Texas; is it part of the South or the Southwest? (Houston: movies, pros and cons)

[lipbalm]

Texas is a Big state, it depends. Houston is gulf coast kind of southern (not really), and El Paso is fully southwestern high desert more in common with southern New Mexico then the rest of the state.

[Tom Lennox 70]

I would include East Texas, including Houston as part of the South and I'm from Louisiana. Areas like Beaumont are a cultural extension of Southwest Louisiana and have a Cajun French influence, and the area around Texarkana is similar to North Louisiana. Also in East Texas the biggest minority culture is African American while in the rest of Texas the dominant minority culture is Mexican and in some areas Mexican is even the dominant culture.

However, East Texas is a small portion of Texas so OVERALL I would say Texas is more Southwest than South geographically and culturally. A lot of Texas landscape consists of desert which I associate with the Southwest, and the Mexican culture is also more associated with the Southwest than the South.

The immediate border areas feels like part of Mexico. I've been told by people who have visited that San Antonio and El Paso do not feel American at all.

[Tom Lennox 70]

Also think about the most stereotypical images.......the most stereotypical images of the South is a classic plantation with an alley of live oak trees dropping with Spanish moss, with large front porches. The most classic image of Texas is cowboys riding through the plains or the desert. That image of Texas is a lot more western than southern.

[jcp123]

It’s pretty evenly split. East of I35 feels more Southern. However, even by the time you hit Waco, Latin culture gets stronger and you start to see a lot more Southwestern-feeling building materials like sandstone. I wouldn’t quite say that El Paso or San Antonio feel like parts of Mexico, but the Rio Grande valley does, Laredo too. El Paso is a really neat city.

Then, up in the panhandle, it’s really more like the Great Plains than anything.

Texas is huge. It would be really hard for it to just feel like one thing.

[NorthTexasGuy]

Originally Posted by Treasurevalley92

Texas is southern first and foremost.... and parts of Texas are western. i'ts a southern state with a western part, not a western/southwestern state with a southern part.

Yes it is a different sort of southern than the deep south, but so is KY or TN.

The majority of the Texas population lives in the part of the state that is southern.

Texas has lots of southern culture, sensibilities and history. Sweet Tea, Southern Style buildings, Southern Accent, Southern Style food on the positive side and Slavery, the Confederacy and Jim Crow on the tragic side.

As a Northerner and a Westerner it is clear to me that Texas has a Southern Culture Y'all say Y'all for one....the majority of the white people (and their slaves) who settled Texas were southern and brought that culture with them.

Yeah we have Tex Mex, but LA has Cajun food...that doesn't make them "Not southern"

I will give the "It's both" people that yes, the border towns don't feel "Southern" El Paso is South Western.

But even many of the Larger towns and small cities out west still have a southern culture...Take Amarillo, Lubbock or Abilene for example...you still get sweet tea and such out there...you still get alot of southern type protestant churches out there. (church of christ, baptists and methodists for example)

Texas has also always voted in a block with other southern states for the last 160+ years....that alone does mean they are southern...but is just additional evidence.

Texas is a Southern State with a few "Western" parts and a foreign border.

I think you'll find that most native Texans will tell you they are Texans, not southerners. Having someone that considers themselves both a Northerner and a Westerner (whatever that is) tell them otherwise might make some folks a bit irritated. Like telling Mexicans their Spanish because of the Spanish influence in their history. Or saying Brazilians are "Hispanics" because they are south American and everyone must speak Spanish there, when in fact Brazil was founded by the Portuguese. Similar sure, both Mexico and Brazil are large countries with multiple influences to their cultures and those influences make them unique.

BTW, Texas's economy alone is comparable to that of Brazil and larger than Mexico's on a global scale.

[turf3]

Originally Posted by NorthTexasGuy

I think you'll find that most native Texans will tell you they are Texans, not southerners. Having someone that considers themselves both a Northerner and a Westerner (whatever that is) tell them otherwise might make some folks a bit irritated. Like telling Mexicans their Spanish because of the Spanish influence in their history. Or saying Brazilians are "Hispanics" because they are south American and everyone must speak Spanish there, when in fact Brazil was founded by the Portuguese. Similar sure, both Mexico and Brazil are large countries with multiple influences to their cultures and those influences make them unique.

BTW, Texas's economy alone is comparable to that of Brazil and larger than Mexico's on a global scale.

Yankees are always eager to tell us stuff about ourselves that's incorrect.

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by turf3

It's only Yankees that constantly harp on Texas being a Southern state. Texans and Southerners (from the Old South) consider us Texans. Yes, there's a lot of Southern in us, but we're not really the same thing.


It's like the way Yankees will insist (despite all assurances to the contrary) that Southerners and Texans use y'all as a singular on occasion.

Calling People Yankees is a southern thing. (and a really stupid thing for that mater) No one in a South western state would do that.

[jcp123]

Originally Posted by Treasurevalley92

Calling People Yankees is a southern thing. (and a really stupid thing for that mater) No one in a South western state would do that.

I did that growing up in California. Then again, my Pa is Texan.

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by NorthTexasGuy

I think you'll find that most native Texans will tell you they are Texans, not southerners. Having someone that considers themselves both a Northerner and a Westerner (whatever that is) tell them otherwise might make some folks a bit irritated. Like telling Mexicans their Spanish because of the Spanish influence in their history. Or saying Brazilians are "Hispanics" because they are south American and everyone must speak Spanish there, when in fact Brazil was founded by the Portuguese. Similar sure, both Mexico and Brazil are large countries with multiple influences to their cultures and those influences make them unique.

BTW, Texas's economy alone is comparable to that of Brazil and larger than Mexico's on a global scale.

Most New Englanders will tell you they are a New Englander...whats your point? Does that not make them Northerners? Its a particular type of Northerner, just like Texan or Cajun are a type of southern.

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by jcp123

I did that growing up in California. Then again, my Pa is Texan.

I know native Texans who call Californians "Yankees". Thats a very southern thing to do. People from other regions don't do that.