Texas along the Rio Grande

I had to go into the nearby town of Roma for groceries and gas this week where I learned it would be a good idea to brush up on my Spanish!

All my previous trips to Texas were work related and were to large population centers away from the Mexican border. My experiences there did not give me a true taste of Texas culture which may be why I was surprised by the number of Spanish speaking people here. As I later reflected on my shopping experience, I remembered that this area was part of Mexico for thousands of years and has only been part of the US for less than two hundred years. This is history that was taught in school but I had not grasped the reality of it until now. People here are living on land that has been in their family or hundreds of years! It is only reasonable to expect a large portion of the local population to speak Spanish. Also a number of Mexican people commute across the river to work here in Texas. Travel is a great teacher and I have learned much about geography, geology, history and culture across our country. I look forward to further lessons!