I agree, Charles. It does sound snobbish but Texas has a history matched by few states and a lot of blood has been let here in ways other states were not directly involved. Southern California had similar experiences with Spain and Mexico, but not France. Six differnt national flags have flown over our state.
My mother's side settled in the Bend area near Graham in the 1890s and still own the state's oldest continuously-worked farm. My father's side goes way back, Sam Houston's third wife (full Cherokee) was a cousin, Arrena Starr a direct aunt, Gipson Petty an uncle, Hellfire Jack Rogers a great bunchatimes grandfather, and one whole branch is here and settled San Saba (not "in", but actually settled) because of the land granted to Daniel Cloud's sister of Tennessee after he was killed defending the Alamo. 200 years ago, very few people were in the Texas area, Mexico bribed people like Daniel Boone to come here and become Mexican citizens to settle it and gave away huge parcels of land as payment. A great number of those first white and Cherokee settlers from the south still have a presence here, so in a way it's a small world and many folks are related to each other if they go back far enough, or have relatives that fought and settled together. Charles outlined the history of the people who settled the Rio Grande Valley, generations of hard-working folks that forged a whole new culture north of the river that brought the best of Mexican food, music, and family values to the whole area. Then there's the King Ranch, Charles Schreiner, the cattle barons of the panhandle plains, rhe Czechs, Germans, Irish, Scots and on and on. Being part of THAT is what it means to be a "Texan", and we have a lot to be proud of.
We're also some of the friendliest people around because it wasn't too many generations ago that friendship was necessary for survival.
