Alicia Maria Meier

Sep 11, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Alicia Maria Meier

Working Life is a monthly column in which Texans talk about their jobs. Austin Lee, who is 33, oversees the raising of the iconic Texas and American flags at the Austin–area speedway as its senior director of campus services. I grew up in San Antonio working on lawn mowers, building fences and decks, doing a little tile work—but nothing like what we do here.

May 21, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Alicia Maria Meier

Not an hour outside of Texarkana, Jerry starts to sputter. The 1965 Volkswagen Type 2, colloquially known as a microbus, has long been the workhorse among Gary Alexander’s Volkswagens, which currently number 21. Jerry is the vehicle Alexander chooses for annual camping excursions to Big Bend National Park and for road trips from Arkansas to New Mexico.

Mar 5, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Alicia Maria Meier

A frequent frustration of mine, as a listener who grew up on the pretty boy pop stylings of Enrique Iglesias and Ricky Martin and came of age in the golden era of reggaeton, is the degree to which today’s algorithmic streaming services struggle to parse “Latin” music. Ask Spotify for a radio station based on, say, a hip-hop group from Nuevo Léon, and you might well wind up being served a jarring mix of sultry Cuban boleros, folk vocals from Veracruz, and the latest Bad Bunny banger.

Mar 5, 2024 | dfwliving.com | Alicia Maria Meier

A frequent frustration of mine, as a listener who grew up on the pretty boy pop stylings of Enrique Iglesias and Ricky Martin and came of age in the golden era of reggaeton, is the degree to which today’s algorithmic streaming services struggle to parse “Latin” music. Ask Spotify for a radio station based on, say, a hip-hop group from Nuevo Léon, and you might well wind up being served a jarring mix of sultry Cuban boleros, folk vocals from Veracruz, and the latest Bad Bunny banger.

Feb 7, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Alicia Maria Meier

WHO: Tamir Kalifa, a 34-year-old visual journalist based in Austin. WHAT: Kalifa is one of two winners of the 2024 American Mosaic Journalism Prize, recognizing excellence in longform, narrative, or deep reporting about underrepresented or misrepresented groups in the United States, complete with a $100,000 cash grant. WHY IT’S SO GREAT: Most Texans will remember where they were as news of the shooting at Robb Elementary School, in Uvalde, began to break on May 24, 2022.