January/February 2023

The Texas Observer

Observing Texas since 1954

The Texas Observer2 min read
Editor’s Note
President Joe Biden promised to end the cruel, Trump-era policy of tearing immigrant kids away from their families. But as Contributors John Washington and Anna-Catherine Brigida’s investigation documents in our cover story, family separation is aliv
The Texas Observer4 min readAmerican Government
Texas Dems’ Post-beto Era
In the fall of 2021, a national reporter from Politico was in Austin writing another profile of Beto O’Rourke as the El Paso Democrat geared up to follow a failed presidential campaign with a run for governor. The reporter asked Mayor Steve Adler whe
The Texas Observer5 min readAmerican Government
Don’t Like Texas Politics? Wait Five Minutes
Watching the national media’s reaction to last fall’s midterm elections made my head spin. While the cable news pundits and legacy media headlines spoke of the failure of a “red wave” to materialize, we here in Texas had to swallow the fact that our
The Texas Observer5 min readPolitical Ideologies
The Opposition
For what feels like the hundredth year running, Democrats in 2023 will hold no positions of structural import in Texas state government. As such, the party is left only to decide what sort of opposition it will be—loyal or defiant, supplicant or obst
The Texas Observer2 min read
Strangest State
UPS has thrown the higher education plans of dozens of El Paso High School students into disarray. The young people had just taken the SATs and handed their answer sheets to school officials, who handed them to UPS. En route to the College Board, the
The Texas Observer4 min readDiscrimination & Race Relations
Destiny’s Destiny
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned almost 50 years of legal precedent last June by stripping away the constitutional right to abortion, Destiny Adams was horrified. She foresaw devastating consequences for her community in Wolfforth, a tiny West
The Texas Observer18 min read
Breaking the Brazos
Few rivers can claim as strong a connection to Texas’ natural and cultural history—and its very identity—as the Brazos. across prairie and limestone hills to woodlands, through It drains the second-largest river basin in Texas, meandering for 840 mil
The Texas Observer14 min readAmerican Government
The lege 2023: Catastrophe #88
Elections have consequences. This political bromide is overused for a reason—it’s reliably true. And this year, the fallout for vulnerable Texans could be particularly destructive. After something approaching a blue wave swept across Texas in Novembe
The Texas Observer16 min readCrime & Violence
The Biden Administration Is Still Separating Families
The persecution for her work as a lawyer in Colombia had gotten so bad that Victoria and her husband, Anton, decided they needed to start lying to their son. They couldn’t stay in Colombia any longer, but they also recognized the dangers of fleeing—e
The Texas Observer2 min read
The Dignity Of Work
Democracy is a word on a lot of lips lately, but I’m not sure what it means: The right to vote? Freedom of speech? All of it together forms this numinous enterprise of democracy that we can’t see or touch. But we can see and know workers, who to me a
The Texas Observer3 min readCrime & Violence
Before ‘Lawrence’
On August 17, 1982, LGBTQ+ Texans celebrated “Gayteenth,” as activists called it at the time—a reference to Juneteenth, which commemorates news of slavery’s end reaching Texas. On that day in Dallas, a district court judge ruled in favor of plaintiff
The Texas Observer5 min read
Life And Death At The Rothko Chapel
In a part of Houston famous for its giant live oaks, museums, and million-dollar homes, 3900 Yupon Street looks out of place. With its bland brown brick facade, it could be just another building that schoolchildren throw balls against during recess.
The Texas Observer11 min read
A Tree Grows In Texas
When Dagoberto Gilb came to serve as writer-in-residence at the University of Houston-Victoria and found a literary center, he was assured he’d only have to teach one course per semester. “I had a contract, an agreement whose validity all academics t
The Texas Observer1 min read
Cold
There’s a temptation to see itas deterioration,a shift from perfection,the descent of long daysto long nights, darkness intrudingon the morning, low clouds obscuringthe sunrise, now a matter of faith. It creeps in, gradually,then all at oncelike the
The Texas Observer1 min read
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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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