ABSTRACT
The classical grandeur frequently displayed in Mexico oratory—at political rallies, poetry readings, conferences, banquets, weddings and other ceremonies, in the classroom, and occasionally even in street talk—bears witness to the importance of personal appearance, public demeanor, and private composure. In Mexico, personalismo is for the most part a projection of one's public image, a public self. The personalistic leader's qualities—at least as far as men are concerned—are by their very nature linked to an overpowering sense of machismo. The very concepts of machismo seems quite self-contradictory. According to tradition—a tradition that is waning—among Mexican males there is a nondomestic inclination present in machismo. Controlling others and at the same time reaping their esteem: the "tragedy" and the "comedy" and the "irony" and the "romance" of caudillismo. It is potentially a virtuous rather than a vicious circle.
