January/February 2020

The Texas Observer

Observing Texas since 1954

The Texas Observer2 min readMedical
Dialogue
When I saw this article (“Critical Condition,” November|December issue), it immediately made me think of Clarksville and what the town has gone through since the hospital closed. It was surreal to open the article up to see that Clarksville was the f
The Texas Observer10 min readMedical
Political Intelligence
FORMER DALLAS MORNING NEWS POLITICAL JOURNAList Wayne Slater remembers the moment well. He was sitting at a sports bar near downtown Austin one day in the late 1980s, listening to a quixotic political consultant pitch his plan to turn Texas—a one-par
The Texas Observer1 min readAmerican Government
Texas Tally
▸ It took only a one-hour meeting to unravel the 22-year career of Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen. Michael Quinn Sullivan, the leader of Empower Texans, secretly recorded a June conversation with Bonnen, revealing that the speaker asked Sullivan t
The Texas Observer3 min read
Where Is Your Mind?
AS THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION DRAWS CLOSER, A LOT of people are struggling to make up their minds—about what is in other people’s minds. The last election was a disorienting experience that made Americans second-guess the way they thought things
The Texas Observer5 min read
Deportation Disasters
AS AN 18-YEAR-OLD FRESHMAN AT THE UNIVERSITY of Arizona, Jeremy Slack began crossing the border into Mexico not to down shots of tequila, but to interview the displaced. Tall, blond, and at first speaking only high school Spanish, the Virginia transp
The Texas Observer2 min read
Force of Numbers
THE NUMBER 2020, WITH ITS rhythmic repetition and round-bodied look, seems as though it should be full of consequence and meaning. It might be tempting to project heavy-handed symbolism to a year with those double figures. Indeed, some Americans migh
The Texas Observer22 min read
The PRISON Inside PRISON
Three years ago, guards came to Roger Uvalle’s cell to tell him he was “catching chain”—being shackled and transferred to another prison. As the guards escorted him to the chain bus with about 60 other inmates, Uvalle began trembling, overcome by anx
The Texas Observer14 min read
SOMETHING In The AIR
Lawrence Brorman eases his pickup through plowed farmland in Deaf Smith County, an impossibly flat stretch of the Texas Panhandle where cattle outnumber people 40 to 1. The 67-year-old farmer and rancher brings the vehicle to a stop at the field’s so
The Texas Observer7 min read
The Fantastic World of Cande Aguilar
WHEN RISING BROWNSville artist Cande Aguilar was invited to show his work in his first solo New York City exhibition, in September 2019, his excitement was tempered by a major new obstacle: how to ship his large paintings and sculptures across the co
The Texas Observer4 min read
Chicken Run
THE AVERAGE AMERICAN EATS ABOUT 279 EGGS EACH YEAR, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and that’s no surprise. Eggs are cheap and available everywhere, and sandwiches featuring them are a staple of fast-food restaurant value menus. They
The Texas Observer4 min readPsychology
Dropping Their Guard
IT’S THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, AND A skinny young man is slumped on a curb outside a San Antonio strip club. Officer Joe Smarro—dressed casually in jeans, sneakers, and a black polo shirt—approaches him. “What’s going on, man?” he asks. “Woke up and d
The Texas Observer6 min read
Against the Current
DRESSED IN WHITE, SIX MANdaean men stand by the Guadalupe River under a clear November sky. Some wear wooden sandals. Others wait barefoot at the water’s edge, feeling the sun-warmed stones press into the soles of their feet. One by one, the men step

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