Can you be a "true" Texan if you weren't born here? (Houston: job market, to live in)

[radiolibre99]

Originally Posted by L210

There is more than one Texas experience. Urban Texas is a part of Texas.

Exactly. The guy doesn't know squat about Houston. Do many cities have their main industrial base as oil/gas? Houston is where I learned a lot of info about energy trading from people in the biz and partying with them have me a uniquely Texan experience of the models and bottles scene from Wall St NYC. It's a slice of life rarely duplicated. The richness of the socialite scene that is uniquely Texan in its extravagance and humility, if that makes sense. If it doesn't make sense then you don't know.

That's one aspect. Don't even get me started on the Houston hip hop scene which I love too. It's independent unique sound that pioneered chopped and screwed music was epic in putting Houston on the map. The pride Houstonians feel toward the local artists is unprecedented, so much so they see other rappers in the main as mere posers. That differs from the "crunk" music of ATL. Everyone knows that most of rap today has copied a lot of the sound and bravado of Houston. Drake can't stop singing Houston's praises.

Austin. Do I have really have to go into how Austin is so unique???

The anti city stuff here is amazing. All experiences in Texas and uniquely Texan.

[NickelsTX]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

Exactly. The guy doesn't know squat about Houston.

Again I live in Houston. The most important factor in both of my jobs is my knowledge of Houston and I'm damn good at it.

[radiolibre99]

Originally Posted by NickelsTX

Again I live in Houston. The most important factor in both of my jobs is my knowledge of Houston and I'm damn good at it.

Then you wouldn't have said that cities in Texas are not unique. Or that the "real" Texas experience is only found in the rural small towns. They don't mudding or have a party next to a fire out in the sticks in Georgia? I could say that life isn't really uniquely Texan too, just southern.

[Pincho-toot]

Well Hank Hill was born in New York..

I think you do have to have grown up IN Texas to be a Texan, not necessarily be BORN in Texas. Someone could easily have been born in Texas, but then moved to Michigan at age 3 with their family and barely returned to even visit. You're saying they're more Texan than the reverse?

I am not a Texan, even though I live here. I am a Floridian and only been in Texas for a year. My upbringing was in Florida. I grew up surrounded by palm trees, spending summers at the beach, taking trips to Disneyworld and to my mom's relative's farms north of Gainesville. I never saw snow until I was 15. I can't relate to the childhood my Texan friends had. I have yet to even have a kolache!

But still, even having not grown up here, the Texas spirit is very inviting. It sucks you in like a big old tornado. There's a cultural blend in this state, the south meets west. Hospitality with a western independence and a little Mexican spice. I think by living here long enough, anyone can get a little Texan in them.

[Sunderpig2]

Carlingtonian gave us plenty of proof that the answer is Yes. The thread question is as silly as saying all the millions that emigrated to this country during the earlier years, and helped shape America as we've known it, were possibly not Americans. That's just nonsensical. Besides, it's a mental thing, not based on circumstance. And I know some who fit the opposite case: native-born and not wanting to be considered Texan or "true Texan".

[NoClueWho]

Originally Posted by NickelsTX

One thing I would like to add is to get the TRUE Texas experience you have to stay away from the big cities. Houston, Austin & DFW are completely different than the small to medium size cities across the state. I roll my eyes when a transplant moved to Houston 5 years ago and now thinks they are some sort of super Texan.

If you didn't do things like party in pastures or go backroading in your teenage years, you ain't Texan to me.

What you are describing is not uniquely Texan, but just country, and one doesn't have to be country to be Texan. In fact, playing up the country aspects of Texas and downing the urban aspects just leads to a lot of the Texas stereotypes that many Texans in general hate and get sick of.

[sluggermatt15]

I think it's possible for non-native Texans to be "true" Texans. If one lives in a state or location for extended time, tries to adopt the culture, and accept their environment around them, eventually they will be living just like all the natives. This is actually a personal goal I have. I moved to the Gulf Coast last spring. I really want to embrace everything here, fit in with the natives/locals, and call this area "home". It's going to take time, but I believe it can be done.

[doctorjef]

Then there are people like me. I was born in Texas, lived there off and on during my childhood, though for the most part lived in Virginia and DC through my elementary and jr high years, finished HS in Texas (Lubbock), went to Tech, UT-Austin, and TCU (grad school), with a hiatus of a couple years in Colorado lived in Texas from age 16 to just shy of 50, have been living abroad and in the Mid-Atlantic for the past 11&1/2 years, still own property in Texas on which I pay taxes. I've lived all over the state and driven all over, especially in West Texas. But I don't identify with the Texan label. I know a lot of the state intimately, find some of it quite interesting,compelling, and resonant with my aesthetics, have a particular attachment to Austin, but really can't get into over-identifying with the state as a whole. I'm an American, in some sense a drifter, not completely attached to anywhere. In some ways I see myself as a Texas Expat -- I would never move back there given the current political, uber-conservative orientation of the state as a whole. I do miss the warmer winter weather. But after the last 20 years in Austin I was ready to move on. The world as a whole has so much more to offer than staying put in one place all one's life -- from my perspective anyway. I could unpack things further, but that's enough to convey something of my objective and subjective experience with regard to Texas. I know others from high school who left the state years earlier than I did -- people I went to high school with in Lubbock who had grown up there. They wanted things Texas didn't offer them.

[Sunderpig2]

I can relate to a lot of doctorjef's post. I too used to be more strongly Texan, but the state looks much different now than it used to. It moved away from it's independent way of thinking and being moderate/middle-of the road politically, to more of a southern culture and far-right-wing direction, starting about the mid-1980s (really picking up in the 1990s). With that, some no longer identify themselves as Texans. Times, circumstances, and people change.

[blkgiraffe]

Originally Posted by Sunderpig2

I can relate to a lot of doctorjef's post. I too used to be more strongly Texan, but the state looks much different now than it used to. It moved away from it's independent way of thinking and being moderate/middle-of the road politically, to more of a southern culture and far-right-wing direction, starting about the mid-1980s (really picking up in the 1990s). With that, some no longer identify themselves as Texans. Times, circumstances, and people change.

This makes no sense.

You mean to tell me Texas was moderate and more progressive prior the mid 80s????