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THIS WEEK: “Women opening their mouths and talking to each other, to journalists, to politicians about what they are angry about, and how they might work together to change it, have the ability to pressure governments, companies, to remake legislation and determine elections.” In her keynote speech at the Observer’s 2019 MOLLY Prize dinner, Rebecca Traister argued that women’s anger has been silenced throughout history — and that daring to speak out is a powerful, subversive act. We published her full remarks online this week.
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The Lede
Washington Crossing the Rio Grande
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- Since its founding in 1898 by a fraternal group of white elites called the Improved Order of Red Men, Laredo’s Washington’s Birthday commemoration has fused — at times uneasily — extravagant expressions of American patriotism with the heritage and identity of a binational community that residents call Los Dos Laredos.
- The monthlong celebration — the oldest and largest in the country, in a border community that George Washington never visited or knew existed — draws 400,000 visitors and includes a colonial-themed debutante ball, a jalapeño-eating contest, concerts by Mexican and Tejano superstars and an air show.
- “Why is a community that is about 95 percent Latino celebrating George Washington in such a big way?” asked Carolina Ramos, a Laredo Community College professor who wrote her master’s thesis on the event. “It’s kind of amazing. But it also leads to so many questions.”
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From the archives
The Passage of Nathan Pierce
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- At 32, Nathan Pierce was turning his life around. Then he sought help from Texas’ mental-health system.
- From the 2013 feature: “Pierce was trying to turn his life around and was studying to become a welder, but his deteriorating mental state made it tough. His symptoms soon worsened. He endured terrifying hallucinations and suicidal urges. So on the morning of July 12, his mother, Barbara Pierce Todd, drove him to the Texoma Community Center, the local mental health clinic, for an evaluation. A caseworker and a supervisor declared that he needed treatment at the North Texas State Hospital, an in-patient facility in Wichita Falls, two hours away. Though Pierce was voluntarily seeking hospitalization, a magistrate issued an emergency detention order that same day and, as is standard practice, the clinic notified the county sheriff’s department to deliver Pierce to the state hospital. He never made it.”
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Now Available in the Texas Observer Store
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Inspired by the ladder card from Lotería, our newest shirt design references the small upward steps that Latinx communities must take to overcome the obstacles placed before them.
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