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Overall, Texas does not have the demographic profile of a Southern state. TX shares the longest border with Mexico, was part of Mexico. There were times in its history when it was more Southern than now, and times when it was not. No one would deny the very important Southern influences in Texas. It was part of the confederacy, cotton etc. Oil is important to Louisiana but not as central to any Southern state's economy and history in the way it is to that of Texas. There are too many other influences, the Mexican one being the most significant: what Southern state can claim to have invented the margarita, nachos? Who is the Selena of Alabama? Of course, the South is not culturally homogenous, but the defining demographic feature there is black/white polarity. Race relations in Texas have always been triangulated in a most distinctive way. As you note, the German influence in central Texas is significant, not as huge as the French/Cajun influence in Louisiana, but still very apparent in the Hill country today. Many of the initial white settlers in central Texas are German, a large percentage of them socialists fleeing the failed revolutions of 1848 in Europe.
Texas is too big (anything east of 45 is absolutely Southern, between 45 and 35 transitional, west of 35, not so much, north Texas and the panhandle are as much great plains as Southern, the trans Pecos is unequivocally Southwestern, and south Texas and the Valley arguably have more in common with Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas than with anywhere in the U.S. South). Also Texas history is too singular to be part of any one region, which is why option 3 is the correct one on this poll. I think to say that Texas is where the South meets the West/Southwest, meets Mexico is reasonable, and it is that regional concatenation that makes Texas Texas. The claim that Texas is essentially or definitively or obviously Southern rather than partially, unevenly, occasionally, contestedly Southern strikes me as, well: all hat, no cattle.
I wouldn't call Texas as traditionally the Southern United States, though just from its geographical placement, it is the Southern United States. Living in Dallas doesn't feel like a typical Southern experience, except for when you deal with transplants from small towns in Texas or from smaller towns in Southern U.S. states like Arkansas, Lousiana, or Georgia. There's a little bit of that influence in Dallas because of the transplants.
I would agree that the Mexican influence makes it more Southwestern than Southern.
The problem with most Texans is they are incredibly ignorant of the history of their own state. Full Stop.
They state was never been majority Hispanic, during the Spanish and Mexican rule there were many more Native Americans living in the state than Hispanic people. Right now in 2019 is the most Hispanic Texas has ever been % wise.
Now, from the 1600s-mid early/mid 1800s the majority of non-Native American colonialists were Hispanic. Leading up to the Texas revolution (or at least the one we remember) Anglos flooded into the state. By 1830 Texas was only 20% Hispanic. By 1840 only 10% of Texas was Hispanic. By 1900 it was 5%.
San Antonio is an old and historical city with a long Hispanic heritage. However, by 1850 there were more ethnic Germans in the city than Hispanics. This was the case until the 1900s.
The overwhelming number of immigrants before and after the civil war were Southerners. They brought southern culture to Texas.
By the early 1900s, Texas was about 5% Hispanic. Modern industrialized Farming in the RGV, (That utilized cheap labour) The Mexican Revolution were two of the major factors that caused the massive uptick in Mexican immigration into Texas between 1900-1920s (and which continued on and off for the 20th century)
I'm in no way trying to minimize the importance of Hispanic culture on the state of Texas.
It's an essential part of the state. In the 20th Century, it has been one of the biggest forces in shaping the state. It's essential in the foundation of Spanish Texas. It's very important in West Texas historically, and all over Texas in the modern sense.
However, Hispanics only began to weld political power in the last 100 years, and until now, only as a minority group to the Southern, Anglo Texan power structure and "Texas" culture which is predominantly Southern. It's only in the last generation or so that Texas has really begun to integrate the Anglo and Hispanic culture.
Of course, has always happened where the cultures intersect, but that hasn't been the majority of Anglo Texas.
The irony is this: The majority of the cross-pollination that has occurred between Anglo and Hispanic Texas has happened with urbanisation in the major urban centres and that has happened in the last 50ish years.
The major exception is in the west and cowboy culture, which does come from Latin Culture....but if we are going to count Cowboy culture as latin culture that then we should say that Montana and Wyoming have strong Latin Roots in their culture since Cowboy Culture is even stronger there than it is here in Texas.
Even then, while Cowboys have their basis in Latin culture, the Hay Day for Texas Cowboys was during a period when less than 10% of Texas was Hispanic. For the point of reference, Idaho, at 15% Hispanic is substantially more Hispanic than Texas was during the 1860s-90s.
Texas Culture has been Dominated by Southern Culture. That's just the facts.
San Antonio didn't become majority Hispanic until the 1970 census and thanks as a transplant for the Texas history lesson.
Having lived in the Dallas area, in the Houston area, in West Texas, the golden triangle and In Louisiana, Texas feels far more Southwestern than it does Southern.
Having lived in the Dallas area, in the Houston area, in West Texas, the golden triangle and In Louisiana, Texas feels far more Southwestern than it does Southern.
So exactly how do those areas feel far more Southwest than the South? I live in Houston, lived in Dallas, grew up in Northeast Texas in a area called Arklatex and have family in Beaumont. Golden Triangle feels like an extension of SouthWEST Louisiana. Houston is international and global but culturally it’s still a Gulf coast southern city. Dallas is a global and just as international but culturally it’s a southern city with some Great Plains attributes. Ft. Worth is where the “west” begins atleast for the Anglo Saxon groups.
