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, some things 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 owns his 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

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 were wasting 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 think something 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 take towards 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

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.

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.