Zapata and race

I went back to Zapata, Texas (on the border south of Laredo) last week to help finish up a survey that we are doing about the impact of broadband Internet in rural towns. Several grad students from UT went along to do interviews and help run the process. Here are Claudia, Adam and Jeremiah standing by some cactus, agave and mesquite-- all things that Zapata produces pretty well.

It doesn't seem to produce enlightened racial attitudes -- Adam got a pretty cold, even hostile reception from a lot of people there. It is too easy to forget how many people still have a pretty deep level of prejudice, just as much among Hispanics as Whites in this case, since the town is over probably at least 80 percent Latino.

Or was. Zapata is also attracting large numbers of Anglo retirees from other, usually more northerly parts of the USA. Rent is cheap -- one man I interviewed said the main reason he stays is $150 rent on a decent place near Falcon Lake with sort of a view of it. The weather is warm, which appeals to people who have seen way to0 much snow in the Mid-West. Food is cheap -- a steak dinner is about $8, as is a HUGE Tex-Mex meal.

So Zapata is being redefined ethnically now, but it still seems to effectively exclude Black people from its new definition.

It will be interesting to see how Obama does in South Texas.