Download the Full PDF Letter from the Editor 1OTC at 50: Bold Vision Led to Unimagined SuccessBy Joel Parshall6The Offshore Industry, Houston, and the Creation of OTCBy Joseph A. Pratt12Deeper Through the Decades: An Interview with Carl WickizerEdited by Joseeph A. Pratt20Connecting the World: OTC as a Platform for Global ExchangeBy Johnny Zapata25“A Love Affair 50 Years and Counting”: OTC’s Economic […]
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Yolanda Black Navarro: East End Reina
by Denise Gomez A small red building stands out on Navigation Boulevard, luring customers inside with the mouthwatering scent of freshly cooked tortillas. Upon entering, the restaurant’s loyal customers see red and white walls decorated with honors and recognitions, one of Houston’s best menus, and, usually, a line. The family-owned restaurant Villa Arcos was […]
El Programa Bracero
“You never forget the Bracero experience,” former bracero Aurelio Marin commented, perfectly summarizing the triumphs, tribulations, and turbulence of America’s highly-controversial and highly-impactful Mexican Farm Labor Program Program, commonly known as the Bracero Program, which started in 1942 to supply able-bodied Mexican laborers to U.S. industries suffering shortages at the outset of World War II. […]
Past, Present, and Future: The Women Shaping Houston’s Architecture
Architecture has helped cities create identities and given the citizens a sense of home. Few people can look at their skylines without having a sense of pride. The people who help shape these spaces often work in the background — especially women. With architecture being one of the last fields to integrate women into the […]
The Texas City Disaster 1947: Changing Lives in a Heartbeat
By Cheryl Lauersdorf Ross On the morning of April 16, 1947, the SS Grandcamp, surrounded by refineries and chemical plants near the Texas City docks, exploded with a force compared to the Nagasaki atomic bomb, taking the lives of nearly 600 people and injuring thousands more. When a catastrophe like this strikes, reports focus on […]
The Day the Earth Shook: Crane Collapse
For author Laura Bernal, July 18, 2008 could have changed her life forever. Her father Martin Bernal was working at Lyondell-Basell when one of the world’s biggest cranes owned and operated by Deep South Crane & Rigging collapsed killing many of their workers. The article discusses what went wrong that day and the aftermath of […]
The Evolution of Houston Bookstores
By Aric Richardson An often overlooked and swiftly fading part of our regional culture is the Houston bookstore. In the 1860s early bookshops in Houston were not only purveyors of books, but were also the main source of printing, news delivery, and music. But what has happened to the bookselling industry between then and […]
15.1 Wrecks and Redemption Table of Contents
Download the full pdf. Vol. 15, No. 1 (Fall 2017) Letter from the Editor by Debbie Z. Harwell 2 Seeing Frost Town from the bottom up: Using Archeology and Archives to Reconstruct a Forgotten Houston Neighborhood By Jason W. Barrett, Douglas K. Boyd, and Louis F. Aulbach 8 The 1947 Texas City Disaster: Changing Lives […]
Pioneering Houston EMS: Answering the Call
Houston EMS personnel recall stories of an auto accident on a Houston roadway, most likely on Westheimer near its current intersection with Loop 610. Two ambulances arrived at the scene to find one person dead and another badly injured. The two men who worked for separate private companies, believed to be funeral homes, fought over […]
On Call by Choice: Life Stories of Houston EMS
The Houston Fire Department Emergency Medical Services (HFD EMS) has pioneered emergency medical protocols, leading the way for departments across the country, but behind the history are the individuals who stand ready every day of the year