In his most harried moments, Mexico City Bureau Chief James Willwerth suspects that the Mexican political system rivals the Kremlin for having secrets within secrets. But as the current economic and social crisis in Mexico deepened, Willwerth noticed a parallel easing of Mexican reserve toward journalists. "Much of Mexico was forced into the open by its traumas during the past year," says Willwerth, "and, for a change, lots of Mexicans were willing to talk about it in unmasked terms."

To identify as many pieces of the Mexican puzzle as possible for this week's cover story, Willwerth ranged from Tijuana and Monterrey to a hillside in the elegant Bosques district of Mexico City, which affords a view of outgoing President Jose Lopez Portillo's unfinished family estate. Reporter Laura Lopez headed south to Chiapas and Taxco. She also visited some of Mexico's most remote areas during the presidential campaign of Miguel de la Madrid and watched his helicopter fleet land, "no different in the eyes of the isolated villagers from seeing an Aztec god descend from the heavens." After a one-hour interview with the new President, Willwerth and Lopez are optimistic that the recent mood of frankness will continue. De la Madrid's administration seems more open to the foreign press than that of his predecessor. But Willwerth remains cautious. Says he: "The real test of the administration's interest in good press relations will come in about a year, when the economic crisis should be at its worst."

To Associate Editor George Russell, who wrote the story, the subtleties of Mexico's complex national character had a familiar flavor. As TIME'S Buenos Aires bureau chief from 1979 to 1981, Russell got a first-hand education in Latin American culture. He was also the writer of some half a dozen cover stories on the Falklands war between Argentina and Britain Russell, born in Canada, was particularly conscious of Mexico's status as a next-door neighbor of the U.S.

"Growing up in the tremendous wash of influence that we felt from the U.S. was difficult enough in a country that shares many of the same roots," he says. "I can well imagine the frustrations of feeling that overwhelming U.S. influence if your culture is a completely different one."

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