Is San Antonio considered southern or southwestern? (Howe: beaches, architecture)

[NurseDana]

Texas is Texas! I like that!

[huckster]

Eastern Texas is a southern state, along with all the creole cooking, piney , red claysandy, deep south accent, along with Billy Bobs, and southern belles and oil country.
San Antone is of the southwest! --- North Texas is of the plains and prairies, tornadoes, searing heat,ice storms and vast flat distances between large towns, farming and ranching
West Texas is of the desert flora and fauna, mountains, mule deer, flat arid extension of the edwards pleateau.
South , deep south Texas is brush country, with deep mexican roots, culturally, vaqueros, spanish language(heavy) dry thorn brush, cactus, rattlers, javelina hogs, feral hogs, ranch country and little else with the exception of the irrigated "Valley". An extension of the Sonoran desert of northern Mexico as is west Texas. Once again geographically unique to the area of Texas.
S.A. is one of Americas unique cities-historically and culturally and geographically. Travel in one any of four directions from it and your
travels will encounter four different types of topography.
West - flat desert country. North - the hilly edwards pleateu.
Southeast and east-- rich farmlands of the coastal plains.
South- Dry rough brush country. Not to mention the gulf goast.
I can think of no other place where one can describe this.
Not to mention of S.A.'s rich cultural heritage of many varied ethnicities.
There is no other place like it I don't even live there, but I used to and I have been all over and live at the opposite end of the country now, but it is my ultimate destination, ultimately,in time.

Originally Posted by infinity & beyond

Trying to classify San Antonio is a difficult task. Geographically, it's in a generally recognized southern US state, Texas. However, because Texas is so large, it's often difficult to quantify. Furthermore, the city's primary ethnic and cultural heritage is Hispanic, and with that come elements of the southwest.

Do you consider San Antonio to be a part of the south or southwest?

[SanAntoQT]

Originally Posted by huckster

Eastern Texas is a southern state, along with all the creole cooking, piney , red claysandy, deep south accent, along with Billy Bobs, and southern belles and oil country.
San Antone is of the southwest! --- North Texas is of the plains and prairies, tornadoes, searing heat,ice storms and vast flat distances between large towns, farming and ranching
West Texas is of the desert flora and fauna, mountains, mule deer, flat arid extension of the edwards pleateau.
South , deep south Texas is brush country, with deep mexican roots, culturally, vaqueros, spanish language(heavy) dry thorn brush, cactus, rattlers, javelina hogs, feral hogs, ranch country and little else with the exception of the irrigated "Valley". An extension of the Sonoran desert of northern Mexico as is west Texas. Once again geographically unique to the area of Texas.
S.A. is one of Americas unique cities-historically and culturally and geographically. Travel in one any of four directions from it and your
travels will encounter four different types of topography.
West - flat desert country. North - the hilly edwards pleateu.
Southeast and east-- rich farmlands of the coastal plains.
South- Dry rough brush country. Not to mention the gulf goast.
I can think of no other place where one can describe this.
Not to mention of S.A.'s rich cultural heritage of many varied ethnicities.
There is no other place like it I don't even live there, but I used to and I have been all over and live at the opposite end of the country now, but it is my ultimate destination, ultimately,in time.

San Antone?! Noooooooo! *lol*

I don't think of Texas as being southern or southwestern. All I know is when I'm asked where I'm from and I say TEXAS, I either get a very positive response or a very negative one. I've never gotten an "oh, that's nice." Apparently, I don't even have to brag. That good ol' TEXAS pride just rubs some people the wrong way...especially Californians.

[LindaGrace]

I agree that Texas in general is neither southern nor southwestern - it's Texan. I can break it down by city, though:

Houston: Southern (too close to Louisiana not to be)
Austin: Texas Lite
San Antonio: More southwestern, definite Mexican influence
Dallas: Oklahoma

I moved here from central Illinois 11 years ago and when people ask me how I like living in the south, I say, "I don't live in the south; I live in Texas."

[traveler guy]

Texas is on a class of it's own cause.... It for one is the size of France and stretches from the deserts of El Paso to the forest and swamps of Houston.
It stretches from the Tornadoes of Lubbock to the Hurricanes of South Padre.
There is a saying that goes Dallas is where the east ends and Fort Worth is where the west begins. I for one would go with Texas being a southern state. I think the state should be cut in half from I-35 even though Texas doesn't show true South-Western charistics till anther 300 miles after passing SA.

[hello13685]

Yeah, Texas is southern to me too. Moving here from the true southwest has made that very clear to me.

[Chaka]

Originally Posted by hello13685

Yeah, Texas is southern to me too. Moving here from the true southwest has made that very clear to me.

I thought you said you lived in CA and Oregon before, neither of which I'd consider Southwestern, but coastal or simply West.

Southwest would be AZ, NM, CO, UT. Southern California, where I'm from, certainly has a southwestern feel to it in some ways, but it's not "true" southwestern, whatever that means. I think San Antonio is more 'true' southwestern than most of Southern California.

[SanAntoQT]

Originally Posted by hello13685

Yeah, Texas is southern to me too. Moving here from the true southwest has made that very clear to me.

Where do you find the "true southwest" in California? I don't see it.

[green_mariner]

San Antonio is southwestern culturally. It can't imagine it being southern.

[hello13685]

Even if one were to consider southwest to be AZ and NM, in my opinion SA would be southern. I find AZ and NM to be much sharper, more stark, and featuring higher contrasts (people, architecture, vistas, weather). I find SA to have a softer, more melded, lazy, blended vibe (kind of like everything thrown together and blended into one muddy puddle). That muddiness is "southern" to me. I do mean muddy in the most positive sense!