In Mexico, the task or collective work that each person owes to their indigenous community is known as tequio. Since it is done for the benefit of the community itself, it is not paid work. Tequio is a custom which various indigenous communities throughout Mexico continue to practice to varying degrees and in different ways. Similar concepts to tequio are minka in several South America countries and hacendera in Spain.

In his work "Aquí comienca (sic) un vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana" (Vocabulary in Castilian and Mexican language) Friar Alonso de Molina translated the Nahuatl words tequitl as tribute and tequitiliztli as work. He documented two variants of tequio, which does not require phonetic adaptation to Castilian: tequiutl which has been adapted as tequiuh by losing its final consonantal tl. It is defined as a work or tribute. Father Ángel María Garibay in his Llave del Náhuatl tells us that the verb tequi or tequiotl means "work" or "feeling tired". "Dictionary of nahuatl in the Spanish of Mexico" defines the word tequitl as "work" or "tribute", the same definition is given in Diccionario de la Lengua Española online.

This form of contribution or contribution of work for the community also receives the names of tequil, mano vuelta (hand turned), fajina, task, corima (from the Rarámuri language, to give away or share) or trabajo de en medio (work in the middle). Due to the fact that the Nahuatl language was used as the lingua franca during the colonial era in New Spain, tequio is the term that has been generalized in various areas to refer to this activity.

The expression in Spanish prestar el servicio (to provide the service) means "providing tequio". Providing the service is honorable for members of the indigenous community and is understood as a moral obligation that they cannot refuse. It is one an occasion to meet, partake in collective work, and identify as a community. Members of communities that practice tequio will periodically take a day off of work to provide service in a task required by the community. Tasks accomplished during tequio usually fall under a category of honorable and prestigious work that, according to the ancient purely indigenous custom, should not be charged for or compensated. The indigenous person is called to carry the topilli, the baton of command, to preserve and resolve common affairs according to custom, she is appointed by her community to direct it and represent it as an indigenous council supported by the topiles, even at the cost of the personal sacrifice that it meant in all of them and still means in various indigenous communities, especially in some of the Oaxacan ones where they survive.

In some communities, members who have since moved elsewhere in Mexico or the United States of America are appointed in absentia to provide community service. No matter where they now reside, they will receive notice of their appointment asking them to return to perform community services. The custom is so respected that people will leave jobs and places of residence to return to the community to provide the service.

In the Mexica society tequio was part of the society and economy, frequently used to accomplish community projects that were useful to the neighborhood or city such as canals, canales, roads, and temple reparations. After the conquest of Mexico, these community works continued under the name cuadrilleros and were considered as part of the obligatory tribute that the indigenous people had to pay to the king, nobles, officials, lords or encomenderos. Around 1605 Viceroy Juan de Mendoza y Luna issued the Ordenanzas sobre el tequio y la tarea que han de tener los indios (Ordinances on tequio and the task that the [sic] indians must have) as a supposedly better substitute to the harsh repartimiento labor system.

In the Triqui community, although tequio is obligatory and unpaid, participating in these collective works gives one prestige in the eyes of the community. History of performing tequio is an element that is considered for those who aspire to have a position as an authority in it. The Mixe communities have created infrastructure for the supply of drinking water, electricity, roads, and other needs through tequio.

The required number of days that men must contribute to collective municipal works through tequio varies greatly from one municipality to another. The state government of Oaxaca sends more resources to the municipalities to try to carry out the works without resorting to the free work that tequio represents, however the communities defend this tradition because they consider not only the material results of these works to be important, but also their social value in strengthening the coexistence and integration of the members of the communities. Tequio is also used as a form of annual cooperation to carry out the festivities of the patron saint of the communities.