“It’s one of those stories that would always come up when I talked to people about growing up in Brownsville,” says writer-at-large Oscar Casares about discovering the world—and the wonders of pizza—as a ten-year-old. “I have told it often when trying to convey how remote and isolated I felt there.” Casares tells the story once more in his debut column for Texas Monthly, “In the Year 1974”. Having come of age on the border, in “the last city in Texas,” as he puts it, he brings a perspective to the magazine that represents the changing identity of our state. “I’m glad to add to the voice of a group that hasn’t been heard from quite enough,” says Casares, who teaches creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin. He published his first book, Brownsville, in 2003 and is working on “Américo,” a novel about his family’s migration to Texas in the 1850’s. And he still likes pizza.
