Mexican Americans share with speakers of Spanish throughout the world a rich and varied repertoire of proverbs as well as a vital tradition of proverb use. The term "proverb" refers to a self-contained saying that can be understood independent of a specific verbal context and that has as its main purpose the carrying of a message or piece of wisdom. The great majority of Spanish-language proverbs reached Mexico from peninsular Spain, though they did not all originate there. Many belong, in fact, to the common proverb tradition of Europe and have exact equivalents in English-language proverbial speech.

Each use of a proverb is an individual act whose meaning varies depending on the individual speaker and the particular social context in which the use occurs. Nonetheless, it is important to recognize that proverb use is also shaped by the larger community with which the individual interacts. The fact that proverbs often serve a didactic purpose points us to one important function that proverbs serve in Mexican American communities: the instruction of the young. In fact, this function seems to be much more prominent in Mexican tradition in general than in English-speaking traditions. Adolescents of Mexican descent in the United States consistently report the frequent use of proverbs by their parents as a teaching tool, in areas ranging from the inculcation of table manners to the regulation of peer-group relationships. The latter area is a particularly frequent focus of proverb use within Mexican American communities: one of the most frequently used proverbs, for example, translates roughly as, "Tell me who you run with and I'll tell you who you are." Perhaps this emphasis on peer-group relations derives from a sense that traditional, community-approved norms are threatened by those prevalent in the surrounding society, or from a sense that, in dealing with older children especially, parents need to appeal to traditional wisdom to bolster their authority.

Another dimension of proverb use within Mexican American communities is that proverbs often serve to foster a consciousness of ethnicity, that is, of membership in a particular ethnic group possessing features that distinguish it from other groups within a multiethnic environment. Even those Mexican American proverbs that do not have an explicitly didactic purpose nevertheless serve as a vehicle for the transmission of both the Spanish language and Mexican culture. It is in these sayings that links to folklore and other aspects of Mexican culture are established and maintained. Proverbs thus provide a means of enhancing Mexican American young people's familiarity with their heritage, thereby strengthening their ties to Mexican tradition.