Texas Monthly

Recognition for Four Texas Monthly Editors

Texas Monthly — Fri, 03 May 2024 20:46:19 +0000

On April 30, the James Beard Foundation announced its 2024 Media Award nominees. For the third year in a row, taco editor José R. Ralat and Texas Monthly have been nominated in the Columns and Newsletters category for José’s Tex-Mexplainer series. According to the organization’s website, “This award recognizes the work of an individual or team/group that demonstrates thought-provoking opinion and a compelling style on food- or drink-related topics.” José’s pieces “Defining ‘Guisado’ Is Just as Messy as the Dish Itself,” “A Head Above: How Barbacoa Paved the Way for Barbecue,” and “Red, White, and Covered in Salsa: How Two Colors Came to Dominate Taquerias” were specifically cited in the nomination. Winners of the 2024 James Beard Media Awards will be announced live in Chicago…

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Henry Cuellar Has Been Indicted on Charges of Bribery and Money Laundering

Matthew Choi, the Texas Tribune — Fri, 03 May 2024 19:47:06 +0000

U.S. representative Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo) was indicted with his wife, Imelda, on Friday on charges of accepting almost $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani energy company and a Mexican bank, the Justice Department announced.Cuellar allegedly accepted the payments after they had been laundered through fake consulting contracts to shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, according to the DOJ. In exchange, Henry Cuellar allegedly pursued policy in favor of Azerbaijan, the department said. Cuellar also allegedly took money from a Mexican bank and influenced members of the executive branch to make policy favorable for the bank, according to the department.Cuellar asserted his innocence in a statement Friday after NBC News reported federal prosecutors’ plans for an indictment. The Cuellars appeared in a federal courthouse in Houston…

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Meet the Rebel Alliance Taking On the Texas History Establishment

Michael Hardy — Fri, 03 May 2024 15:52:00 +0000

At a symposium organized by the newly formed Alliance for Texas History in Fort Worth last weekend, University of Houston doctoral student Shine Trabucco, who is of Taos Pueblo and Quecha descent, began her talk by “acknowledging that we are on the ancestral lands of the Caddo, the Comanche, and the Kickapoo. We are just visitors and guests on Indigenous people’s land.” Later in the day, University of New Orleans professor Max Krochmal declared that “we are meeting on stolen land in a city built by enslaved Black people and exploited migrant labor.” Not to be outdone, University of North Texas professor Michael Phillips pointed out that the state of Texas was built by “exploiting the labor of enslaved people, Indigenous people, and poor whites.” Such…

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Inside Major League Rugby’s Texas-Size Growth Plan

Daniel Vaughn — Fri, 03 May 2024 14:47:13 +0000

For an American sports fan, following a rugby match can be disorienting. The constant action is a remedy against boredom, but the experience is like watching every other sport you might be familiar with happening all at once. “It has a combination of basketball, football, hockey, soccer, and even some elements of track,” said Rodd Newhouse, COO and part owner of the Dallas Jackals. The pace of play drew him to the game, and he’s hoping it will draw new fans to a professional league that most Texans have never heard of, Major League Rugby.MLR was founded seven years ago in Dallas, though North Texas has only had a team since the Jackals debuted in 2022. The Houston SaberCats have played since the inaugural 2018…

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Country Singer Parker McCollum Doesn’t Believe in Forcing It

Lauren Castro — Thu, 02 May 2024 18:10:03 +0000

Country singer Parker McCollum epitomizes cowboy swagger. His usual white tee, gold chain, and heavily starched jeans are as much of a uniform as Orville Peck’s mask of fringe. Heck, he even has a whole album, Gold Chain Cowboy, dedicated to the classic look. It’s the cowboy version of effortless chic. McCollum says his fashion sense is a tribute to MTV Cribs and Pure Country, the shows he spent his youth watching in Conroe, north of Houston. “I grew up cowboying a lot from my granddad but also, I wanted to be a country singer and have a big ranch, have a bunch of cars, and maybe some jewelry and some fly stuff like that,” McCollum says. The “weird hybrid mix of the two” has worked…

