West Texas can seem very remote from other parts of Texas. Even the ways people in Marfa, Alpine and other towns out here get their daily news are a little different.
Marfa, for example, doesn’t have a daily newspaper. Many West Texans rely on Marfa Public Radio for timely updates on local and national news. But whatever the outlet, the news itself includes echoes of stories people are talking about around the state and the nation.
Marfa Public Radio Reporter Carlos Morales talked with Texas Standard Host David Brown about how national stories resonate in West Texas.
“A lot of people out here are kind of off the grid, and either don’t have a TV…the radio really is their only form of news information,” Morales says. “So getting an understanding of what’s happening outside this rural, far-West Texas community – the radio really [helps] in a very important way.”
On migrants found in a tractor-trailer truck near El Paso:
“Border agents were checking the back of this freight-liner cargo truck and they discovered 20 undocumented immigrants in it. Officials say they were all in relatively good health. They were all male, from Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador.”
On how the Marfa community is reacting to the president’s border wall proposal:
“It’s really easy to find someone here who has an opinion on the wall. Most out here, especially your ranchers and farmers, don’t want it. Just the other day I saw a big old ranch truck driving down the road with a big old bumper sticker that said ‘no wall out here.’ It’s an interesting position for the [congressional] representative out here, Will Hurd, who has taken a really hard-line approach. …He has introduced legislation that urges a ‘smart’ approach to building a wall.”
Written by Shelly Brisbin.