Original subtitles

Rise and shine, it's a beautiful day in Houston.

But it's gonna be a hot one.

♪ I took a walk through this ♪

♪ Beautiful world ♪

♪ Felt the cool rain ♪

♪ On my shoulder ♪

♪ Found something good ♪

♪ In this beautiful world ♪

♪ I felt the rain getting colder ♪

♪ Sha la, la, la, la ♪

♪ Sha la, la, la, la, la ♪

♪ Sha la, la, la, la ♪

♪ Sha la, la, la, la, la ♪

Close minded, prejudicial, quick to make assumptions

about places different than where we grew up.

I'm not talking about Texas.

I'm talking about, well, me and people like me,

who are way too comfortable thinking of Texas

as a big space filled with intolerant,

invariably right-wing white people.

Waddling between the fast-food outlet and the gun store.

That, of course, is wrong.

♪

But then I'm used to being wrong.

Texas, Houston in particular, is a very different place

than you might imagine from the stereotypes

and the sound bytes of its national political figures.

Immigrants, refugees, and non-white Americans

have, in fact, been transforming the city,

the food and culture of Houston, for years.

♪

Welcome to America people.

♪

Just another day at the supermarket, a sleepy strip mall on

Houston's Hillcroft Avenue.

Keemat Grocers, serving the community since 1994.

Today they're hosting a quiet, low-key affair.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,

how are we doing today?

We're here in Little India in Keemat Grocers,

and I think this is the best Little India

in all of USA, right?

DJ Zee, I wanna throw a party right now.

Everybody, let's start this party!

♪

Put your hands up, everybody!

♪

How large is the community here?

Two hundred thousand people.

Two hundred thousand?

And that's India and Pakistan?

Yeah, Indians, Pakistanis.

Some Bangladeshis, very few Nepalis.

So 200,000 and rising quick?

Yeah.

Sunil Thakkar is an owner of Masala Radio 1320

on your AM dial.

Himalaya is a beloved Indian-Pakistani restaurant

run by Karachi native Kaiser Lashkari.

So the food here is amazing.

It's like Indian and Pakistani mixed together.

Right.

Now, how's that work?

Because over there, the relation's not so friendly.

Here, does everybody... is it all peace and love?

Yeah, you know, there's no boundaries here.

I see so many homes, new homes, new subdivisions

and people just buying them up.

And on my street, 18 homes, 12 out of them are from

other countries.

India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia.

And once you live together, it

just sort of you become family.

How many brown people here?

- Any non-Indians? - I want to see non-Indians.

You're the non-Indians?

What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna see how good this Asian guy

can do a Bollywood step.

Move like this.

Move like this.

Yeah, good. Good.

So how old were you when you moved here?

I was 17 when I came here.

And growing up, I wanted to be a Bollywood star.

I wanna be a movie star.

But my mom didn't want to do anything

- -with this whole movie business. - Right.

When I came here, and something about

this country, something about the openness

got me just kind of doing what I wanted to do.

And I said, "I always wanted to be an entertainer."

I always wanted to be a comedian."

And radio was perfect for me to bring Bollywood

in people's cars.

Houston's got the biggest drive time... So people listen

to the radio here.

I couldn't do this back home.

But here, you get a chance to just be a new you.

You can just be a new person.

You know, they say, "Oh, Hindus reincarnate

thousands of times."

I feel like I reincarnated live when I came here.

♪

An intensely aromatic biryani, goat marinated in yogurt,

garlic, and ginger, then slow-cooked with cumin,

cardamom, and star anise.

Green curry chicken done Texas-Desi style

with a blend of tomatillos and green chilies,

cilantro, and cumin.

Steak tikka and hunter's beef, sort of an Indian-inflected

pastrami, an invention of the chefs, brined for 10 days,

cooked and served with homemade mustard sauce.

What about your kids?

Do they feel American, or do they feel Indian, or do

they feel Indian-American?

So they're definitely Indian-American.

- You know, they eat Indian food. - Right.

But if you give my son an option,

he wants to go to Taco Bell.

They speak Gujarati.

- They like Bollywood dancing. - Uh-huh.

But yet they're not as Indian as I am.

I want my kids and I want all of the kids to come in

and feel that these are our traditions

that we got to continue.

