ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights aspects of life in Mexico City that are relevant to understanding of physicians and patients and to sickness and recovery. From a macro perspective, people are known to belong to the poorest sector of Mexican society, and ample evidence shows the relationship between poverty and overall health status. Mexican society views all inhabitants residing in Neza and in the other poor neighborhoods as dirty and ignorant. The earthquake became symbolic of the destabilization of the country by the economic crisis. The economy is the dominant, if not the sole, topic of all conversations among most sectors of Mexican society. Mexico is usually characterized as an industrially developing nation tied to the international market economy with its attendant economic disparities. The central role of the family in Mexican life assumes that most people do not lack social support although subjectively some people expressed a sense of solitude.
