September/October 2022

The Texas Observer

Observing Texas since 1954

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The Texas Observer
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Gabriel Arana CREATIVE DIRECTOR Ivan Armando Flores SENIOR WRITER & EDITOR Lise Olsen EDITOR-AT-LARGE Gayle Reaves DIGITAL EDITOR Kit O’Connell SENIOR WRITER & ASSISTANT EDITOR Gus Bova SENIOR WRITER Justin Miller STAFF WRITERS Delger
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Editor’s Note
For this issue, Senior Staff Writer Gus Bova traveled to Uvalde, where four months ago a gunman broke into Robb Elementary School and murdered 21 people with an AR-15. The school shooting—the deadliest in Texas history—has reignited the sleepy town o
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Money For Nothing And Your Chips For Free
Like a designer outlet store holding a liquidation sale for all its merchandise, the Texas Comptroller’s office has had a constant crowd of corporate customers forming a line out the door, eager to get their high-end property tax deals rung up at the
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The Price Of Speaking Freely
I never imagined my college would fire me for mentioning facts in a classroom. When the administration of Collin College in Plano, just north of Dallas, told me this past January that my contract as a history professor would not be renewed, I was som
The Texas Observer5 min readAmerican Government
Beto Goes For Broke
A few days after announcing a record-breaking fundraising haul of nearly $30 million in the first half of 2022, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke hit the road in mid-July for an ambitious Texas barnstorming. Seventy campaign events in
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Strangest State
Conventional wisdom among ranchers holds that the prairie dog is a nuisance to be eradicated. The rascally varmints compete with cattle for grass and create potentially hazardous subterranean towns that can cause a cow to break a leg. But new researc
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Dallas’ Gory Punk Scene In Black And White
In Vicious Velma’s world, concerts are primal and raw, rich with immediacy and spattered with bodily fluids. Photographer Vera “Velma” Hernandez got her start shooting concert photography in 2014 at a Tulsa punk festival called “Fuck You We Roll OK.”
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Uvalde Vive Uvalde Lives Uvalde rises Uvalde Reawakens
On the afternoon of July 10, Lalo Castillo, a craggy-faced and sturdy 76-year-old, arrived at the northeast corner of Robb Elementary School in southwest Uvalde, where neighbors and acquaintances began assembling for the largest political protest his
The Texas Observer17 min readCrime & Violence
The Tale of Eric the Red
Brenda Phillips hangs onto a Houston summer memory, circa 1996. It’s Friday night, she’s 26 years old and even though she’s sitting in gridlock traffic, she’s happy. When people in the cars around her begin opening doors and playing music, she joins
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Abbott’s Attack Dog
Ahead of the Texas Democratic Party convention in Dallas this July, a series of billboard ads strung along Interstate 35 depicted the elderly face of President Joe Biden morphing—sign by sign—into gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke. Each stage of
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Texas’ Summer From Hell
Mention the month of July 2022 to Texans along the Austin-San Antonio corridor, and it will likely conjure involuntary feelings of relentless, all-consuming heat. All things being unequal, many of us escaped into air-conditioned homes, offices, and c
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All In The Same (glass-bottomed) Boat
Peering into the freshwater springs of San Marcos through a glass-bottom boat is a little like peering back into Texas history. Groundwater bubbles and gushes through ancient limestone to refill the clear, dark turquoise waters of Spring Lake. On the
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The Bards Of Texas
Texas has been appointing state poets laureate since 1933, encouraging distinguished writers to share their talent and promote their craft statewide, but only since 2012 have Texas cities been naming their own poetry ambassadors. San Antonio was fir
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Malas Calles/mean Streets
Our streets didn’t need names We knew where we were Where we’d been Where we were goingSet in the same stateA litany of different placessuffering the same neglectBrazos Frío City Laredo Calaveras ChipinqueChupaderas DurangoDolorosa Guadalupe Navidad
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Support
An El Paso member gives. A Caddo Lake reader explores our climate change coverage. A whistleblower in Austin leaks proof of corruption. A Molly fan in Mesquite names us in her estate plans. A Houston student peruses at the library. A San Marcos activ
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Through Wins And Losses, Mary Beth Rogers Finds Peace
Mary Beth Rogers’ new memoir, Hope and Hard Truth: A Life in Texas Politics, begins and ends with water. To start, a stone well serves as metaphor for her many decades spent peering through the murky sediment of Texas politics, seeking a clear path t

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