The Streets of Laredo: Texas Modernity and Its Discontents
About this ebook
With the ballad as his point of departure, Limón takes readers on a tour that includes formative experiences from his childhood in Laredo and Corpus Christi; examination of the works of Américo Paredes, Larry McMurtry, and others; and considerations of American popular music, cinema, baseball, and associated socio-cultural phenomena. The result is a complex and intriguing view of Texas and American culture as seen through the lens of a “simple” cowboy song.
“It is my hope,” Limón writes in his introduction, “that this account of these central figures in Texas history—the ordinary cowboy and this ballad—will prove useful as Texas deals with the current and deeply conflicted phase in its long struggle with modernity.” The Streets of Laredo: Texas Modernity and Its Discontents offers readers important new perspectives on how society struggles with, understands, and comes to terms—or fails to come to terms—with the inevitable changes wrought by an evolving culture.
About the author
JOSÉ E. LIMÓN is the endowed professor of American Literature Emeritus and previously served as director of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Américo Paredes: Culture and Critique, American Encounters: Greater Mexico, the United States, and the Erotics of Culture, and other books. He makes his home in the Long Beach, California area.
