More dancing, with pixels.
So what is Texas? One more mediation thereupon.
Field Lab blogger in Terlingua recites his poem, with pet longhorns.
Frank Chimero on what screens want.
>Your COMMENTS are always welcome.
Showing posts with label Texas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Texas. Show all posts
Lone Star Nation: How Texas Will Transform America by Richard Parker
- Lone Star Nation
- How Texas Will Transform America
- By Richard Parker
- Pegasus, November 2014
- pp. 352
- ISBN-10: 1605986267
- ISBN-13: 978-1605986265
Book Review by C.M. Mayo
Texas Exceptionalism (TE): I would give it the knee-jerk reject but for the fact that after more than 25 years of living in another country (Mexico), if I've learned anything, it's that empathy for others' notions of themselves, off-kilter as they may seem, is not only the more politic but oftentimes the wisest stance (because the other thing I've learned is that there's always more to learn). Plus, as my birth certificate says, I'm a Daughter of the Lone Star State, so nudge its elbow and my ego is happy to hop along, at least a little ways, with that rootin'- tootin' idea. But I was not raised in Texas and, to put it politely, I've yet to grok TE. The way I see it at present, yes, Texas is a special place full of proud and wonderful people, with a unique history and an awesome landscape, and once we look with open eyes, ears, intellect, and heart, so is just about every other place, from Baja California to Burma.
That said, though in Lone Star Nation: How Texas Will Transform America, Richard Parker serves up a heaping helping of gnaw-worthy TE, it is an elegantly-written and important book examining trends and challenges for Texas — Texas first, Parker argues— and the nation.
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It was the Fifth Migration, from the Rust Belt of the 1970s and 1980s, that brought northerners with their Republican-leaning politics; the Fourth, Southerners, many of them Yellow Dog Democrats, coming in to work in the oil and related industries in the early 20th century; and the Third, Southerners arriving in the 19th century to farm and ranch in what was originally Mexican territory, then an independent Republic, then a slave state, then a member of the Confederacy, then, vanquished, reabsorbed into the Union. (The Second and First Migrations telescope thousands of years of immigrations from elsewhere in indigenous North America and, originally, from Asia.)
The current wave of migration, the Sixth, is bringing some 1,000 immigrants into the state each day, from Mexico, points further south, East Asia, South Asia, Europe, and all across the United States itself. And because of this, the over a century-long "Anglo" dominance is about to crumble. Soon the idea of Texas itself may morph into something denizens of the 20th century might no longer recognize.
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J. Frank Dobie (1888-1964) was considered the first recognized and professional literary writer in the state. From the Wittliff Collections biography: "Many Texas writers openly credit Dobie with giving them the inspiration not only to be a writer but also to feel comfortable using their home state as a subject." |
"the opportunity to recast Texas: No longer a broken-down Southern state of impoverished dirt farmers, but one with oil and industry— an inspiration if not a beacon to hungry Americans looking for opportunity in the midst of the Great Depression.... Copywriters, journalists, and artists were hired to tell tales of cowboys, oil, and industry in the years leading up to the World's Fair."
But alas, this came with the racial nonsense of the time. Parker:
"Gone was the Mexican vaquero, the African American, and the Native American, or at least they were relegated to the role of antagonist.... A centennial exposition [Theodore H. Price, a New York PR man] argued, would teach attendees that the cowboy story was really a story of racial triumph..."
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Giant, the 1956 movie based on Edna Ferber's and James Dean.novel, starred Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor |
At the time Lone Star Nation went to press in 2014, according to Parker, "nearly one in three people who call Texas home have arrived from elsewhere in the United States in the last year." The gas and oil boom have since collapsed along with the price of oil, so I would expect those numbers to have dropped; nonetheless, as Parker stresses, the overwhelming majority of immigrants end up not in the oil fields, but the "triangle," the area in and around Dallas, Austin-San Antonio, and Houston. The draw? "Better-paying jobs and bigger homes for less money."
Parker argues that better jobs are a function of education, and that therefore one of the challenges Texas faces is adequately funding its schools and universities while keeping tuition at affordable levels, especially for the working class and recent immigrants. But the political will may not be there; neither has it been adequate to cope with water shortages, both current and looming.
Parker's political analysis is seasoned but unabashedly biased. My dad, a California Republican, would have called it "Beltway Liberalism," and indeed, until returning to Texas, Parker, a journalist, was based in the Washington DC metropolitan area. I happen to agree with much of what Parker argues, but as someone trying to get my mind around Texas, I would have appreciated his making more of an effort to explore, if not with sympathy then at least empathy, the various strains of conservatism.
To illustrate the trends and challenges for Texas, Parker offers two scenarios for 2050: one in which Texas has not invested in education, nor maintained a representative democracy, nor addressed environmental issues, and so degenerated into a nearly abandoned ruin (think: Detroit meets Caracas meets the Gobi Desert); in the other, challenges addressed, Texas is a super-charging China-crushin' hipster Juggernaut. My own guess is that the Texas of our very old age will fall somewhere in between, vary wildly from one region to another, and be more dependent on developments south of the border than the author or, for that matter, most futurists, consider.
