LOCAL Houston | The City Guide JANUARY 2016 | Page 56

U

...IS FOR UNIVERSAL NATION

By Carla Valencia de Martinez | Graphic by German Arellano

We had never heard this notion until we interviewed Professor
STEPHEN KLINEBERG and it really hit home, living in Houston. The
idea is that “the United States, which throughout its history has
been an amalgam of European nationalities, is rapidly becoming
a microcosm of the world, the first ‘universal nation.’ This is the
first nation in history that can say, ‘We are a free people and
now we come from everywhere.’” Klineberg goes on to stress,
“Nowhere is that transformation more clear than in Houston.
This historically biracial southern city, dominated and controlled
by white men, has become the single most ethnically diverse
major metropolitan area in the country.”