The Texas Observer

The Texas Observer is an Austin-based nonprofit news organization known for fearless investigative reporting, narrative storytelling and sophisticated cultural criticism about all things Texan.

The Texas Observer • VOLUME 113, NO. 3

DIALOGUE

POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE

TRIVIA TEXAS

TEXAS TALLY • The news, in numbers

TEXAS OBSERVED • We have a fundamental, deep-in-the-deepest-heart-of-Texas problem, and it’s not new. It’s just clearer, now and to more of us, that our bootstrapping individualism is a sham, and a deadly one.

STRANGEST STATE • NOTES FROM FAR-FLUNG TEXAS

Hidden in Plain Sight

LOON STAR STATE Ben Sargent

A Texas Labor Organizer Goes to Washington • As a Latina immigrant, Montserrat Garibay broke barriers in the Texas labor movement. Now she enters the national stage.

FOLLOW THE MONEY • OVER THE SPAN OF FOUR YEARS, FEDERAL INVESTIGATORS ESTIMATED MILLIONS OF DOLLARS STOLEN FROM MEXICAN TAXPAYERS PASSED THROUGH ONE SOUTH TEXAS BANK. WHEN THEY FOLLOWED THE TRAIL, IT LED TO REAL ESTATE, CARS, AND AIRPLANES. BUT IN 2018, THOSE INVESTIGATIONS SUDDENLY STOPPED.

Robert Bullard Isn’t Done Yet • More than 40 years after the Texas Southern University professor researched the first environmental justice case, communities of color still face an uphill battle claiming their right to clean air and a healthy neighborhood. Federal environmental justice legislation could change that.

The Next Trans Griot • Few publications covered Black trans communities. After the death of Monica Roberts, TransGriot’s founder, the people she empowered grieve and begin to chart a new era.

The Western’s Long Glorification of Oppression • A quintessentially American, and Texan, film genre, the Western has mistold Texas history since its beginnings.

A Feminist Rewrite of Lot • Set in Hope, Texas, God Spare the Girls subverts the biblical story, in which a man escapes while women perish.

An Irreversible Sentence • Using dubious evidence, Texas condemned Clinton Young to death almost 20 years ago. I traveled 3,000 miles to Texas to help him.

SOBREVIVIR

EYE ON TEXAS