On this last point, in discussing the tidal wave of migration from Mexico, Parker mentions the Woodlands, a once upscale Anglo suburb outside of Houston, still upscale, but now predominantly Mexican. I would have liked to have learned more about this slice of the sociological pie, for in my recent travels in Texas, and from what I hear in Mexico, I've also noticed that a large number of well-off Mexicans have been moving to Houston, San Antonio, and Austin. I'm talking about Mexicans who speak fluent English, play tennis and golf, and have studied and traveled abroad in, say, New York, Vancouver, Paris. There's a bigger story there, for many of them are the wives and children, but not so many husbands, who spend weekdays at their offices in Monterrey, Guadalajara, or, say, Mexico City. These families have not come to Texas for the jobs, nor the wonders of that great state (whose loss still makes many Mexicans bristle), but primarily for their safety— and, in many cases, for business opportunities. Should security improve in Mexico, I would expect many of these families to return and quickly. Whether that is likely or not is another question.
In sum, Lone Star Nation: How Texas Will Transform America is a rich, vivacious read that provides a sturdy framework to think about the past, present, and prospects of a state that is as much a place as it is, in the words of John Steinbeck, "a mystique approximating a religion." And if the author is a true blue believer in TE, well hell, bless him. Highly recommended.
>> Your COMMENTS are always welcome.
(includes discussion of Houston, Texas)
(includes discussion of El Paso)
10 Great Reads on Far West Texas (and Yonder) from Texas Monthly
by John Phillip Santos, November 2014
The year a flock of turkeys came to Marfa
by Sterry Butcher, November 2014
The Earth is There to Catch Us When We Fall
What I have learned from horses
by Sterry Butcher, January 2014
The Earth is There to Catch Us When We Fall
What I have learned from horses
by Sterry Butcher, January 2014
Includes the saga of a hiker trapped in the Big Bend
by Matt Bonderant, October 2014
Why are dozens of Sikh refugees being detained in an El Paso
immigration facility, months after they could have been paroled?
immigration facility, months after they could have been paroled?
By Sonia Smith, August 2014
Star of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," that is.
by Stephen Harrigan, July 2014
Former state demographer Steve H. Murdock troves his data to illustrate the average Texan in two very different years-- 1950 and 2050.
by Jeff Salamon, February 2014
Thoughts on the gradual march of civility and urban sprawl across the lost frontier
by Larry McMurtry, February 2013
On El Paso
by Dagoberto Gil, February 2013
Lonn Taylor's Texas People, Texas Places
Ever since I first came upon Lonn Taylor's column for the Big Bend Sentinel, "The Rambling Boy," I've been a big fan. I devoured his collection of columns, Texas, My Texas: Musings of the Rambling Boy— and added it to my list of top 10 books read in 2012. My mini-review:
And lo, out of the blue (I don't think he knew I'd blogged about his book), Taylor writes to me that he wants to do a column about Agustín de Iturbide y Green, an historical figure he had known about since his days in Washington DC— having found me via my webpage for my novel, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire. I was happy to supply what I'd gleaned from my research, which included what I dug out of the archives in Iturbide y Green's personal archive in Catholic University, another archive in Georgetown University, the Iturbide collections in the Library of Congress, the Historical Society of Washington DC, and —whew, yeah, I did a heap of research— Mexico City and Vienna (more about all that here). I can count on one hand, with plenty of fingers leftover, the number of people who had even the basic outline of the story of Agustin de Iturbide y Green straight before I did; the published literature on Mexico's Second Empire is full of bizarre misunderstandings and mistakes and even some of his own family members in Mexico had some very strange ideas (for example, that Iturbide y Green had never married, but in fact, he had, in Washington DC in 1915, and happily, until his death in 1925). So! Now! Read Lonn Taylor's column, "The Royal Family of Mexico."
More Lonn Taylor news: his latest collection is Texas People, Texas Places: More Musings of the Rambling Boy, and I loved this one just as much as the first— I devoured it, chuckling over every other page. Just to give an idea, this is the sort of thing that kept me laughing out loud— from "The Jacksons of Blue and Other Texas Chairmakers":
Of special interest for me, since I am work on a book about Far West Texas, was his column "Albert Alvarez, Secret Historian," about a Mexican-American of Pecos, Texas. In Mexico, where every city and town seems to have one, Alvarez would be addressed with great respect as El crónista. In Texas as it is, alas, Spanish speaking historians and their contributions to Texas history remain marginalized. And that's something I'll be writing about, too.
More anon.
COMMENTS?
