What ‘Cheer’ Led To: How Viral Fame Upended Monica Aldama’s Life
Inside the Netflix star and competitive cheerleading coach’s fight against the fallout of instant stardom.
Inside the Netflix star and competitive cheerleading coach’s fight against the fallout of instant stardom.
With their anything-goes approach to ingredients—and deep-pocketed investors—Torchy's Tacos and Velvet Taco have ambitious plans to expand nationally.
Texas writer and artist Roxy Gordon loved Native culture so much that—at least in his own mind—he “became” an Indian.
Marshall Stewart has been searching San Angelo for 35 years, looking for answers that might never come: Who murdered his teenage son, Shane, along with his girlfriend, Sally McNelly, in 1988? And why?
Turns out the most powerfully restrained actor of his generation is an open book. He and his wife, Kirsten (Dunst—you may have heard of her), welcomed us into their L.A. home and then had us down to Mart, Texas (population 1,748), to meet his folks, who thought he had promise,
How high-end camping turned into a statewide phenomenon.
U.S. policy is designed to force those entering Texas to cross at dangerous choke points. Those who don't make it are often never identified.
At former Green Beret Alan Shebaro's North Texas gym, U.S. military veterans create community and find support through jiujitsu.
The Speaker governs as an old-school conservative—a crime for which right-wing Republicans are determined to banish him.
The state’s most powerful figure, Tim Dunn, isn’t an elected official. But behind the scenes, the West Texas oilman and lay preacher is lavishly financing what he regards as a holy war against public education, renewable energy, and non-Christians.
Austin Riley spent decades raising exotic animals in the Texas Hill Country. In a split second, the animal he thought he knew best changed his life forever.
Once a national craze, ninepin bowling is now practiced in just eighteen Texas clubs, where a vibrant cast of characters keep the sport alive.
No longer a niche subculture, climbing has attracted converts across the state. Senior editor Forrest Wilder explores the sport—from El Paso’s Hueco Tanks to the cliffs over Lake Marble Falls—and tries to tackle his own white whale.
Executive editor Michael Hall has reported on many exonerations over the years, but nothing compares to the story of Estella Ybarra and Carlos Jaile.
She was pressured into convicting a man she believed was innocent—and was haunted by remorse. Three decades later, she did something about it.
Politicians have labeled the battle over Ken Paxton’s impeachment as one between centrists and the far right. It’s not, according to our analysis of legislators’ voting records.
The impeachment trial of Ken Paxton delivered a steady stream of tantalizing entertainment. But the most consequential moments played out when few were watching.
Fort Worth cleric Michael Olson is no stranger to scandal. But when he threatened to remove a nun from her home, he might have finally met his match.
The Longhorn Network will go off the air next July. But the University of Texas’s pursuit of its own channel changed college sports forever.
Call them the astronauts of the underground. The state’s cavers are a literal subculture, daring to go where no one has gone before.
Alligator snapping turtle populations in Texas were dwindling. One family of smugglers had been poaching them from the state for years.
For a long time, Texas Republican chairman Matt Rinaldi couldn’t win elections. Now he wants to decide them—by exacting revenge on opponents within his party.
Acre by acre, families have lost long-held property near Bryan and College Station—much of it to the efforts of two men who weaponized arcane documents to acquire plots potentially worth millions.
Decades after the Nashville establishment turned its back on Tanya Tucker, the spitfire from Seminole is finally getting the recognition she deserves. But maybe Music Row needs her more than she needs Music Row.
The beloved indie rocker was set to coheadline a summer tour with his sixteen-year-old son. When Dorian died this February, his father sought refuge the only way he could: in their shared love of music.
In the half-century since a troop of Japanese macaques arrived in Texas, a truly wild tale has played out.
Some of the best waves in the world are found at the Waco Surf water park, far away from any ocean.
For forty years, Allie Beth Allman has ruled the glittering world of luxury real estate in Dallas. Then came a flood of coastal money, a technological revolution, a rift with a longtime partner, and the inexorable toll of time.
That left the real culprit free to prey on others, including one victim who was ignored for two decades.
From a small bookstore in Central Texas, the best-selling author rules over the booming Stoicism self-help movement. Why now? Why here?
The inventor of the world’s first cosmetic penile implant says a group of Houston doctors is trying to steal his ideas. Inside the multimillion-dollar feud.
The conservative, gun-toting superintendent of Fort Davis Independent School District is fed up: “I’m not patient enough to spend time with assholes in Austin, and I’m not rich enough to buy any votes.”
The real history is much messier—and more inspiring.
After years of struggle, Charley Crockett is on the verge of stardom. The story of how he got here would be unbelievable if it weren’t true.
One year ago, before the school shooting in Uvalde, Kimberly Mata-Rubio had never been on a plane or given a public speech or scolded a U.S. senator right there in his office. A year in the life of a grieving mother.
They’ve overrun nearly the entire state, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage annually in spite of widespread attempts at eradication—including traps, contraceptives, and a heavily armed Ted Nugent.
Former House Speaker Tom Craddick and his family—including his daughter, Railroad Commission chairman Christi Craddick—earned about $10 million last year from oil and gas rights.
It took him a while to get here, but now he’s out to transform our state with new technologies—if our leaders’ hostility toward renewable energy (and his Twitter misadventures) don’t get in the way.
As we celebrate one hundred years of our state parks, they are more popular than ever. But our booming population is overwhelming the state’s scarce public lands. What will the next century hold for Texas’s “best idea”?
For underprivileged kids, the biggest obstacles to success—homelessness, hunger, violence—reside outside the classroom. Dallas businessman Randy Bowman, who grew up poor himself, is betting on an unconventional fix.
What seems like an outbreak of local skirmishes is part of a decades-long push to privatize the education system.
A $500 million restoration seeks to reverse almost two centuries of cultural and physical neglect at the most popular historic site in Texas. There’s never been more of a concerted effort to make things right.
In 1983 James Reyos was convicted of murder in Odessa, despite having an airtight alibi. Four decades later, he’s still fighting to clear his name.
When I started writing for Texas Monthly in 1973, I didn’t expect it to last very long. But it’s still here, five decades later.
Fifty years ago, Texas Monthly was little more than an idea dreamt up by a local lawyer with minimal experience in journalism. Then it was an actual thing. How did that happen?
The Munns became a national curiosity after five of them were indicted for participating in the insurrection. But the full scope of their malignant behavior is little known—including to the federal prosecutors tasked with investigating their crimes.
The Texas Monthly writer reflects on the run-down home that led him to write “Still Life,” about John McClamrock, the boy who could not move.
Low primary-election turnout and an anemic Democratic party means statewide officials and legislators are far to the right of most Texans.
To his 650,000 Instagram followers, he’s a pioneering “grandfluencer.” But to his adoring second-grade students, he’s simply Mr. Randle.
Plans were underway to revive tourism at Fort Clark Springs in southwest Texas. But then, in a scenario increasingly common across the state, the water stopped flowing.