We got a panipuri-eating contest coming up.

Who can tell me what a panipuri is?

Like a little dumpling, and it has a hole in it

and filled with potatoes and chickpeas.

And then it has a spicy filling in it.

All right, on the count of three, what I'm gonna do is,

I'm gonna give you 30 seconds, and I want to see who can eat

the most panipuris.

DJ Zee, you got some music ready?

On the count of three.

One, two.

One, two, three, four!

♪

Thirty seconds.

Most panipuris in 30 seconds.

Come on. Eat the puris.

I'm gonna give you thirty more seconds 'cause I think

you guys are little slow.

Ten! Nine!

Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two... One.

Out of 20, you got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Twenty minus seven.

Thirteen.

She is the winner!

♪

I find Houston to be probably the most accepting

place for me.

- Why? - I love it here.

I love... I love... I love being Indian in Houston.

It's not one of those towns that you say,

"Oh, I want to live in Houston."

But once you come here, once you live here,

you don't want to move out of here.

You know, I always consider India as my motherland,

but Houston's my home.

♪

♪

It's Saturday night in Houston.

And at the Acapulco Ballroom, in the city's Pasadena

neighborhood, tonight is all about

15-year-old Evelyn Araña.

If you're Mexican or Mexican-American

or anywhere in between and you've got a daughter

turning 15, you better be throwing her a quince,

or a quinceañera, to be precise.

Quinceañera, what is it?

It's the becoming of a young lady and whenever they turn

15-years-old.

If you're of Mexican heritage in Houston, I gather you kind

of have to have one if you've got a daughter, right?

In Houston, yes.

In Houston, yes.

It is an honor to have a quinceañera and for your parents

to be able to give you one.

♪

The quinceañera business is a multi-million dollar a year

industry around here.

The competition is fierce, it is a big deal

is what I'm saying.

And the style and budget can vary enormously,

depending on means and ambition.

Friends, relatives, and neighbors gather

to eat, drink, dance.

And Acapulco owners Elizabeth and Ezequiel Ortuño

are keeping a close eye on the action,

making sure everything goes according to plan.

Who gets invited to these things?

I mean, this is a lot of people.

- I don't have this many friends. - Friends and family.

Friends and families and from the school too.

Right. Oh, so you got to invite all the girl's friends

from school.

You have kids?

Yes.

You have family?

Any girls?

Four girls.

Four girls.

So they all had these.

All of them have had their quinceañeras,

and a couple of them have had their sweet 16s.

You get a quinceañera and a sweet 16?

Yes.

Oh, my God.

I was really happy about having a girl, but it's expensive.

What... what do boys get?

A soccer ball.

That's cost-effective.

♪

♪

The way we think about Houston, Texas, today

is very much stuck in the past.

In the late '70s, early '80s, Houston was the boomtown

of popular television and movie imagination.

Oil, shipping, NASA, and football combined to create

a big-spending, big-haired, quasi-cowboy stereotype.

That, to some extent, still lives with us today,

even if the reality is different.

♪

Though the oil is not gone, a massive glut in the mid-80s

sent prices into freefall, more or less killing

the city's oil industry.

The resulting economic downturn and lower cost of living

made Houston, however improbable it might seem to you,

you Yankee trash, much more welcoming

to people with less means, people getting away

from bad situations, people from somewhere else.

What that means is that now, Houston... you know, Houston...

Is a place where minorities are now the majority.

♪

At the end of the war, Jonathan escaped

Vietnam on a makeshift raft with his family.

After serving in the United States Marine Corps

and obtaining a master's degree in education,

he became the principal of this school, Lee Senior High,

the most ethnically diverse school in the city.

What percentage of... of your student body, English is not

their first language?

I would say about 80% of them.

Do those kids get sent here specifically?

- Or is it just... - Oh, no, no, no, no.

...reflective of the community?

- It just... - So 80%.

By chance, you know.

In the city of Houston and the surrounding suburban area,

it's very well integrated.

It's like it's not... it's not... Why? How did that happen?

I think one of the main reasons is the strong

economic base here.

It's because of the availability for you to get a job

and make a decent wage.

It allow for immigrants, families to come over

and build a nest egg, to own their own home

or go to a better neighborhood.