SURF ON
Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project
Marfa Mondays Blog
John Bankhead Magruder: A Military Reappraisal by Thomas M. Settles
Top 10 Books Read 2013
"[T]his is far from the usual mashed potatoes newspaper fare. Taylor is a wise and lyrical writer with a background as a professional historian and his mammoth love for Texas is infectious. This is a book to savor in a rocking chair on a hot day with a tall glass of spiked lemonade at your side. Get ready to howl with the one about the in-law aunts's oodles of poodles."
And lo, out of the blue (I don't think he knew I'd blogged about his book), Taylor writes to me that he wants to do a column about Agustín de Iturbide y Green, an historical figure he had known about since his days in Washington DC— having found me via my webpage for my novel, The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire. I was happy to supply what I'd gleaned from my research, which included what I dug out of the archives in Iturbide y Green's personal archive in Catholic University, another archive in Georgetown University, the Iturbide collections in the Library of Congress, the Historical Society of Washington DC, and —whew, yeah, I did a heap of research— Mexico City and Vienna (more about all that here). I can count on one hand, with plenty of fingers leftover, the number of people who had even the basic outline of the story of Agustin de Iturbide y Green straight before I did; the published literature on Mexico's Second Empire is full of bizarre misunderstandings and mistakes and even some of his own family members in Mexico had some very strange ideas (for example, that Iturbide y Green had never married, but in fact, he had, in Washington DC in 1915, and happily, until his death in 1925). So! Now! Read Lonn Taylor's column, "The Royal Family of Mexico."
More Lonn Taylor news: his latest collection is Texas People, Texas Places: More Musings of the Rambling Boy, and I loved this one just as much as the first— I devoured it, chuckling over every other page. Just to give an idea, this is the sort of thing that kept me laughing out loud— from "The Jacksons of Blue and Other Texas Chairmakers":
"... most respectable people considered chairmakers somewhat marginal and looked down on them as not being totally respectable. This attitude probably originated in England, where chairmakers lived in the woods, close to their close materials, and did not farm or mix much with ordinary folk. In England chairmakers are called bodgers. Folklorist Geriant Jenkins once asked an informant where the word came from, and the answer was, "Because they be always bodgin' about in the woods."
Of special interest for me, since I am work on a book about Far West Texas, was his column "Albert Alvarez, Secret Historian," about a Mexican-American of Pecos, Texas. In Mexico, where every city and town seems to have one, Alvarez would be addressed with great respect as El crónista. In Texas as it is, alas, Spanish speaking historians and their contributions to Texas history remain marginalized. And that's something I'll be writing about, too.
More anon.
COMMENTS?
SURF ON
Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project
Marfa Mondays Blog
John Bankhead Magruder: A Military Reappraisal by Thomas M. Settles
Top 10 Books Read 2013
Mary Baxter, Painting the Big Bend
Just posted: My October 2012 interview with painter Mary Baxter about her luminous landscapes in her Marfa, Texas studio. This is #9 in the 24 podcast series, "Marfa Mondays."
>>Listen in here.
Mary Baxter came to Marfa years ago for the horses and cattle business and stayed to paint the sky-haunted landscapes. Recently returned to Marfa after a decade in (relatively nearby) Marathon, Texas, Mary Baxter talked to C.M. Mayo in her sun-filled studio in October 2012.
The Marfa Mondays podcasts are apropos of a work-in-progress about far West Texas.
Recent Marfa Mondays Podcasts include:
>A Spell in Chinati Hot Springs
>We Have Seen the Lights (about the Marfa ghost lights)
>Marfa's Moonlight Gemstones, an Interview with Paul Graybeal
>The Buzz on the Bees, an Interview with Cynthia McAlister
>Avram Dumitrescu, An Artist in Alpine
>Mary Bones on the Lost Art Colony
>Charles Angell in the Big Bend
>Ye Olde Introduction and Welcome
Read all about the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project here.
Not sure what a podcast is? Want to know why I'm doing this? Want to learn to make one yourself? Click here.
Comments
>>Listen in here.
Mary Baxter came to Marfa years ago for the horses and cattle business and stayed to paint the sky-haunted landscapes. Recently returned to Marfa after a decade in (relatively nearby) Marathon, Texas, Mary Baxter talked to C.M. Mayo in her sun-filled studio in October 2012.
The Marfa Mondays podcasts are apropos of a work-in-progress about far West Texas.
Recent Marfa Mondays Podcasts include:
>A Spell in Chinati Hot Springs
>We Have Seen the Lights (about the Marfa ghost lights)
>Marfa's Moonlight Gemstones, an Interview with Paul Graybeal
>The Buzz on the Bees, an Interview with Cynthia McAlister
>Avram Dumitrescu, An Artist in Alpine
>Mary Bones on the Lost Art Colony
>Charles Angell in the Big Bend
>Ye Olde Introduction and Welcome
Read all about the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project here.
Not sure what a podcast is? Want to know why I'm doing this? Want to learn to make one yourself? Click here.
Comments
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