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The University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program, 1979-1989
The UH English Department, with John McNamara as chair, shaped its creative writing program in the late 1970s, when such programs were sprouting up across the country, as a way to draw students at a time of “steadily declining graduate enrollment in the Department.” In 1978, the department asked poet Cynthia Macdonald, then at Johns […]
Historically Speaking: Hurricanes
Houston History published by the Welcome Wilson Houston History Collaborative and the Center for Public History at the University of Houston hosted a panel to explore our region’s hurricane history and, the effort to provide relief to the thousands of people displace by Hurricane Katrina. Done as part of the Harris County Public Library’s Gulf Coast […]
Asian Americans in Houston
The Heritage Society and Houston History have teamed up to present the magazine’s fall issue along with a complementary exhibit in the museum gallery featuring images, documents, artifacts, and personal items related to the articles. The exhibit is on display now at The Heritage Society, 1100 Bagby in downtown Houston. The magazine will be available […]
Asian Americans: Expanding Our Horizons
The year 2015 marks a half century since the United States passed the Immigration and Nationality Act, a comprehensive immigration reform that abolished the racial quota system established in 1924 that was based on national origins. The new law admitted people based on criteria such as family reunification, skills needed in the U.S. workplace, and […]
An American Chinese in Houston
E. K. T. Chen spent half his life a Texan and died a patriot in Washington, DC, on October 16, 1957, while preventing Chinese internment during the Korean War. This is the story of the extraordinary things accomplished by this ordinary son of Chinese immigrants that benefited all Americans, and my efforts to continue his […]
From “Tom Brown” to Mykawa Road
In 2012, the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University declared Houston to be the most diverse city in the nation, replacing Los Angeles and New York at the top of the list. Of the nearly 2.1 million people in the city, fewer than 130,000 were Asians according to the 2010 Census, with Japanese […]
Korean Americans in Houston
What do an oilman, a schoolteacher, a lawyer, a community advocate, and an energy guru have in common? They are among the 11,813 Korean Americans living in Harris County, although community leaders believe the number is twice as large.
Vietnamese and Chinese American Cultures
By Jessica Chew For many Vietnamese during the Vietnam War, an international refuge meant hope for survival. Other Asian ethnicities, including the Chinese, looked to the United States with optimism for a better future. Several Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants found their new home in Houston, raising first-generation, American-born children while trying to preserve a piece of their old society. Vietnam War refugees faced […]
The Pinoys of Bayou City
The history of Filipinos in the southern United States stretches back to the mid-eighteenth century, when burgeoning trade routes between the two lands encouraged small numbers of Filipino migrants to settle in some of their first enclaves in the Americas.
From Gujarat to Houston
Walking into the George R. Brown Convention Center for the Navratri festival, I am whisked away by the South Asian culture – the vibrant colors, the smell of Indian food, the garba music, and conversations in my native tongue.