Tag Archives: Essay
The 10 Best Observer Stories of 2016: ‘The New Migrants’
In the harsh post-2008 economy, builders like my father live on the road.
Illustration by Rebekka Dunlap Editor’s Note: Sarah Smarsh plays Studs Turkel to her father, a country carpenter from Kansas whose native intelligence and...Read More
How Ali Inspired a Generation of Chicano Activists
Writes Gregg Barrios: Ali "gave me and countless others the moral right to protest the draft and the war," and inspired a new wave of activists of color....Read More
David Bowie in Aztlán
Forty years ago, Chicano students in Crystal City created a Bowie-inspired rock opera.
Forty years ago, Chicano students in Crystal City created a Bowie-inspired rock opera. Teacher Gregg Barrios wonders if his kids influenced the rock genius....Read More
The 66 Percent: Erasing Mexican Americans in the United States
Why aren’t we going past wanting to educate MexAm children to have ordinary pride in who they are and where they’ve come from?
Why aren’t we going past wanting to educate MexAm children, in their own neighborhoods, to have ordinary pride in who they are and where they’ve come from?...Read More
Texas’ Strange Brand of Cool
Revisiting 'Paris, Texas' — the film that made nowhere hip.
'Paris, Texas' invented a certain flavor of Texas cool, an updated take on the archetypes of the state (men wandering out of the desert, trailer-park romance, d...Read More
The New Migrants
In the harsh post-2008 economy, builders like my father live on the road.
Suddenly, my Dad — a builder — had a home loan, no equity, an ailing wife who couldn’t work, and no job. Now, he makes his living wherever he can....Read More
How the 1% Gardens
Somehow, airlifting a tree into place misses the point.
Somehow, airlifting a tree into place misses the point. ...Read More
Our Blue Period
When clinical depression strikes a marriage, the cracks are long and deep.
People with clinical depression are wired differently. In a neurotypical brain, mood-regulating neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, noradrenaline and dopamine...Read More