Global Etiquette Guide to Mexico and Latin America (Global Etiquette Guides)

304 Pages·2002·0.85 MB·English

by  Dean Foster

The Global
Etiquette Guide
to Mexico and
Latin America
Everything You Need
to Know for Business
and Travel Success
Dean Foster
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Global
Etiquette Guide
to Mexico and
Latin America

The Global
Etiquette Guide
to Mexico and
Latin America
Everything You Need
to Know for Business
and Travel Success
Dean Foster
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
This book is dedicated to my parents, Joseph and Sylvia,
who first showed me the world
Copyright ©2002 by Dean Foster. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons,Inc.,New York
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Foster,Dean Allen.
Global etiquette guide to Mexico and Latin America / Dean Foster.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-471-41851-X (pbk.)
1. Etiquette—Mexico—Handbooks,manuals,etc. 2. Mexico—Social life
and customs—Handbooks,manuals,etc. 3. Etiquette—Latin America—
Handbooks,manuals,etc. 4. Latin America—Social life and customs—
Handbooks,manuals,etc. I. Title.
BJ1838 .F673 2002
395(cid:1).098—dc21
2002002966
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction: Why Getting It Right around the World
Is So Important 1
Part One Meso- and Centroamerica:
Saludos, Salsa, and Simpático 9
Chapter One: Mesoamerica: Mexico 13
Chapter Two: The Northern Centroamerican Cultures:
Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and
El Salvador 38
Guatemala 38
Belize 58
Honduras 61
El Salvador 63
Chapter Three: The Southern Centroamerican Cultures:
Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama 65
Nicaragua 65
Costa Rica 82
Panama 86
Part Two South America:
Conquistadors, Contessas, and Condomble 89
Chapter Four: The North Andean Cultures: Colombia,
Venezuela, and Ecuador 93
Colombia 93
Venezuela 115
Ecuador 120
v
vi Contents
Chapter Five: The South Andean Cultures: Peru and
Bolivia 126
Peru 126
Bolivia 131
Chapter Six: Brazil 136
Chapter Seven: The Western “Southern Cone” Cultures:
Argentina and Chile 162
Argentina 162
Chile 183
Chapter Eight: The Eastern “Southern Cone” Cultures:
Paraguay and Uruguay 189
Paraguay 189
Uruguay 192
Part Three The Caribbean:
Mambo, Mosaic, and Manana 197
Chapter Nine: The Hispanic-African Cultures: Cuba,
The Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico 199
Cuba 199
The Dominican Republic 217
Puerto Rico 235
Chapter Ten: The Franco-African Cultures: Haiti 239
Chapter Eleven: The Anglo-African Cultures: Jamaica,
Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago 255
Jamaica 255
Barbados 270
Trinidad and Tobago 273
Index 277
Preface
Preface
The idea for this series emerged out of the work that my staff and I, and liter-
ally thousands of people from around the world that we work with, have been
doing for almost two decades: assisting businesspeople and travelers to better
understand their colleagues in other cultures. This work has primarily focused
on international business and has taken many forms:helping to prepare families
of employees adjust to an overseas assignment; assisting individual business-
people in their negotiations with colleagues abroad; and helping global organi-
zations to build more effective global teams. As business has globalized, the
need for cross-cultural information has grown.
But globalization hasn’t affected only the businessperson. While most of the
work in the cross-cultural field has developed in response to international busi-
ness needs, the need for cross-cultural information for the nonbusiness interna-
tional traveler (both actual and of the armchair variety!) has also grown. Unfor-
tunately,the amount of useful,objective,and applicable information,adapted to
the needs of the more casual international explorer, has been limited. In most
cases, what information was available usually took the form of anecdotal war
stories,overgeneralized stereotypes (always interesting,but of dubious veracity),
or theoretical statements about culture that were too removed from the day-to-
day adventures of the international traveler. As the gap between useful cultural
information for international business and international travelers grew, so did
the need to bridge it. Hence,the idea for the Global Etiquette Guide series.
Correction: I embarked on this project at first with the goal of writing one
book. But the world, as it turned out, was simply too big, and so was the book.
Given my work,I for one should not have been surprised at this development,but
at first was concerned about how to handle the dilemma. Nevertheless, under
the kind and careful guidance of my editor, publisher, and agent, we expanded
the original concept into a series. And I am glad we did. For one thing, it gave
me the breathing room to explore all cultures to the degree that was necessary
for the reader; for another, it gave me the opportunity to experience just how
fine a team I was working with.
My editor, Tom Miller, did double duty, providing patience and insight,
through both the serialization of the original book and the actual editorial
review of the material. His input, despite my occasional and incorrect misgiv-
ings, gave me focus, pause to rethink when it was important to do so, and per-
haps most importantly,impetus and space to keep going in the face of demand-
ing schedules and unpredictable events. A good editor provides the professional
expertise to fine-tune the work. A great editor also provides faith. Tom never
failed to offer both.
vii