Where I grew up in East Texas, where closer to Memphis than we are even Austin in miles and culturally. Our bbq is more like other parts of the south(much better) were not centered around brisket like the rest of the state. Blacks in most cities and towns in East Texas and South East Texas are still the 2nd largest minority group over Hispanics like most other southern cities. I promise you most East Texans have never been to West Texas or anywhere bordering Mexico. We border Louisiana and Arkansas.
Southwest consist of cities like Phoenix,Albuquerque, El Paso,Tucson. Houston has more in common with New Orleans than those cities. Dallas while being more cosmopolitan has more in common with OKC and Little Rock than those cities. I honestly think people categorize these areas of Texas as Southwest due to decades of media’s portrayal of Texas as some desert no mans land. Yes Texas does have a distinct culture apart from the rest of the southern south but in certain areas there are far more similarities than there are differences.
So exactly how do those areas feel far more Southwest than the South? I live in Houston, lived in Dallas, grew up in Northeast Texas in a area called Arklatex and have family in Beaumont. Golden Triangle feels like an extension of SouthWEST Louisiana. Houston is international and global but culturally it’s still a Gulf coast southern city. Dallas is a global and just as international but culturally it’s a southern city with some Great Plains attributes. Ft. Worth is where the “west” begins atleast for the Anglo Saxon groups.
Where I grew up in East Texas, where closer to Memphis than we are even Austin in miles and culturally. Our bbq is more like other parts of the south(much better) were not centered around brisket like the rest of the state. Blacks in most cities and towns in East Texas and South East Texas are still the 2nd largest minority group over Hispanics like most other southern cities. I promise you most East Texans have never been to West Texas or anywhere bordering Mexico. We border Louisiana and Arkansas.
Southwest consist of cities like Phoenix,Albuquerque, El Paso,Tucson. Houston has more in common with New Orleans than those cities. Dallas while being more cosmopolitan has more in common with OKC and Little Rock than those cities. I honestly think people categorize these areas of Texas as Southwest due to decades of media’s portrayal of Texas as some desert no mans land. Yes Texas does have a distinct culture apart from the rest of the southern south but in certain areas there are far more similarities than there are differences.
Cant believe you wasted time responding to someone with 1 post, who joined yesterday just to create a troll post claiming Houston and the Golden Triangle "feel far more Southwestern than southern"...lol
Texas isn't complex, it's just big. All states have differences...southeastern Wisconsin is nothing like northwestern Wisconsin. People don't ruminate about it, though...ever. That's a Texas thing.
I agree with you to a large degree, but there's not as drastic a difference between northwest Wisconsin and southeast Wisconsin, when compared to the drastic difference between northwest Texas and southeast Texas. At least all parts of Wisconsin have plenty of trees and water. Texas goes from swamps and forests to deserts and plains.
Cant believe you wasted time responding to someone with 1 post, who joined yesterday just to create a troll post claiming Houston and the Golden Triangle "feel far more Southwestern than southern"...lol
Didn’t pay attention nor care. It’s a message board relax.
Yeah, no. I grew up in and around Abilene and 'sweet tea' (pre-made, pre-sugared tea) was not a thing while I was growing up. They gave you plain, unsweet tea, and you sugared it yourself. I first had pre-sweetened tea in Alabama. It's 2019, you can get sweet tea (pre-sweetened) all the way to Seattle now.
I don't know why pre-sweetened tea wasn't available, because it is awesome. But it wasn't. And yeah, I'd agree Abilene is generally 'southern', but so is Barstow CA and Gallup NM, in the exact same ways.
You can get sweet tea in Seattle because of culinary diversity, as a result of it being a major city. I'm sure you can get pretty good Japanese food but that doesn't mean anything. If you go to a small town in Washington state, I'm sure sweet tea will be hard to find.
Was in Wichita a few years ago and even as far south as Wichita, only a short drive from Oklahoma, sweet tea just isn't a "thing" there.
On the other hand, the big cities like Dallas, Austin, and Houston don't feel that Southern anymore, or even that Texan, for that matter due to the absolutely MASSIVE waves of migration from other parts of the US and rest of the world in the past 2 decades.
Texas is really at the crossroads of Southern, Western, and Hispanic cultures and can lay claim to all three.
There's Somalis in Minneapolis, Hmong in Saint Paul, Mexicans in West Saint Paul. You can find all kinds of nationalities in the Twin Cities and although not as many transplants as there are in Texas, still a good amount too. This diversity does not take away from our "Midwesterness" so why would diversity/migration take away from Dallas', Houston's or Austin's Southerneress? (Also virtually every immigrant and transplant in Texas that I met, has adapted parts of the local culture. I worked with a Chilean woman with a strong Chilean accent, who says "fixin' to" and I had a Chinese professor with the thickest Chinese accent, who said "y'all". It's not like these migrants are changing Texas. Texas is changing them) Why is the South so fragile? Hundreds of thousands of southerners moved to St. Louis, Chicago and Detroit and they haven't changed their northern/Midwestern identity. Tons of immigrants live in Chicago... Still the Midwest. Why is it the North has a more flexible identity than the South to some people? Is it some subliminal connotation of southern xenophobia? Because that ain't right.
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