1- Dr. Petrolove
or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love American Imperialism

Sos, El País se nos ve...Invenien Algo, Pero Ya
Por José Juan Castañeda Olvera
Jacobo tomé asiento a mediados de 1996 frente a las camaras de televisón cerca de las diez de la noche, poco antes de salir al aire en su célebre noticiero "24 Horas". Una vez que el flaco individuo, de enormes lentes cuadrados y olor a viejito bien baøado (siempre lo imaginé oliendo a Lavanda), apareciera en las pantallas de miles de televisores en todo el país, pronunciaría la nota del día que asustaría a unos cuantos, haría reír a otros y dormiría a poquísimos: en algunas rancherías del país, habían sido descubiertas varias cabezas de ganado vacuno, porcino, y eso sí, muchas cabras, muertas sin una sola gota de sangre, como si hubiesen sido succionadas y vaciadas. Estos animales habían sido marcados por la firma del supuesto asesino: una marca similar a la dejada por los vampiros de las películas en sus víctimas luego de atragantarse con su sangre.

The Science behind Shooting Stars
by Otto Reimer
So if you find yourself thinking some time, how it is you exactly got here. The sheer mathematical improbability of you actually being there right now is so problematic and mind-boggling small that it's a little wonder the only answer a computer ever gave was 42. As usual the most simple of notions fleet away before our very eyes, tricks of Mercury's wings. Messages of the ones whose names we've forgotten sometimes fall right at our very feet and humanity smacks it's collective forehead. Think how long we had wire, but no wire hangers to hang our clothes on.

In Mexico, more bang for your peso
by El Tabelero
Don't got a hot date for tonight? No gallery openings to pillage for free food and booze? Has the vaunted San Miguel nightlife begun to shrink a bit for you lately? Fear not, there is a little-known yet promising alternative. A few months ago, "Alter Ego", a female striptease club, opened in San Miguel to warm reception and quiet review. Due to local municipal laws, you won't see any newspaper ads, gigantic highway-side billboards, or hear radio spots heralding its triumphant arrival. But if you climb into any taxi and order the driver, "Llevame al table", you'll be quickly whisked away to a virtual pleasure palace, only a scant 10 minute drive from El Centro.

Reciclando en San Miguel
by Elaine Cotter
(English) Recycle: to reclaim waste materials by using them in the manufacture of new products. In México and many other developing countries recycling has been carried out traditionally by an informal sector of pickers at the dumps, "the pepenadores". They sell this material to intermediaries that in turn sell in bulk to the manufacturers. The social, economic and health conditions of the pickers is very poor.
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(Español) Reciclar: reclamar materiales desechables usandolos en la manufactura de productos nuevos. En México, así como en otros países en desarrollo, el reciclaje tradicionalmente se ha llevado a cabo, informalmente a través de los pepenadores. Los pepenadores venden el material "rescatado" a intermediarios: éstos a su vez lo venden al "mayoreo" a los fabricantes. Cabe mencionar que las condiciones sociales, económicas y de salud de los pepenadores son precarias.
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The Art Gallery Shuffle
by Two-Step Stan
So your landlady threw you out because you didn't make rent. You haven't eaten much in the past 72 hours, and the peanut bowl at La Vida hardly qualifies as a meal. Your favorite bar is no longer accepting credit from you and you've begun to feel a tad unwelcome in some parts. You're broke, starving, stinky, stone cold sober and stuck in MexicoÖa horrible and potentially deadly combination in these parts. All grounds for deportation, starvation, or even worse, that dreaded long distance phone call to the unsympathetic family member or leery acquaintance. But you've reached and breached those credit limits sometime ago and for some reason the telephone operator keeps saying "that number has been changed and is no longer in service." What now? Ask a fellow good samaritan for a loan? Reality check: you're in Mexico buddy, there are old ladies and children begging and starving in the streetsÖTAKE A NUMBER! Contact your country's local Embassy?ÖHA! Good one! I'm sure bailing your bumming, backpacking, dread-locked, jewelry-making, unemployed ass out of Mexico is at the top of their diplomatic priorities. Get a job?ÖSHEA-YEAH, RIGHT! You're like, in Mexico, dude. Unless you enjoy spending twelve-back-breaking-hours-a-day, hunched-over, paving the streets with many small round stones for three-hundred-pesos-a-weekÖyou're pretty much fucked.