“Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study, and the passionate possession of all Texans,” author John Steinbeck once wrote.
A cotton field in Levelland, Texas. Photo taken in Dec. 2012 by Sarah Self-Walbrick.
What is it about Texas? We either love it, displaying passionate pride of our home state, defending it at any cost, and getting its outline tattooed on our bodies, with a little star representing our personal hometowns. Or we loathe it and get out as fast as we can and never talk about where we’re from.
Sean Cunningham, Ph.D., teaches a Texas history course at Texas Tech. A Texas native, Cunningham received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 2007. Through his research, Cunningham has studied how Texans perceive themselves, and how that has affected their political affiliations.
“Well, in reality Texas isn’t all that terribly unique from other states,” Cunningham wrote in an e-mail. “But according to popular perception, the state has a unique personality/identity based on its history as an independent nation, a status achieved through a bloody war against a foreign enemy.”
Cunningham goes on to write that Texas’s strong historical roots has caused Hollywood and the popular culture world to stereotype Texans.
“The most stereotypical images we tend to associate with “Texas” – cowboys and cattle drives, rich (evil) oil tycoons, and tough, self-sufficient, self-made individualists – are rooted in some sense of historical reality,” Cunningham wrote, “but are also continuously fueled by popular perceptions that many Texans choose to adopt for themselves.”
But are these perceptions accurate?
Alejandro Trevino, a Lubbockite who is now a sophomore digital cinema major at DePaul University in Chicago, said he did not realize he had so much pride in his home state until he left it.
“Texans are very proud in their state,” Trevino wrote in an e-mail. “Moving away, I realized that my dialect and Southern accent was stronger than I had ever realized.”
Trevino wrote his two closest friends in Chicago are from Texas as well. He wrote that a fellow classmate had a Texas flag hanging from his dormitory window. Trevino wrote he did not think students from other states shows as much pride in their home as fellow Texans.
Sydney Holmes moved to New York City after graduating from Tech with a broadcast journalism degree in 2013. She currently works for Town Residential Real Estate as the public relations coordinator. She also pursues stand-up comedy in her free time.
Wind energy farm in Texas. All photos taken by Sarah Self-Walbrick.
Holmes said she always wanted to move to the Big Apple. She said one of the things she misses most is being able to go as she pleases in her own car, rather than carrying her whole life with her throughout Manhattan, aimlessly waiting for taxis.
“There’s a lot more transvestites,” Holmes joked when asked about differences between Texas and her new home.
Holmes said there was little culture shock for her. But she said a big adjustments she had to make was in her living situation. In a phone interview, she said she pays three times more for her tiny apartment in New York City than she did in Lubbock.
Holmes said she is not ashamed to say she is from Texas, but does not necessarily shout it from the rooftops.
“I’m definitely proud, but there’s a stigma of Texans being conservative, super in your face, and close minded,” Holmes said. “Just like anywhere else, you shouldn’t generalize a whole state.”
Holmes said she misses the people in Texas more than the state itself.
Haboobs are serious business. Photo taken in Nov. 2013 by Sarah Self-Walbrick.
“It’s home, in a different way,” Holmes said. “Houston was home, and then Lubbock was home. Some of my best memories are with my friends in Texas, drinking wine outside. Texas is hot and gross, but polite.”
Trevino wrote he does miss some aspects of Texas, but does not see himself moving back to conservative West Texas anytime soon. He enjoys the more liberal and open culture of Chicago, but said he could see himself ending up in the Austin area after graduation.
“Texas to me means a rich history,” Trevino wrote,” and a place where you can clap four times at a particular tempo and everyone will respond with ‘Deep in the heart of Texas!’ It’s a place that I will always call home and know that is where I started my journey, wherever it may lead me.”
About Sarah Self-Walbrick
