John Burnett

NPR member station reporters across the U.S. asked people how they are thinking about their country on its semiquincentennial.

At age 72, Houston-area county commissioner Rodney Ellis has seen a lot of both progress and setbacks for America. He's celebrating America's birthday but has concerns about her future.

Developers say there's plenty of water for a giant data center in southern New Mexico. Some locals are skeptical.

Monster trucks are one of the fastest growing segments in family entertainment. And unlike other American motorsports, the shows are geared to small children.

Georgia O'Keeffe called the New Mexico high desert "my country," but Pueblo peoples predated her. A more complex view is emerging amid efforts to preserve the land.

Georgia O'Keeffe claimed New Mexico's desert "my country." But Pueblo peoples lived on the land long before the artist arrived. There's a push for a more complex view of O'Keeffe and her time there.

A literary center in Archer City, a tiny ranching town in Texas, keeps alive the legacy of famed Western author Larry McMurtry.

Over a career that spanned 70 years, Jimenez' playing came to define Tex-Mex music and carried the tradition-drenched conjunto sound all over the world and across genres.

Albuquerque is home to the biggest flamenco gathering in the world outside Spain. One family has a lot to do with New Mexico embracing the art form.

A lot of folks know New Mexico for green chiles, the largest hot air balloon festival in the world, and the birthplace of the bomb. But it's also a global center of flamenco—the passionate dance, song and music of the Roma people of southern Spain.