Books
October 21, 2019
Severo Perez’s Complex Valentine to San Antonio
The filmmaker turned novelist revisits the city of his youth, in all its pain and glory.
Texas History
September 18, 2019
Américo Paredes vs. J. Frank Dobie
For years, the great folklorist convinced many scholars and activists that the vaunted “Texas Man of Letters” was an anti-Mexican racist. Maybe it’s time to reconsider that judgment—as Paredes himself eventually did.
Being Texan
January 30, 2019
From East Texas to El Paso, Four Texans Reflect on Where They’re From
Over the years, Texas Monthly’s most celebrated voices have written about the places that shaped them, from the Panhandle to the border. We revisit some of the classics.
The Culture
April 13, 2018
San Antonio Is a City of Metamorphosis
Though the city’s Tricentennial Commission has thus far been a dismal failure, creative residents have found a way to celebrate their complex history and promising future.
Politics & Policy
July 23, 2015
Return to Cotulla
My family and their hometown helped change LBJ’s views on equal rights. Did his later policies change the reality for those in South Texas?
Books
October 20, 2014
Against the Canon
What are the best Texas books ever written? Here’s my list—now let the sparks fly.
Texas History
April 11, 2014
Remember the Tejanos!
Tejanos at the Alamo.
The Culture
January 21, 2013
The Education of Mi Hijita
My daughter is only two, but I’m already planning to teach her what it means to be a Texan—and a Tejana.
Texas History
January 20, 2013
City of Dreams
Searching for the legendary past—and the cosmic future—in my old river city, San Antonio de Béjar.
John Phillip Santos
January 20, 2013
Two Burials
Today my grandfather is buried in a family plot in Laredo. But to understand who he was and what his family was like, you have to know the story of his first burial, seventy miles away and nearly twenty years earlier.
Books
February 1, 2012
Violence Is Golden
James Carlos Blake’s latest novel explores the sins of the grandfather.
News & Politics
October 31, 2010
Back to the Future
A trip through South Texas in search of the ghosts of borders past—and a vision for what comes next.