It has to be a strong economic, viable base

for them to quickly overcome that poverty

and allow them to make a life for themselves.

♪

Good morning.

Good morning.

All right, repeat after me.

Positive affirmations.

"Today's a beautiful day."

Today is a beautiful day.

"I will work hard."

I will work hard.

"I am important."

I am important.

Repeat.

"I will succeed."

I will succeed.

More than 40 languages are spoken

among the 1,700 students here, many of them

from conflict zones where the alternatives were stark,

leave quickly or die.

Often, their first exposure to the American educational

system is here, ESL, English as a Second Language class,

where teacher Gary Reed, a 30-year veteran,

does his very best to get them up to speed

and ready for the next steps.

You see these people?

What did they do?

All of these people right here, they came to Houston

from Salvador, Vietnam, Iraq, Syria.

Just like you, they came.

No money, no home.

And what happened?

Yeah, they graduated.

So don't say, "Oh, I can't do it. I can't..."

You can do it.

What part of the world are most kids -coming from now?

Currently, it's Central America.

Guatemala?

Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua.

El Salvador's the major one.

In many cases, if you were to send these kids back,

it's a death sentence.

I mean, let's call it what it is.

Yes.

Other classes, -math, history.

Uh-hmm.

Taught in their own language or English?

No, no. They're taught in English.

- So this class is absolutely essential. - Uh-hmm.

Now, we're working on personal introductions.

Who's brave enough to introduce themselves?

Hello.

My name is Omeri.

Hi, my name is Mr. Reed.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too.

Now, what are the things you do?

What do you do with your eyes?

Repeat, "eye contact."

Eye contact.

Good, good.

What about his hands?

You can do that.

Grab it firm.

Firm handshake.

It's a first impression.

Stand up. Stand up.

Okay, this is side A.

You present to side B.

Ready?

One, two, three, go.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

Good, good.

So it's you shake.

Look in the eye like that, okay? That's expected.

Girls... Ana, in America, you can do it.

It's okay to get a nice handshake.

What happens if it doesn't work, if they don't have this?

What's the future looking like if they don't acquire

language skills?

They become a third-class citizen here.

What kind of work are you getting, and what are your

opportunities?

Oh, yes, the service market in any major city

is always there.

Landscaping, valet, car washers.

But our students are very gifted.

They are talented kids.

They just need opportunity to learn English

and opportunity to learn.

These kids, when they grow up, they will be part American,

and they have kids.

They will pick up arms and defend this country

just like I expected to do and I expect my three boys to do

not because someone forced me but because I believe in it.

I believe in the opportunity that it provides.

I believe that no matter how poor you are,

how uneducated you are when you first come

to the United States, if you have the will

to educate yourself, work hard at it, you can achieve.

♪

Chicken sandwich and French fries,

fruit salad, carton of milk.

Welcome to America, kids.

I haven't had one of these in a long time.

So what country is everybody from?

I'm from Africa, like Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire.

Honduras.

Iraq.

Where in Iraq?

Baghdad.

Pakistan.

And you've been here how long?

One year.

One year.

Everybody's English is pretty good. Very good.

It took me at least two years just to be brave

enough to... to open up, you know.

No, they're progressing very, very well.

Mister, do you like African food?

Yeah, I've been to Africa a lot.

I have not been to Burkina Faso, but I love

the food in Ghana.

The food in Senegal is very, very nice.

You already been to Senegal?

Oh, yes, fantastic.

Your first day in school, was it frightening?

I didn't know nobody here, and nobody here from my country.

So I feel scared, but step by step,

I start to learn English and then start

to communicate with people.

So after school, when you graduate high school,

what do you want to do next?

I want to be a fashion designer.

And I want to go to college.

I want to study more.

What are you going to do?

I want to go to college, and I want to study medicine.

I am between medicine and engineering.

What do you want to do?

I plan soccer.

Soccer is not a plan, my friend.

♪

♪

Pearland is the quintessential sprawl

of suburban Americana.

And more and more these days, this is the quintessential

American family, Jonathan his Salvadoran-born wife, Silvia.

Along with his sister, Kim and her husband, Ron.

Jonathan's mom, Nina and Silvia's mom, Ayela.

So if you have, like, a... on Christmas or Fourth of July

or a big holiday, how many extended family?

