Texas Monthly December 2021

A PRODIGAL SON WANTS TO MAKE TYLER COOL Paul Cauthen had several albums under his belt, both as half of the musical duo Sons of Fathers and as a solo singer-songwriter, when he decided, in 2020, to purchase his childhood home in Tyler and return to the East Texas town. Moving to Tyler made financial sense—it’s much more affordable than Dallas, where Cauthen had been living—but, as he explains to Scott Bedgood, he also wanted to try to help make his hometown something he felt it wasn’t during his youth: cool. IN KINNEY COUNTY, MORE ARRESTS MEANS MORE TRIALS (AND HIGH COSTS) Kinney County, whose population is less than four thousand, has arrested more migrants, most of them arriving from Central America, than any other county in Texas. Ranchers say they’re experiencing more…

One of the questions I get asked most often, by Texans and especially by friends elsewhere, is why, even as our state enacts broadly unpopular policies on everything from abortion access and voting rights to our chronically unreliable electric grid, new transplants continue to outpace departing Texans at a rate of about 3,800 a week, arriving from locations as far-flung as Mexico City, Miami, and Mumbai. My reply starts with the observation that according to multiple opinion polls, the state’s recent legislation doesn’t reflect the views of most Texans. Those laws instead cater to the roughly 4 percent of the population that decides Republican primary contests. In recent years, winning the GOP primary has been tantamount to getting elected, thanks in part to the fecklessness of the state Democratic party, which…

The largest city in the Rio Grande Valley came to be known as the “Crossroads of the Hemisphere” as it connected the United States to the gateways of Latin America and beyond. Today Brownsville, Texas is the Gateway of the Future, as the only city in the world that hosts 5 methods of international trade: air, sea, road, rail and space. From shovel-ready sites, a well-trained bilingual workforce, and an open and inclusive ecosystem of entrepreneurship, Brownsville is a major industrial and manufacturing center. The city’s well developed infrastructure, interconnected transportation network, and unsurpassed quality of life make it a major tourism, international trade, and logistics hub. Whether starting or scaling your business through our eBridge Center for Business & Commercialization, embarking on a two nation vacation, or witnessing history in the…

“WHY WOULD I WANT TO GIVE MY SUPPORT TO THE POLITICAL PARTY THAT I FEEL WANTS TO HEAVILY TAX MY MONEY AND DO AWAY WITH MY JOB AT THE SAME TIME?” A Dem View In regard to your article “Why Democrats Are Losing Tejanos” [October 2021], I applaud you for writing what we Tejanos have known all along: the Democrats take us for granted. In the past decade, the oil boom created an increase in pay among the Tejanos and Hispanics in the state. A high number of Tejanos have moved into a class that I refer to as “roughneck upper blue-collar.” It’s no secret that Democrats want to abolish fossil fuels and drilling in the coming decades. Why would I want to give my support to the political party that I…

Connecting Chicago to California, U.S. Route 66 passed through only 178 miles of Texas, so it makes sense that songwriter Bobby Troup’s 1946 hit “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66” includes just three words about the state: “You see Amarillo.” This Panhandle city of more than 200,000 certainly is something to see, from its Old West flourishes to its dramatic sunsets. Against a backdrop of wide-open skies, a thriving arts scene splashes color all over the place: The annual Hoodoo Mural Festival commissions sprawling works to brighten up the downtown walls. Local Route 66 historian Bob “Crocodile” Lile takes the dried spray paint chips he finds in the dirt around the cars at the iconic Cadillac Ranch and turns them into “stones” (Cadilite, he calls them) that he sells as…

WOOD DUCKS AND MALLARDS, NORTH AND EAST TEXAS The male wood duck (illustrated), with its head of iridescent green and its dappled chestnut breast, is stunning to behold: a wildlife painting come to life, gliding gracefully through the forest. Wood ducks reside near streams and lakes in North and East Texas, which is also where you’ll find the much larger but similarly hued mallards, the nation’s most common duck. For hunters who covet these birds, Gus Engeling Wildlife Management Area, northwest of Palestine, is a good bet. The public reserve boasts thousands of acres of bottomland forests and wetlands, all traversed by slow-moving creeks and whistling with ducks. REDHEADS, THE SOUTH TEXAS COAST When redhead ducks bombard the Texas shoreline in mid to late January, often by the hundreds of thousands, they look…