a caldron of aggressive religious intolerance, corruption, racism, male chauvinism, and an elitist political system that connived with the Church to keep ordinary people ignorant and powerless, and deny them the most basic human rights. But the reality of Mexico has always been obscured behind a variety of masks-of piety, pride, courage, gaiety, indifference and stoicism. In this provocative and insightful book internationally known author Boye Lafayette De Mente goes behind the masks that have long obscured Mexico to reveal the cultural influences that created the character and personality of Mexicans, and provides guidelines for dealing with them. It is a valuable cultural-insight guide for businesspeople and travelers.

164 pages, Paperback

First published June 27, 2005

About the author

Boyé Lafayette De Mente was an author, journalist, and adventurer. He wrote more than 100 books, most of them about the culture and language of Japan, East Asia, and Mexico.

De Mente joined the U.S. Navy and began his career as a cryptographer based in Washington, D.C. In 1948, he joined the U.S. Army Security Agency and was a decoding technician stationed in Tokyo. While there, he he founded and edited the agency's newspaper, The ASA Star.

De Mente wrote the first English guides to the Japanese way of doing business ("Japanese Etiquette and Ethics in Business" in 1959 and "How to Do Business in Japan" in 1962). His other books run the gamut from language learning to the night-time "pink" trades in Japan, the sensual nature of Oriental cultures, male-female relations, and understanding and coping with the Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Mexican mindset in business and social situations. He has also written extensively about Mexico and his home state of Arizona.