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How Dan Rather Helped Turn “TV Journalism” Into an Oxymoron

Josh Alvarez — Thu, 02 May 2024 16:45:17 +0000

Dan Rather was perhaps the most famous journalist in America back when being a news anchor at one of the big three network television channels—ABC, CBS, and NBC—mattered. The Texas native’s long career, including 24 years as the face of CBS’s Evening News, is one of the most storied in the history of American journalism—even when considering his sudden, ignominious fall from his CBS perch—and is the subject of Rather, a new documentary streaming on Netflix. The film, directed by longtime Hollywood producer Frank Marshall and featuring Rather, who is a sprightly 92, is snappy and well-crafted, but it’s mostly interested in defending and celebrating the newsman. In its more transcendent moments, it touches on larger questions about journalism, how it should be done, and…

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Texas Monthly Wins Two Awards

Texas Monthly — Thu, 02 May 2024 15:36:52 +0000

Last week, it was announced that Texas Monthly was recognized by two prestigious entities: the Religion News Association and the Webby Awards. The RNA awards ceremony took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 20. According to the organization’s website, “The Religion News Association has been the premier professional association for people who report on religion in the news media. Our mission is to equip journalists throughout the world with the tools and resources they need to cover religion with balance, accuracy and insight.” At the awards, Texas Monthly‘s deputy editor of digital, Sandi Villarreal, won first place in the RNA’s Multimedia: Analysis category, for “The Biblical Womanhood of Angela Paxton,” which was published online in September 2023.On April 23, Texas Monthly Studio‘s The Official Love…

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Meet Max Chiefari, Globe-trotting Barbecue Consultant

Daniel Vaughn — Thu, 02 May 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Mauro “Max” Chiefari was in the Nile Delta, about a hundred miles north of New Cairo, when he felt his stomach rumble. He had just eaten some raw-milk cheese shared with him while on a search for hardwood to fill the smokers at Longhorn Texas BBQ. It was late 2020, and the restaurant was to open soon. Wood is scarce in Egypt, so Chiefari had answered a Facebook ad promising something better than the old furniture scraps he was sometimes offered. “The drive took six hours,” he recalled, and was mostly off-road, but the person who put out the ad had good acacia and oak. As he loaded the wood, he saw a motorcycle carrying four people being pulled by a donkey. “It was just…

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Robo Truckers Will Soon Roam Free on Texas Highways

Mark Dent — Thu, 02 May 2024 13:00:00 +0000

On a sunny Wednesday morning, a cyclist pedals furiously down the shoulder of Interstate 20, just south of Dallas. He’s no more than ten feet from dozens of cars zooming by at seventy miles per hour. One tiny mishap—say, a passing driver distracted by changing the radio station and swerving at the worst possible moment—could kill the cyclist. And he has no idea that approaching rapidly behind him is an eighteen-wheeler without a driver in control.Fortunately for the cyclist, pods mounted on the truck’s sides are equipped with cameras, lasers, and radar that give the vehicle a 360-degree picture of its surroundings and help it gauge distances. The sensors identify the cyclist as a moving object that needs to be avoided and send data about…

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How to Tell Joel Osteen and Haley Joel Osment Apart: A Guide for Kendrick Lamar

Dan Solomon — Wed, 01 May 2024 19:52:26 +0000

Kendrick Lamar surprise-released a new single on Monday, and Drake had a bad day. The track, a six-and-a-half minute instant classic, was a howl of rage and mockery at the Canadian megastar, escalating a war of words that had recently tipped from cold to hot in a way that effectively salts the earth beneath poor Drake’s feet. Neither of those fellas are Texans, though, so why are we writing about it? You won’t believe this, but it’s because of Houston megachurch pastor Joel Osteen.Nearly five-and-a-half minutes into the track, Lamar drops yet another brutal simile in a song full of devastating insults. “Am I battling ghost or AI?” he asks, referencing both a song Drake released in April that featured an AI-generated verse mimicking Tupac…

