Cave explorers in western Mexico are well acquainted with the vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus. Grupo Zotz, the western branch of SMES, the Mexican Society for Underground Exploration, has explored hundreds of caves in the area and reports that approximately 90 percent of them house at least one colony of vampires.

“Is it always this way in February?”

Two weeks ago we discussed the latest products introduced at this year’s consumer electronics show — to include my favorite topic, 3DTV. A friend wrote: “Great Pete, but how about starting with the basics. Television in the States has gone from analog to something else. The newer TV screens are of a different shape. And during some of the programming, the picture seems a lot sharper. How come?”

The Mexican Constitution that today governs us (Mexican and foreigners), ratified February 5, 1917, was a surprising idealistic- and democratic-minded governing umbrella to have been born in the middle of a merciless and cynical Revolution that cost two million lives.  Though made of vulnerable material, that umbrella continues to shed convenient shade over sanguinary, culture-deep corruption.  At least this, to great extent, is the way it has been referred to by a number of government veterans, and a long list of Mexico’s most respected journalists, scholars and authors.  Carlos Fuentes for instance, whose most accessible novel, “The Death of Artemio Cruz,” is an instructive chronicle of the betrayal of the Revolution’s admirable goals.