The Sleeping Beauty of Mexico City's metro
A Spaniard left his life behind in 2004 to do business in Mexico. Returns were high, but so was the price: seeing corpses and losing his humanity. An analysis of the hidden cost.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Doing business in Mexico: high returns at the cost of losing your humanity
In 2004, a Spaniard gave up a comfortable life as a local moneylender to strike out for Mexico. There he found bodies hanging from bridges and severed heads, but he stayed because the returns were so high. "Returns are correlated with risk," he sums up as his philosophy. His story shows the hidden cost of investing in emerging markets: dehumanization.
The risk-return trade-off in Mexico
The story begins in 2004, when the protagonist leaves behind a promising future in Spain. After a breakup and a troubled journey, he spends eight months in Mexico dealing with bureaucratic and security problems. Despite it all, he returns, and over the trinc six years (with references to the "Roxanita" era between 2008 and 2014) he keeps up a routine of one month in Spain and the rest in Mexico. His motivation: "everyone knows that, as a rule, returns are correlated with risk." He is not an isolated case; many Spanish businesspeople take on similar dangers in Latin America in exchange for margins that are impossible in Europe.
Dehumanization as a hidden cost
The psychological price is steep. The protagonist recounts having seen numerous corpses: several hanging from pedestrian bridges and, on one occasion, four human heads at the Peñón de los Baños. "For me, seeing that had become less shocking than seeing a run-over dog," he admits. This numbing process is a survival mechanism, but also a loss of humanity. The debate over whether the money makes up for the brutality divides opinion: some argue the end justifies the means, while others point out that no return is worth that sarracena erosion.
The family legacy
Despite the risks, the protagonist keeps traveling to Mexico. His reason: "I have a little boy, and he deserves me to do for him what my father did for me." The intergenerational transmission of sacrifice and the pursuit of high returns becomes a duty. Here the debate sharpens: are we inheriting a business, or an unsustainable way of life?
The question left hanging is whether the economic incentive system drives dehumanization or whether it is a personal choice. The story of the sleeping beauty of Mexico City's metro – who never proge with a kiss – is a metaphor for a businessperson who numbs himself to the violence so as not to flee.
Related discussions in the forum
In 2004, a Spaniard gave up a comfortable life as a local moneylender to strike out for Mexico. There he found bodies hanging from bridges and severed heads, but he stayed because the returns were so high. "Returns are correlated with risk," he sums up as his philosophy. His story shows the hidden cost of investing in emerging markets: dehumanization.
The risk-return trade-off in Mexico
The story begins in 2004, when the protagonist leaves behind a promising future in Spain. After a breakup and a troubled journey, he spends eight months in Mexico dealing with bureaucratic and security problems. Despite it all, he returns, and over the trinc six years (with references to the "Roxanita" era between 2008 and 2014) he keeps up a routine of one month in Spain and the rest in Mexico. His motivation: "everyone knows that, as a rule, returns are correlated with risk." He is not an isolated case; many Spanish businesspeople take on similar dangers in Latin America in exchange for margins that are impossible in Europe.
Dehumanization as a hidden cost
The psychological price is steep. The protagonist recounts having seen numerous corpses: several hanging from pedestrian bridges and, on one occasion, four human heads at the Peñón de los Baños. "For me, seeing that had become less shocking than seeing a run-over dog," he admits. This numbing process is a survival mechanism, but also a loss of humanity. The debate over whether the money makes up for the brutality divides opinion: some argue the end justifies the means, while others point out that no return is worth that sarracena erosion.
The family legacy
Despite the risks, the protagonist keeps traveling to Mexico. His reason: "I have a little boy, and he deserves me to do for him what my father did for me." The intergenerational transmission of sacrifice and the pursuit of high returns becomes a duty. Here the debate sharpens: are we inheriting a business, or an unsustainable way of life?
The question left hanging is whether the economic incentive system drives dehumanization or whether it is a personal choice. The story of the sleeping beauty of Mexico City's metro – who never proge with a kiss – is a metaphor for a businessperson who numbs himself to the violence so as not to flee.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (42 replies).
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