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Would Sam Houston Be a Texans Fan? A Texas Monthly Investigation

Dan Solomon — Wed, 01 May 2024 16:23:02 +0000

The statue of Sam Houston in Huntsville, Texas, stands a mighty 67 feet tall. It’s one of the tallest in the United States, just six inches shorter than the giraffe sculpture at the Dallas Zoo and a foot shorter than the Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington, D.C. (Ol’ Sam is, alas, less than half the height of the Statue of Liberty.) The Huntsville monument is named “A Tribute To Courage,” and it has towered over motorists heading north on Interstate 45 for the past thirty years. Normally, the graven image of the first president of the Republic of Texas is dressed formally, in a cravat, waistcoat, and jacket, gazing over the state whose independence he helped secure while resting his right hand on a cane. In…

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The Texanist: I’m Moving From California to Galveston. What Words Should I Learn?

David Courtney — Wed, 01 May 2024 15:54:39 +0000

Even if you’re not BOI and you have no idea what a feeder road is, the Texanist is here to help.Q: I’m about to move from California to Galveston. In lieu of “shaka, bruh,” “surf’s up,” or “hella cool,” what are some words and phrases I should learn to use in conversation?Dianne White, Santa BarbaraA: Howdy, and welcome to Texas! Moving to a new state can be an exhausting and life-altering experience. And pulling up stakes on the West Coast—pretty Santa Barbara, no less—and putting down new ones on Galveston Island, off the Third Coast, presents an extra layer of cultural disruption on top of the logistical challenges that come with transplanting oneself. That’s because we Texans take our state culture and identity more seriously than…

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Farmers Blame Mexico for the Closure of a Sugar Mill. But Is the Crop Right for Drought-Ridden Texas?

Michael Hardy — Wed, 01 May 2024 14:59:59 +0000

Historians believe that Spanish missionaries built the first sugar mill in Texas in the 1780s at Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo, in present-day San Antonio. Four decades later, Stephen F. Austin’s colonists planted cane in southeast Texas, and over the course of the nineteenth century, sugar grew into one of the state’s most lucrative exports. The sprawling cane plantations along the Brazos River—worked by thousands of slaves toiling in pestilential conditions—became known as the Sugar Bowl of Texas. After mosaic disease decimated the state’s sugar crop in the 1920s, cane production was largely abandoned for nearly half a century. But the 1962 U.S. economic embargo against Cuba, which restricted sugar imports, helped resurrect the industry. In 1970, a cooperative of one hundred South…

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Ken Paxton Takes Manhattan

Christopher Hooks — Wed, 01 May 2024 14:53:27 +0000

His job done in Texas—crime defeated, corruption accusations beaten, wrongdoing righted—Attorney General Ken Paxton traveled from Austin yesterday to a much deeper den of iniquity: Manhattan. “With President Trump in NYC to sit through this sham of a trial,” he posted this morning. “This trial is a travesty of justice. I stand with Trump.”The Texan made his appearance midafternoon, presumably white-hatted, with six-shooters in hand. According to the pool report from a dogged reporter covering the trial of the century, or at least the trial of the month, “Trump entered at 2:12. He pumped a fist and did not speak. He was accompanied by his son Eric, Texas AG Ken Paxton, campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Jason Miller, and lawyers.”Setting the trial lawyers and Susie…

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Black and Blue Beef Steak Pizza

TM Promotions — Wed, 01 May 2024 14:22:00 +0000

Imagine perfect patio weather, a chilled glass of white wine (or your beverage of choice) and a table surrounded by good friends — add in the fresh and fun flavors of Black and Blue Beef Steak Pizza, and you’ve got yourself a Texas treat that inspires a spirit of camaraderie and joy.Created by Chef Robert Hale in the Beef Loving Texans kitchen, the recipe was inspired by Chef’s love of Italian food and expertise in beef. With the deep umami notes of blue cheese and steak, this recipe takes your typical pie to new heights.For those eager to bring a slice of Texas home, BeefLovingTexans.com is your go-to for mouthwatering recipes designed to add some sizzle to your kitchen with flavors as big as Texas…

