This paper analyzes the way in which the “letrados” of Mexico City produced the first explanations of social cutting of suicide between 1830 and 1876. Physicians, publicists and lawyers focused on investigating the causes of the increase in suicides, finding that it was influenced by religious, social, political and economic factors. Therefore, it seeks to explain some elements that enabled the relationship between suicide and social dynamics, such as the work of French alienists, statistical knowledge, the social role of the press, secularization and the idea of civilization.