Catemaco Notarios

Aside from dental visits, municipal licenses and highway police stops, the most painful visits in Mexico are with Mexican notarios. These notarios have absolutely no relationship with American notaries who probably received their rubber stamp titles from Walmart.

In Mexico, a notario is next to god. After completing a law degree and further studies, plus time in an existing notario’s office, he, (very few women), is appointed by a state governor to a specific district, for life. Of course he has to be a Mexican by birth.

A notario is the gatekeeper to all public records in Mexico, including property titles, testaments, contracts, and power of attorneys. Supposedly he is impartial and neutral to all facts. His signature on a document is equivalent to proof of authenticity of the facts visible to him. No more! No Less!. In Spanish he is considered to “dar fe” which really does not translate into English, but more or less translates into “testifying to the truth”.

In Spanish law, the forerunner of Mexican law, he was an absolute necessity for a population incapable of reading. Current notarios, in my experience, still cleave to those god-like attributes.

Beautiful downtown Catemaco does not have a notario.

Instead, Veracruz State has established the 19th district, including Catemaco, San Andres Tuxtla, Santiago Tuxtla, Isla and possibly some other un-reported municipios.
Here we have 9 notarios. 6 practicing in San Andrés Tuxtla full time, 1 in Santiago Tuxtla, and 1 splits his time between San Andres and Isla. The one missing was disbarred a while back and the office has not been filled. Another office, also lacking “fe”, was recently filled by the Veracruz governor.

Although, I read that some states have fixed notarial fees, my personal experience has been unable to extract an exact figure of fees from a notario, and that is after maybe 30 transactions. The answer always is depending on “this or that”. The actual notario fee is almost never divulged. And that fee can be VERY surprising.

After a notario has affixed his signature to a document, supposedly that document is ready to be recorded in the Civil Registy (registro civil), usually done by the notario, but occasionally requiring bribed interference.

Disbarment of regular attorneys is much more frequent than disbarment of notarios. Nevertheless, although a notario is supposedly impartial, and most Mexicans will swear their trust by the limbs of their first-borns, it would behoove any Gringo to double check documents with an experienced attorney. Especially in Catemaco, where the relevant scores of “fe” against inquisition are 9 to 2.