Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

A yellowed, faded, and crinkled telegram hangs behind glass on a wall at the National WWII Museum, in New Orleans. It is lasting evidence of a social and political revolution that raged in Texas in the years after World War II. Lyndon B. Johnson, then a U.S. senator, sent this message on January 11, 1949—75 years ago today—to Dr. Héctor P. García, a Mexican American civil rights activist in Corpus Christi. “I deeply regret to learn that the prejudice of some individuals extends even beyond this life,” Johnson wrote. He explained that he had arranged for the remains of Felix Zepeda Longoria, an Army private from the South Texas town of Three Rivers who had been killed in action three and a half years earlier,…

The post Felix Longoria Died a Hero in World War II. Then His Texas Hometown Refused to Host His Memorial. appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

In its mission statement, the nonprofit Houston Landing describes itself as an “independent, nonpartisan news organization devoted to public service journalism,” one that “offer[s] solutions to pressing problems” and “holds the powerful accountable.” Its stories are free to read, and its website runs no ads or clickbait. Its vision of an independent, well-funded outlet built on rigorous investigative reporting attracted some of the city’s brightest journalism stars after its soft launch two years ago with financial backing from the philanthropic American Journalism Project and Houston billionaires John Arnold and Richard Kinder.Among its first hires were Houston Chronicle investigations editor Mizanur Rahman, who became the Landing’s editor in chief (and helped write the mission statement), and the Chronicle’s Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Alex Stuckey, who became the…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

Every year in reporting and writing about our beloved state, we come to know ourselves as Texans a little better. Accordingly, every year we come to better understand what we’re just not willing to mess with anymore. The Washington Post has been telling us what’s in (bathroom fridges) and what’s out (cottage cheese) around New Year’s since 1978. And in the past few years on social media, the turn to January has meant a flurry of personalized and screenshotted Notes App “in/out” lists assigning tired trends (eating while standing up) their doomed fate, while heralding the future (medium-length socks). While we’re far from Texas’s ultimate tastemakers, we know a thing or two about the state’s cultural dips and turns. We know, for instance, that there’s a…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

Jorge “Choche” Flores II didn’t expect to employ his parents. But barbecue has become a bigger part of the Flores’ lives since Choche said goodbye to his law office position to open Choche’s BBQ in Eagle Pass. Choche’s mother, Marta, retired after many years of working at the local hospital to help her son cook and serve, and Choche’s father, Jorge, watches the smoker on his days off from the Exxon station where he’s worked for 28 years. When he retires in two months, he’ll spend more time helping his son. “We want to see it grow,” Jorge said.Jorge and Choche have cooked together for years on the barbecue-competition circuit. “I’m his travel partner,” Jorge said. He would barbecue for the family on the weekends…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

On a cloudy afternoon in November, I’m standing in a clearing in the woods near my suburban Austin neighborhood, binoculars pressed to my eyes, scanning the tree line for a colorful, robin-size raptor. My ears are attuned to a shrill “killy-killy-killy” or a rapid “klee-klee-klee” call, though I haven’t heard one yet. Since October I’ve been checking fields and telephone wires—the best places to look for an American kestrel, the smallest falcon in North America and the most common, with large populations migrating here for winter. Texas is one of the best places to see kestrels, which flock to all corners of the state—from the Rio Grande Valley to the Llano Estacado—hunting our grasslands, agricultural fields, and sprawling suburban neighborhoods for insects and small rodents. I fell…

The post Kestrels Are Disappearing. Here’s Where to See These “Small but Fierce” Falcons in Texas. appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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