Newslurp

The Wild Texas Newsletter

September 26, 2024

Welcome to the Wild Texas newsletter! Pop some champagne because today is our one-month anniversary. (Please clap 👏.) If you’re joining us for the first time this week, welcome to the party. I’m Olivia, the editor-in-chief at The Barbed Wire. To date, our site — and its reporting — have appeared in City Cast Austin, Texas Standard, the Axios Dallas newsletter, Dan Kennedy’s Media Nation, D Magazine, former state Sen. Konni Burton’s Hot Take newsletter (boy, she was mad!), TechDirt, and Semafor (whose exclusive on us was also picked up by Harvard’s Nieman Lab). We’ve also created a page just for Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 - Oct. 15), and it’s growing more exceptional by the day.

As usual, we’ve spent the past week making mischief, referencing memes, and reporting on civil rights. Come along as I highlight the stories that amused and enraged us most.

Senior editor Leslie Rangel’s latest feature on civil rights leaders has some great reporting, killer quotes, and beautiful prose. She covered Paxton’s (potentially “illegal”) raids on the homes of Latino community organizers, abuelitas, and Democratic politicians ahead of the 2024 election. The early-morning forced entries and seven-hour searches were “humiliating,” according to one of the 6+ targets. Leslie spoke to 82-year-old Hector Flores, who has dedicated much of his life to civil rights work — and she interviewed a new generation of voting rights educators who’re ready to grab the torch from him.

An old photo of Hector Flores next to a new photo of Hector Flores

At 18, He Had to Pay a Poll Tax. Paxton’s ‘Illegal’ Raids Don’t Scare Him.

“When we vote, it makes a difference,” said 82-year-old Hector Flores, who condemned the Texas attorney general’s raids on Latino politicians and civil rights leaders.

By Leslie Rangel

When Hector Flores turned 18, he had to pay to vote.

More than 60 years later, he can’t remember the exact rate of the poll tax, maybe $2.50 or $2.75. But vivid in his mind is that the fee was roughly the price of a couple gallons of milk or a case of beer. In a town called Dilley, in Frio County, that was a serious dilemma for poor people, and it began his decades-long fight for equity.

Poll taxes were outlawed when the 24th amendment passed in 1964, though it wasn’t formally ratified by the Texas Legislature until 2009. In the meantime, Flores has been busy.

The former national president of LULAC, the country’s oldest non-partisan Latino civil rights organization, was first on the rolodex of a half dozen people who called him after news broke last month that agents from Attorney General Ken Paxton’s “Election Integrity Unit” had raided the homes of at least six people, including Latino community leaders, political consultants, and a candidate for elected office. Hearing their anguish on the other end of the line reminded Flores of the countless times he’s helped fight gerrymandering, police brutality, and disenfranchisement.

Also this week, writer-at-large Cat Cardenas interviewed U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro about his work to increase Latino representation in Hollywood. A McKinsey study shows the industry is leaving $12-18 billion on the table by excluding Latino-centered stories, and Castro wants to change things. (Wow, that could fund a lot of newsrooms.)

Joaquin Castro speaks on stage into a microphone

‘We’ve Been Left Out’: Joaquin Castro Wants to Fill the ‘Void’ of Latinos on Screen

Despite making up 30% of the box office, it's "a challenge" to get films about Latinos made.

By Cat Cardenas

And in case you missed it, some folks made what the late John Lewis called “good trouble” online last week in response to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s latest anti-trans policy. Even with a court order, Paxton’s new rule prohibits changing your sex on your birth certificate or driver’s license. And Paxton has asked the state agency to create an internal email address just to keep track of anyone who even requests such changes. Well, now that email has been bombarded with scripts to the cult classic animated film “Bee Movie,” along with gay porn and jokes about queer cowboys. Non-violent protest is about as patriotic as it gets.