How many people are coming over?

Oh, everyone.

A lot.

Wow, okay.

A lot.

What's a lot? How many?

Forty. Fifty.

About 40, 50 people.

I mean, I don't even see us as interracial

until people point it out.

Well, it's a typical Texan family at this point.

Yeah.

Uh-hmm.

♪

Ayela cooks tamales de gallina from scratch.

Outside, fresh papusas are being made on a hot griddle.

Jonathan's mom, Nina, makes a dish

of jellyfish, shrimp, and pork tossed with mint, carrots,

red onion, and peanuts dressed with nuoc mam,

the pungent Vietnamese fish sauce.

And mi Quang, a rice noodle dish from central Vietnam

made with pork ribs, shrimp, and chilies.

Very mixed-up meal here.

Yeah.

Awesome!

Did... did you speak English when you arrived here?

Oh, not a word.

I couldn't even say "hi."

So I learned it literally within a year.

Yeah?

'Cause I had to.

By fifth grade, this one teacher, Miss Spikes,

just made me feel like I was the smartest little thing

in the whole world.

She built up my confidence that I could do anything.

You know, we learned how to speak Spanish first

before we learned how to speak English.

Of course.

So you came over in '78, did you say?

Late '77.

I was 10 years old, uh-hmm.

And we literally left on... I don't even know

if we'd call it a boat.

It was more like a raft.

There was a hole in the boat.

We sat in water the entire time, just sit in soaking water.

They let us come in as refugees, United States.

You know, we lived in government housing projects.

Me, my sister, and my brother all were placed in the same

category for ESL.

We were probably one of the first wave of boat people

resettlement to Houston.

So what was the urgency to take such a tremendous risk?

Our parents felt we need to take a chance on freedom

and opportunity than to live under communist rule.

♪

Ain't nothing more American than Viet-bayou-style crawdad

steamed with sriracha, orange juice, and beer.

You got to have corn, of course, and potatoes and sausage

and beer.

Did I mention beer?

♪

Texas, we get the bad rep that we... we are

not compassionate.

And I think that's a wrong portrayal.

Texans, as a whole, when the crisis come,

are the most generous and the most compassionate people

that I know.

It doesn't matter if you're red or blue,

left or right, middle.

When... when that time come, they are very generous,

and they... they will help out.

It's hot in Houston, so things move a little

slower around here.

Maybe that explains this.

♪

♪ I wake up in the morning ♪

♪ Still high from last night ♪

♪ Ain't got no time to chill ♪

♪ I gots to get my cash right ♪

L.A. may have low riders, but Houston has slab,

its own car culture, with it's own accompanying sound.

Its own chopped and screwed hip-hop style.

♪

♪ Born and raised in Houston, Texas ♪

♪ Born and raised in Houston, Texas ♪

♪ Born and raised in Houston, Texas ♪

♪

This is pretty much, like, one of the most classic

designs of a slab.

It's the Cadillac.

See how you got the insides custom with the stitching

and all that?

So, you know, this is a complete slab, you know.

- Full reclining is... - Full reclining.

It's a laidback thing.

Houston musical artist Slim Thug

and his friends Bone and David called some people

to bring their cars over to MacGregor Park in the

southern part of the city.

If you're gonna do it, what do you have to have?

- What are the rules? - Candy paint.

Got to have these type of rims with the elbow swingers.

Fifth wheel and grille is mainly, like, for slab.

That's what make it a complete, you know?

And the music, you know how they got the pop trunk

with the custom music?

You got to have that also.

♪

♪ I need to stop it, but it taste so good ♪

♪ Every time I stop drinkin', drank keeps callin' me back ♪

♪ I need to stop it, but it taste so good ♪

If you hit the block, there's not a bunch

of dudes just standing up.

It's a bunch of everything.

You know, take the old and mix it with the new.

These two pink Cadillacs are awesome.

That's a married couple, a man and woman,

and they have their kids with them.

Each trunk that say something, it's your autograph.

If you see it coming and then you see the car

and the grille and then you see the 2-2 chromes, it's like,

"Oh, my God, here comes"

whoever the guard is of your neighborhood.

They basically, like, legends in the streets.

Are all of these... like, are they works in progress?

- Are people constantly... - I think it's got to be - a work in progress.

