According to IMSS data, as of January 31, 2023, there were just over 1 million 60,000 employers registered in Mexico. The vast majority, 95% according to Inegi data, are employers who have less than 10 employees in their businesses. More than 1 million small businessmen who could be anything but the conclusion of an argument reminiscent of the Holy Inquisition.
Abel Quezada, the great Mexican cartoonist and cartoonist, created a hateful and endearing character to represent the business businessman with power; Don Gastón Billetes was a guy with gel, he wore a striped suit that adjusted to a body between round and deformed, he always wore a ring with a gigantic diamond that, instead of being worn on a finger, was attached to a nose big and pointed. The origin of his wealth was in doubt and, although the cartoonist was of the opinion that he “…made it with the sweat of his brow, others say that it was not so hot when he stole those cows…”. The caricature symbolized the idiot businessman, in the etymological sense one who is alien to the public, whose wealth blinds him and, without meaning to, sustains a deep, unconscious indifference to a reality contrary to his lifestyle.
In contrast, the entrepreneurs of the last five years, particularly in the technology sector, are beginning to change the stigma attached to entrepreneurship. Magazine covers draw emulators of Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, apparently far from the cliché image of the 60s of the last century. Individuals who, through gigantic efforts, achieve exponential growth in their companies, leveraging talent and the little risk capital available. But the above is not the reality of the average Mexican businessman either.
The average businessman is anything but a well understood character to the media or the national psyche itself. Today it would be necessary to measure or recreate the image that the businessman has before the public opinion. They are not visitors to the favorite restaurants of politicians or political analysts. They are distant characters from Gastón Billetes or the technological entrepreneur a la mode. They are a statistic, but not an image that can be used to argue or describe.