Colonias in Texas

The New York Times has an interesting article on Colonias in Texas of interest: Erik Eckholm, "Inside a Jumble of Poverty, Texans Build a Future" (Aug. 27, 2007).  The NYTimes also has a very good slide show of colonia-life with commentary, available here. 

Colonias have gotten attention in at least two law review articles (Delgado wrote partly in response to Larson):

• Jane E. Larson, Free Markets Deep in the Heart of Texas, 84 Geo. L.J. 179 (1995).
• Richard Delgado, Rodrigo’s Twelfth Chronicle: The Problem of the Shanty, 85 Geo. L.J. 667 (1997). 
  

As a personal note, I think there could be a very interesting law review article done looking at whether access to colonias does or does not lead towards upward mobility for residents and whether residents end up selling ownership in colonia housing, and eventually moving into non-colonia housing. 

-E.R. erosser@wcl.american.edu