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Poppi Is Making Soda Cool Again

Megha McSwain — Wed, 01 May 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Fizzy drinks are at an inflection point. While traditional and diet sodas have been roundly demonized due to the adverse health effects of truly jaw-dropping amounts of sugar and artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, the flavor-light sparkling waters on the market haven’t quite been scratching that itch. Enter Poppi, an Austin-based company that’s making soda for the health-conscious-but-still-want-to-have-fun consumers, largely made up of millennials and Gen Z.With cheerful neon packaging and flavors ranging from classic cola and grape to watermelon and strawberry lemonade, Poppi sodas are jarringly good—even more so when you realize they have just 25 calories a can with five grams or less of sugar. With its claim of its products being good for the digestive system due to their inclusion of apple…

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How to Shop for Vintage Cowboy Boots

Lauren Castro — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 19:57:05 +0000

“What we believe first and foremost with a cowboy boot is that it [must] follow the traditional standards for construction,” Will Ormes tells me, with an accent so strong he has to be a born-and-bred Texan. A few minutes ago, he tipped his black Stetson in greeting and sat down across from me at the hat-room bar at Allens Boots in Austin. The first sign that you’re in a solid boot-shopping establishment: chivalry is alive and well.Ormes, a manager at Allens, has agreed to give me a history lesson on a cowboy or cowgirl’s most prized possession: a pair of trusty, worn-in leather boots. He explains how stacked leather and a stainless steel shank, a thin bar most often found in work boots that adds…

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The Horniest Bar in Texas Is on the Rebound

Josh Alvarez — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 16:31:51 +0000

Before Murphy Bailey ever set foot in Henry’s Hideout, an 87-year-old honky-tonk just up the road from his hometown of Magnolia, 45 miles northwest of Houston, he had heard stories about it and Henry Phillips, who founded the joint and ran it until he died, in 1992.“I heard he had a pet bear, Henry did,” Bailey, who is 38 and the proprietor of the newly renovated Hideout, said. “And you could go in there, pay a fee, and wrestle it. If you beat it, you won the pot that had accumulated from past losers. I’ve heard that one so many times, I mean, it’s got to have some truth.” The veracity of such tall tales was ultimately, for Bailey and the townsfolk, of little import.…

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No, a Magazine Called ‘Israel Monthly’ Did Not Put Greg Abbott on Its Cover

Dan Solomon — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 15:33:07 +0000

The social media site formerly known as Twitter, and currently known as X, has long been a cesspool of social ills. But ever since Elon Musk took the reins in 2022, two years after he officially moved to Texas, it has gotten a lot of attention for tolerating a surge in antisemitism, racism, misogyny, all manner of hate speech, and misinformation. So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that on Monday morning, our very magazine got dragged into Musk’s gutter, via a bizarre, doctored image of Texas Monthly’s October 2013 cover. The real cover featured a portrait Texas Monthly commissioned of Greg Abbott sitting in his wheelchair in a clearing, a gun propped over his shoulder, under the headline “The Gov,” with an asterisk next to…

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Texas Developers Love Big Thirsty Lawns. That’s a Huge Problem for the State’s Water Supply.

Forrest Wilder — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 15:13:19 +0000

If you’re a native Texan, or if you’ve lived here awhile, you’ve probably had it drilled into your head: don’t waste water. And you’ve likely noticed how our ever-hotter, ever-drier summers are wreaking havoc on our aquifers, reservoirs, rivers, trees, and landscapes. Thanks to our old pal climate change, we are now even contending with a new type of drought! For those who didn’t get the message, however, water utilities across much of the state have been increasing rates for heavy users, cracking down on rule breakers, and imposing stringent measures such as once-a-week watering rules. Changing consciousness, and conservation-focused policy tools, have made a difference. Cities have cut their per-capita consumption—the average amount of water used per resident—by more than 20 percent in the…

