final ethno

7/28/2019 Final Ethno

1/4

Alexandra Musi

Professor Martinez

Comm 3333

2 May, 2012

Ethnography

Lawyers in Mexico

The sub-culture I chose was a group of guys that graduated with law degrees

in 2005 from the University of Anahuac in Mexico City. The men in this group are

very humorous and intelligent so I felt as though they would be interesting to study.

The group consists of five friends Leopoldo, also known as Polo, Hadi, Arizaga,

Morris and Fortes. They all were close friends in college and have continued to stay

close after college. Though they are now graduated and grown up a bit in age, somethings have not changed, while other things in their lives has drastically changed.

When looking at their current friendship between the guys I asked them

about their history together. Hadi explained that when they attended their

university he was vice president of the law school and Leopoldo was president.

Though their was a set hierarchy back then, there does not seem to be one now. All

of the men are equivalent to each other, and there is no one in particular that stands

out as the leader of the group either. When hanging out with them it just felt as

though they were five different puzzle pieces that fit together. Since they all are

equals, I was surprised to find out that not many of them actually became a lawyer.

Instead they all have various careers not exactly pertaining to law. Leopoldo ownshis own property management company that deals with condominiums. Arizaga is a

consultant for IBM, and Fortes works the family business, and they own a chain of

hotels in Mexico and he supervises the employees and oversees operations. Hadi

was the only one who still practices law and actually works as a lawyer for a

corporation in Mexico. Morris does not have a specific job because he inherited

money when his father sadly passed away, but he does invest his money and also

rents out properties. By graduating students assessments, their employment

during college is highly related to their careers, and this means that networks

established prior to or during college play an important role in obtaining the first

job (Morales). Most of the men acquired their jobs through networking while they

were in college.

When I interviewed Arizaga he explained to me that they all recognize each

other strengths. Arizaga shared with me that when anyone needs help with a

contract they turn to Hadi for help. If they need accounting advice they turn to him

for advice. When the guys have questions about how their condos should be run that

they live in then they turn to Polo, with various questions such as are they paying

too much for the property they live in. Since Morris does not really have a job, they


2/4

ask him where the cool places are to go in Mexico City, and he is able to get

everyone into the trendy places since he knows people. Fortes is the busiest one out

of all them, so they try not to put more on his plate by asking him questions or

favors, because when they have chance to hang out with him Fortes never wants to

talk about his work.

Their discourse consisted a reasonable amount of jargon that only lawyers

would understand. In fact, when they were still studying in school they would try to

correct everyone else that was not part of the law school. Leopoldo laughed as he

told me about the general education classes that they would take with students from

other majors. Apparently, all the guys felt superior to the other students and would

constantly get into debates with them in class. Leopoldo began to discuss the

different majors with me I found what he had to say about doctors rather amusing,

I felt as though the Law students were superior to other groups in school. We

believed that our major was the most important for society. The coursework was

more difficult, the amount of credits/years/classes were more, except for medicine.

We even thought that we were better than Doctors, because we felt that they werewasting their time. They were always at school, and we made the same effort but

had actually had a social life, unlike them. He began laughing when stating his last

statement, and I could not help but laugh with him.

Their traditions consist of gathering together the law school graduates once a

year and having a special dinner. In fact, Hadi is usually the one that plans these

reunions for everyone. When it comes to the specific group of guys they try to go on

a trip to Acapulco once a year. This is always fun for them because they are able to

sit back on the beach and drink a few beers. The best part about these trips is the

long talks they get to have reminiscing on their past college memories that they all

shared together. An example of a ritual they do is fist bump each other if they thinksomething is funny or if they agree with the other person. A funny ritual that they do

is el pulpo, which means the octopus, because they take their beers and intertwine

their hands and then drink the beer. They also make an effort to hang out with each

other at least once a month and always go and get tacos together. This is actually

where I was able to go and observe them, we had tacos they drank a lot of beers,

insisted that I take shots, and also ordered a hookah, which is something they

always get.

The ideology that Polo had when he graduated from the University was that

lawyers can make a difference in society and that was exactly what he planned on

doing. Another way to see ideology is as a kind of orientation a group of people taketowards itself as a whole and its individual members, towards people outside of the

group, towards the groups history and heritage, and towards the groups future

(Scollon). It was sad to hear Polo talk about how he could not become a lawyer

because it is so corrupt. He also explained that Mexico has been facing an economic

crisis so it would not be a smart business choice for him anyways. Though he did

remember back to when they first began studying and said, We all felt as though we

could make a difference in Mexico, and help change it in a good way, to make it


3/4

better. Then we all realized how everything is just getting worse and became very

frustrated. This is why the group ended up taking the various career paths that they

did.


4/4

Works Cited

Arizaga, Alejandro. Personal interview. 15 Mar. 2012.

Ibrahim, Hadi. Personal interview. 15 Mar. 2012.

Morales, Alfonso, and Leticia Fernandez. "The Social Origins And Prospects For

Economic Mobility Of Recent Mexican Law School Graduates." Conference

Papers -- American Sociological Association (2004): 1-31. SocINDEX with Full

Text. Web. 26 April 2012.

Muller, Leopoldo. Personal interview. 13 Mar. 2012.

Scollon, Ron. Intercultural Communication. 3rd ed. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell,

2012. Print.

final ethno

Documents