Yuppies and Their Fight in Favor of Neoliberalism in 1980s Mexico City

In 1982, President Miguel de la Madrid began Mexico’s clear transition towards a neoliberal economy by making austerity, privatization, and market liberalization the nation’s priorities. Neoliberalism while policy was no accepted wholesale. Union workers, university students, punks, and many other Mexicans fought against these measures. Within this context, yuppies, young professionals, and wealth young people emerged as fighters in favor of the neoliberal politics of market liberalization and privatization in ways that articulated a shift away from Cold War concerns to the economic issues that would define post-Cold War Latin America. These young people enrolled in private universities in Mexico and the United States as well as entrepreneurial programs such as Desarrolo Empresarial Mexicano (DESEM), the Mexican version of Junior Achievement to prepare for the new economy. Moreover, they served as an aspirational figure within advertisements and telenovelas well as a figure with which class tensions were diffused. By the end of the decade, yuppies as entrepreneurs, banking and finance employees, and political figures helped cement neoliberalism into Mexican political, economic, and cultural life.