Inventing the "Magic Valley" of South Texas, 1905-1941
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4487932 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Christian Brannstrom (0000-0002-6619-2020), Matthew Neuman |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 99 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 123-145 |
| Publication date | 2009-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Geographical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0016-7428 • E-ISSN: 1931-0846 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1931-0846.2009.tb00423.x |
| OpenAlex | W1523536204 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 33 |
In this article we examine the invention of the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas as the “Magic Valley.” To sell land and water, early‐twentieth‐century land developers and boosters created the Magic Valley as a place myth comprising claims of abundant irrigation water, pliant and abundant labor, and modernity overtaking wilderness. We use a conceptual framework developed from place‐making and place‐marketing literatures in which language, iconography, and performance are simultaneously deployed in the creation of place images and place myths. Textual descriptions, visual imagery, and performances relied on material transformations of the landscape. We describe the changes in the Magic Valley place myth, emphasizing characterizations of labor, nature, the good life, and security of investment. Two perspectives are adopted, one that considers a range of promotional literature and one that centers on a prominent individual
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Expansive · Iconography · Literature · MAGIC (telescope · Modernity · Mythology · Political science · Wilderness · American Environmental and Regional History · American History and Culture · Ecology · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law
Spanglish and Tex-Mex in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas
Estrategias de marketing territorial en una región transfronteriza
Landscape and Place in the Geographical Review
Re-Membering, Re-Framing, and Re-Imagining Latino Leadership in Education
Historical geography I
Claiming Space, Claiming Water
The Discovery of Hispanic Child Labor in Agriculture in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas
Places of Agribusiness
If No Gasoline, No Water
Nuestra ciencia as transborder ecological knowledge and survival
Places on the Margin
Place promotion
The Great American Land Bubble
The Spanish Frontier in North America
Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986
Playground of the USA
The Developer's Frontier
Tropical Visions in an Age of Empire
Orange Empire
Between the Book and the Lamp
Representing Place
The Texas Aggie Bonfire
Language and the Making of Place
Picturing Place
Making Place, Making Race
The Iconography of Landscape
Perceptual Regions in Texas
Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas
Imagining Niagara
Fluid Arguments
Land Utilization in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas
Let All of Them Take Heed
Irrigated Eden
| Unique citing works | 10 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,63 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2023 (14) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 10 |