May/June 2020

The Texas Observer

Observing Texas since 1954

The Texas Observer1 min read
Trivia Texas
Humor helps people get through tough times—and that’s certainly been true during the coronavirus pandemic. Which of the following funny coping strategies did Texans not turn to recently? a. A Houston mom posted a sign on her door for her kids to cons
The Texas Observer1 min read
The Texas Observer
SINCE 1954 VOLUME 112, NO. 3 FOUNDING EDITOR Ronnie Dugger EXECUTIVE EDITOR Abby Johnston MANAGING EDITOR Rose Cahalan SENIOR EDITOR Megan Kimble ENGAGEMENT EDITOR Sunny Sone SENIOR REPORTER AND EDITOR Lise Olsen STAFF WRITERS Michael Barajas, Gus Bo
The Texas Observer11 min read
Political Intelligence
CARMEN ZUNIGA LEAVES HER HOUSE IN MCALLEN EVERY Monday, Wednesday, and Friday before dawn to go to a dialysis center about 4 miles away. Zuniga has had diabetes for nearly three decades; the disease has left her mostly blind and reliant on dialysis t
The Texas Observer2 min read
Dialogue
I enjoyed reading your story regarding the aesthetics of new residential construction in older neighborhoods (“Baffled City,” March|April issue). I especially enjoyed seeing the photos, since I live in Atlanta and the moderns being built here have si
The Texas Observer1 min read
Texas Tally
In 2016, a team of Texas scientists had developed a vaccine that could be effective against COVID-19. But they couldn’t raise the estimated $3 million necessary for clinical trials in humans, so the research stalled. The United Nations now estimates
The Texas Observer3 min read
Texas Observed
It’s time for progressives to exploit a crisis for political gain. ¶ The novel coronavirus hasn’t tanked an otherwise healthy country; it’s exposed our society for the wobbly tower of inequity and brutishness it already was. Our prisons are full of t
The Texas Observer1 min read
Strangest State
Visit texasobserver.org/strangest-state for more “Strangest State” and links to original stories. Got a local oddity or some small-town news to share? Tips are welcome at editors@texasobserver.org. ■
The Texas Observer5 min readMedical
Neglected Diseases
PETER HOTEZ HAS SPENT HIS CAREER STUDYING INFECTIOUS diseases that others weren’t paying attention to, developing vaccines that “no one else will make.” Four years ago, Hotez and a team of Texas scientists developed a vaccine that he now believes cou
The Texas Observer2 min read
The Foreseeable Future
ON THE FIRST MONDAY IN APRIL, I drove to the Texas Observer office to print proofs of this issue. The office was empty—it had been for three weeks, when we all started working remotely. I rescued my desk plants, parched and tilted toward the sun, and
The Texas Observer16 min read
The Disappeared
For nearly 30 years, Dianne Gonsoulin Hastings tried to discover what befell her big sister. Donna was petite, rail-thin, and had a distinctive dark-eyed charm. As a girl and young woman, she loved to go crabbing on Pleasure Island, standing for hour
The Texas Observer10 min read
Locked Out
Rachel Rodriguez remembers her son Ruben being a very attached child. Even as Ruben got older and started getting into trouble, the mother and son remained close. “He was always just right there, right next to me,” she says. In 2013, when he was 20,
The Texas Observer4 min read
She’s Got the Beat
THE GO-GO’S WERE USED TO HAVING THEIR STORY WRITTEN FOR them. It’s happened to any band that has weathered a press junket: the same handful of anecdotes, origin myths, and quotes trotted out in every interview, profile, and concert preview. Let’s get
The Texas Observer11 min read
The Texotics
WHEN THE RAIN BEGAN, THE antelope and deer of the Y.O. Ranch Headquarters gathered to chew idly beneath the sparse trees. For 10 days in October 2018, a line of storms pounded the Texas Hill Country. Brown currents rose over a bridge on the ranch, sp
The Texas Observer15 min readWomen's Health
The Traveling Midwife
It was the middle of the night when the call came, and she sprung out of bed and threw on the scrubs she’d hung up the day before. She piled boxes with oxygen tanks, medications, and other supplies into the trunk of her gray Hyundai and set off from
The Texas Observer4 min readAmerican Government
Pushing Forward
DURING MY FOUR YEARS AT THE TEXAS Observer, I’ve scrambled after stories about the progressive movement all over the sprawling Lone Star State. So while watching The Pushback—a new documentary that chronicles the Texas left—I sometimes felt the disti
The Texas Observer1 min read
Dark Truce
Black widows in my writingshack. They spin their jaggedsilk in the corner by the doorand hang their eggs, bulging,by the score. I see their shadowed legs onthreads poking out behindbare studs like a needle on arecord’s tread. I know they feelmy footf
The Texas Observer11 min read
¡Viva el Mariachi!
FOR A MOMENT AFTER THE EDCOUCH-ELSA High School mariachi ensemble plays the final notes of “La Petenera,” no one moves. The music seems to linger in the air of the brightly painted cinder block practice room. Then the seven violin players, who’ve all
The Texas Observer1 min read
Eye On Texas
ON SATURDAY, MARCH 21, THE UNITED STATES AND Mexico partially closed their border in an attempt to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. In El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, where life is defined by transnational movement, the decision completely altered the soc

The Texas Observer

More Issues From The Texas Observer