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El Botanero Mariscos Is a Seafood Oasis Along the Texas Border

José R. Ralat — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 14:00:00 +0000

After finishing a construction job in Jarrell, Abel Palacios was looking for a different way to make money. His older brother, Josh Palacios, co-owner of El Remedio Mariscos y Taqueria in San Antonio, told him he needed to go into the family business built on their Sinaloan grandfather’s seafood recipes. “You need to sell ceviche, bro,” Josh recalls telling Abel in 2019. But the younger Palacios didn’t have any professional food experience, so he was hesitant. It took more encouragement, repeated visits to his grandfather’s house in Los Angeles, and a pandemic to spur Abel into action. He relocated to his hometown of El Paso and started delivering aguachile and ceviche from the trunk of his 2014 Toyota Camry in January 2020. He sold forty to…

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How One Waco Family Resurrected the Oldest Known Tiffany Stained-glass Window in Texas

Taylor Prewitt — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 20:25:49 +0000

The hand-painted face of a sheep peeks out of an assortment of colorful glass fragments on a wooden worktable at Stanton Studios, in Waco. The weathered visage, its details hard to decipher against the scuffed, unlit pane, is the only indication of what this stained-glass window will portray once it is fully assembled. Even the man responsible for the job can’t bear to tally up the exact number of glass pieces it entails. “Thousands,” studio founder Bryant Stanton tells me. Even in an uncountable number of pieces, the window is gorgeous, its deeply hued fragments reflecting light to catch the eye like so many two-dimensional jewels.Waiting to be soldered together in the Waco workshop, the glass shards are 240 miles from their home church, in…

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Willie Nelson Is Fine! He’s Trending Because It’s His Birthday.

Dan Solomon — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 17:43:43 +0000

When a celebrity’s name starts trending on social media, there’s a question fans have to ask: Is this for a good reason, or a bad one? When that celebrity is elderly, the fear that folks might be talking about them because there’s bad news is heightened. So we are here to tell you, if you’ve seen Willie Nelson trending today, April 29, everything is fine. It’s just his birthday! Happy birthday, Willie!Today is Willie’s ninety-first birthday, putting him in the ranks of the estimated 2.8 million Americans who have entered their tenth decade of experiencing life on this planet of ours. Last year, the Red Headed Stranger celebrated his ninetieth in high-profile fashion, performing as part of a star-studded tribute concert at the Hollywood Bowl…

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Cut the Crape Myrtle! Texas Deserves a Better State Shrub

Evan Mintz — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 14:02:28 +0000

An apocryphal quirk of Texas history claims that we have the right to subdivide into five distinct states, and reading the headlines in Texas Monthly may have you thinking that we’re on the verge of such a pentamerous shattering. Troops are at the border. An internal civil war wages among state leadership. A few Republicans have even put a fatwa on on H-E-B Chairman Charles Butt.But whatever lines may divide us, there is one core fact about Texas that should be able to heal any political schism, bridge any cultural divide, and unite us all under a single banner from El Paso to Texarkana: Texas has the absolute best official state flora and fauna.I presume your mind’s eye is already fluttering with visions of roadside…

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Tito’s Handmade Vodka’s Debut Book Is a Love Letter to Texas, Lake Life, and Dogs

Nataly Keomoungkhoun — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 14:00:00 +0000

The shiny copper top of a bottle of Tito’s Handmade Vodka is instantly recognizable at any bar across the country. The brand may have humble roots as the oldest legal distillery in Texas, but these days, imbibers from Los Angeles to New York City commonly order the vodka by name, advancing it into the echelon of Jack, Crown, and Grey Goose. But Tito’s was not an overnight success, says Taylor Berry, the vice president of brand marketing, but rather a “25-year overnight success.”When Tito’s celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2022, the Austin-based company considered it the right time to document its history alongside dozens of cocktail recipes. The brand’s debut book, Spirit in a Bottle: Tales and Drinks from Tito’s Handmade Vodka, out May 7…

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