Texas Highways Magazine December 2022

Like many acclaimed authors before him, Edward Carey found that moving away from his homeland gifted him the freedom to write about it in a way he wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. Born in North Walsham, England, Carey has lived in Austin for the past 12 years. While he spends most of his time in the capital city, where he teaches at the University of Texas’ New Writers Project and Michener Center for Writers, he has traveled to some of the state’s most remote destinations for previous Texas Highways assignments. Of his trips to the ghost town of Terlingua and the forests of Big Thicket National Preserve, he says, “I felt I was falling off the world, and it was both troubling and liberating.” For his fourth illustrated story in…

When writer Luis Rendon traded Laredo for New York City, he knew he was leaving some long-held customs behind. He returned to his childhood home to write “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” (Page 40), which explores classic holiday traditions in Mexican American households. The experience reminded him of what he’d been missing. “I could never have enough tamales,” he reminisces. “The best part was waking up on Christmas morning and heating up the leftover tamales from the night before on the comal so they’d be nice and crispy.” Rendon appreciated the break from the commercialism of a New York Christmas. “There’s a definite romance to all of that,” he says, “but I’m happy to give that up to have a great night in my parents’ backyard with family.”…

Elizabeth Bruenig Bruenig reflects on her move from Texas to the Northeast in “Too Wild To Love” (Page 12). “The natural beauty of Texas is so overwhelming, it’s a challenge to try to catch a fragment of it in words,” the Connecticut-based writer says. “It is such an enchanted place.” Bruenig is a writer at The Atlantic and has written for The New York Times and The Washington Post. In 2019, she was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing for her investigation of a sexual assault that took place at her high school in Arlington. Bruenig reports on capital punishment, criminal justice, and violence in the U.S. Natalie Weiner The Dallas-based writer spoke with podcaster, journalist, and San Antonio native Sam Sanders for “Purposely Pop-Centric” (Page 83)—a conversation that was more…

Great to see the elusive chile pequin finally receive the attention it deserves. This venerable pepper has long been a secret weapon for Texas chili cooks. A chosen few chomp away and embrace the heat. Neophytes are in for quite a surprise. Steve St. John, Plano Chile Pequin Here in the middle of Texas we call them turkey peppers because the turkeys eat them [“Some Like It Hot,” October]. James N. Mann, Eastland Cemetery Tourism I really enjoyed the article about cemeteries [“The Last Time Anyone Says Your Name,” October]. I grew up spending time in cemeteries connecting the generations. Mike Woods, Krum Haunted Monteleone’s Took my kids one time and they were too scared to go all the way into the restaurant [“Dining With the Dead,” October]. @7notwanderglittergold7 Family Ties Gordy Sauer’s essay [“Echoes All Around,” November] about his grandparents brought…

One of Big Bend National Park’s most spectacular landmarks, Santa Elena Canyon extends 7 miles along the Rio Grande border of Texas and Mexico. The river cuts a gorge through thick limestone mesas, creating sheer walls that soar more than 1,000 feet above the water. Dallas-based photographer Sean Fitzgerald was hiking the Santa Elena Canyon Trail, exploring the end of the canyon near Terlingua Creek on a sunny late December day, when he captured this image. “The water was super clear at the time, but I didn’t really see the blue sky until I waded out into the river and looked down at the reflection,” Fitzgerald says. “That’s one of the things I love about Big Bend. It always reveals itself in a new way the more time you spend…

The settlers who first came to the Harper area in the 1860s were drawn by rolling Hill Country grasslands well-suited for raising cattle. Hunting and ranching still anchor the unincorporated community in Gillespie County, although visitors are likely to spot exotic game like blackbuck antelope and nilgai along with white-tailed deer, goats, cattle, and horses. After graduating from Harper High School in 1979, Rose Ellen Jackson married into a ranching family, and she’s lived in the Hill Country ever since. In 2019, Jackson opened The Arosa Bed and Breakfast—a funky collection of retro-style campers in downtown Harper—which she is now closing and converting into a restaurant. “My daughter Faith helped me manage The Arosa, and now the two of us are planning to open a bistro called Boujee in the…