It’s hot — most days over 100 degrees. It’s South Texas. It’s July. Of course it’s hot! For people in more northern parts of the country, summer brings welcome relief to the gray, cold, heavy days of winter that seem to linger too long. Summers… Read More
All posts filed under “culture”
“Brooching” the Subject
On a trip to South Africa a couple years ago, I ran into one of my tour companions in a famous jewelry store in Johannesburg. She had evidently been there quite a while pondering the purchase of a pair of truly magnificent, and expensive, yellow… Read More
Fiesta! Una Cosa de Mujer
Fiesta starts in San Antonio this week, a sure sign that the doldrums of winter and sacrifices of Lent are over and that the weather is certifiably warm enough for beer and margaritas. Fiesta is ten-day city-wide celebration of Tex-Mex history and culture that has… Read More
A Gift of Words
Instead of giving candy or flowers this Valentine’s Day (so clichéd and old-fashioned ), why not give a gift on the cutting edge of a new trend: a dictionary! Yep. You read that right (ly). For decades, English teachers have been bemoaning signs of eroding… Read More
Mi Tierra
Mi Tierra is a San Antonio institution. What began in 1941 as a little three-table cafe for farmers and early-morning workers in the downtown market district has now expanded into a landmark restaurant that occupies an entire city block; it seats 500 people, is open… Read More
Women’s Work
I just returned from the International Quilt Festival in Houston. Held every year at the George R. Brown Convention Center, it is the largest annual quilt show in the country, considered the second largest in the world after Tokyo. Even though this is Texas, let’s… Read More
Who Are We?
Sandra Cisneros was in San Antonio last week, back from The White House after receiving the National Medal of Arts, to speak and read from her new book of essays, A House of My Own. As always, she was warm, funny, articulate, and very serious… Read More






