Texas: Past and Present

Abstract

“Texas: Past and Present.” This phrase brings many images to mind: the Caddo word, Tejas, meaning friend.’ The tourist promotion that showed up on signs in the 1980s, “Don’t Mess With Texas.” Portraits from the past include the Alamo, bucking broncos and flying cowboys, gushing oilrigs, and brightly colored and ornately stitched boots. Natural vistas crowd the collage: mountains and desert of the Big Bend, live-oak covered hills, cotton covered fields, and Gulf-coast beaches. Texas’ present flashes across screens depicting Houston traffic, Dallas’ Reunion Tower Ball, Austin’s Governor turned President, and San Antonio’s modern baseball stadium, the Alamo Dome. Texans appear in national magazines, both proudly and infamously. The 2000 presidential election drew Texans to the nation’s capital, showing off garish cowboy boots under designer gowns, and a deceased Houston oilman’s heirs fight their father’s model-turned socialite widow.