Heading west from Tulsa, Oklahoma I arrived in Texas in late December and stopped first for the night in Amarillo.
The fade from Oklahoma is gradual, but noticeable. Texas being more wide open in its northern panhandle. The speed limit is eighty here and the nearest cars are often a half mile back in the rearview. It's not unusual to see nothing but road in front of you. Approaching cars from the other direction are rare, but when one does appear on the horizon it closes the gap quickly and is gone.
I remember a college history professor telling my class there was the "Old West of song and story" and the real Old West that was harder, more desperate, and less romantic. The landscape reminds me of the more fictional frontier, Marlboro ads, and faded red pickup trucks. It is vast and dotted with sheet metal and abode structures standing resolute against the wind and sun. It's hard to tell whether many of the buildings are still in use or long abandoned.
Cotton has always been a major crop in Texas and you will find acres of it growing alongside the state's major highways and backroads. Cotton balls cover the roadsides like huge wet snowflakes fallen in late spring.
The state has a population of nearly thirty million people but they are spread over almost 270 thousand square miles. Outside the major cities the state is as rural as it was before World War II when energy production began to re-shape the state's economy.
For many Americans, especially Americans from the northeast like me, Texas is seen as a center of southern conservatism. Hard core Republican. Anti-immigrant. Second Amendment loving. Dismissive of environmental protection. COVID maskless.
But that's an unfair stereotype. Being near the border with Mexico, a large part of the population is from south of the markers. In cities like El Paso, you are more likely to hear Spanish being spoken on the streets than English. Mexican food is always on the menu. While some politicians may have decided to deny the threat of COVID-19, the state Capitol in Austin was closed, when I was there, as a precaution.
In a state as vast as Texas, a state so dependent on the energy sector, it is easy to understand why some Texans may consider environmental protection laws to be over-reaching. It is not as if they are drilling for oil or natural gas in Central Park. It is possible to use the wide open spaces of north and west Texas for energy production and agriculture purposes. There is plenty of room for it all.
While former President Trump won Texas in 2020 by a comfortable margin(52% - 46%), political observers have long felt that changes in population will turn Texas into a Democratic leaning state perhaps by the end of this decade.
As you reach the urban centers of Texas, it becomes harder to visually see the cultural differences between the west of today and the rest of the country. We all drive the same cars, eat the same food, wear the same clothes. Share many of the same concerns.
The capital city of Austin, like other American cities faces economic challenges that have driven many into homelessness. A political battle over the issue has broken out, in the last year, between the city government and the state government.
The city has adopted a new policy to end homelessness based on compassion rather than aggressive law enforcement. As a result, small tent cities have been permanently set up in many open spaces and under highway overpasses. The governor, in an effort to take control of the problem, opened what is described as a homeless encampment on state property several miles from the center of town. Currently, there is debate over whether the state should take control of all law enforcement in Austin.
Texas is so big it is hard to compare with other American states. At the same time, despite its best efforts, Texas cannot escape many of the common challenges of this moment in American history.
Covering almost 3,000 miles in Texas alone, I drove from the Oklahoma border to the border with New Mexico until reaching the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston at the end of 2020.
Here is a place that encompasses all that Texas has to offer. A blend of urbanism, beach life, industry and multi-culturalism.
Tourists from across the state, and from California to the west and Louisiana and Florida to the east, fill hotels and motels along the Galveston Seawall, first constructed after the hurricane of 1900. A few blocks from the ocean, downtown Galveston has the look of a typical tourist town built on the bones of an old west outpost.
The Port of Galveston, first established by the Mexican government when current day Texas was part of Mexico, is a deepwater port about ten miles from the open ocean. Its main business is import and export, but it also serves as a home port for cruise ships.
Here again, Texas shows that its sheer size allows it to be many things to many people. Its land and natural resources are protected and exploited at the same time. As people surf, swim and fish onshore, massive oil and natural gas tankers move back and forth through the Gulf.
Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and even Cuba are on the horizon.
Stereotypes rarely do justice to people or places and that is certainly true of Texas. In general attitude, the state and its people embody the optimism of America as a whole. In this big land, all are welcome and anything is possible. There is room enough for everyone, and anyone's idea of freedom, as long as your freedom does not limit my own.
"Don't Mess With Texas," is not so much a threat as it is an American guarantee that here you have an absolute right to pursue happiness on your terms.
Coming in the weeks ahead: Immigration along the Texas border and a visit to Marfa.
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© Dean Pagani 2021
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© Dean Pagani 2021