I think a slab, you gonna stay doing it.

Yeah, always changing 'em.

They get expensive, real talk.

Like, all these cars out here, they probably spent

a bankroll on all of 'em.

♪ I wonder last year how many sweets I rolled ♪

♪ I wonder last year how many cups I poured ♪

♪ Of that muddy, muddy purple I purchased by... ♪

You're not eating Pizza Hut in the back of that

are either, are you?

Well, really, we barely see people in the back seat

of somebody car out here.

He's shaking his head.

"Nobody's getting in the back seat."

Because you got to lean.

You got to lean back.

So that mean whoever back here can't be long.

So I'm thinking about my Lincoln now, you know.

Maybe I'm thinking, like, crocodile skin on the outside.

I'm thinking about pony.

Pony?

From a horse or cow skin.

Like Palomino kind of a thing?

Palomino?

That'd be fresh.

It'd be evil.

Pay him no mind.

♪

Acres Homes is a predominantly black community

where many of the original slab pioneers come from.

It's also where you can find the legendary family-run

Burns BBQ, a place not unfamiliar to me.

I first came here 15 years ago on some long-lost

travel program on a network far, far away.

Founder Roy Burns has passed on to the great open pit

in the sky since last I was here, but his son

and his grandchildren carry on the tradition of making

some of the best East Texas-style barbecue

you can find around here.

It's been a while.

I mean, last time I was here, the grandfather

was here back then.

You in the right place for some barbecue, man.

What do you do?

You do ribs and brisket?

They do all that.

You do all that.

What is that?

Moonshine.

"Dukes of Hazzard."

Boss Hogg.

Wow. I could drink a lot of that.

Baked potato.

Okay, that's gonna work.

A torpedo-size baked potato filled with cheddar cheese

and chopped barbecue beef and homemade link sausage,

slow-cooked pork ribs, big-ass beef ribs, and brisket.

Whoa. Okay, I got a baked potato.

This baked potato is yours.

It's... it's marvelous.

That thing is, like, gigantic.

My mother always said, "Never eat anything

bigger than your head."

And that's about the size of a human head.

That look good, though. Ain't gonna lie.

So everybody born here?

Born and raised.

Born and raised.

Has the town changed at all?

A lot.

Yeah, in what way?

You know, it was like a big small town at first.

Now it's becoming like a real city, you know.

Is that good or bad?

Depend on what you do.

Good and bad, kind of.

A lot of the stuff we was really into back in the day,

these new kids or these people from out of town

really ain't into, even the music.

Like, back in the day, Houston was so independent.

Like, I was selling so many records out of the trunk

- -that I didn't want a major deal. - -♪ I'm from H-Town ♪

♪ So you know what I'm sippin' ♪

♪ I'm from H-Town, so you know what I'm sippin' ♪

♪ Hit the boulevard, got the candy paint drippin' ♪

♪ And I'm from H-Town, so you know what I'm sippin' ♪

♪ Hey ♪

Is there a distinctive Houston sound?

Very. You know, the whole culture from the cars

to the sippin' syrup and the music itself... First of all,

what's sippin' syrup?

Syrup is promethazine and codeine.

It was a cough syrup.

But then they mixed it with soda out here.

Why is that the drug of choice here?

Maybe because you just see how it is.

Everything is so chill and laidback.

In Atlanta, everything was turnt up.

Out here, everything is slowed down, 'cause I guess we're

a more laidback culture.

So at various points in your career,

clearly, somebody said, "Well, look."

"Why don't you move out here?"

L.A. is good.

- The money's out here. - "The deals are out here."

Right.

But here you are.

Why stay?

I tried to go to I.A., and the people out

there are so thirsty to try to be a star that

they fake and they crooked.

It was like I don't want to be around those type of people.

I want to be around good, genuine people.

Is Houston a good place to live?

Yup, great place.

Cost of living is cheap.

It stays hot and warm.

It's never snowing to where you got

to shovel your driveway.

And the food is the greatest out here,

and... and the black women... I don't care where you go.

There ain't no better black women. And that's what it is.

♪ I'm from H-Town, so you know what I'm sippin' ♪

♪ And I'm from H-Town, so you know what's... ♪

♪

It's a 90-minute drive south from Houston

to the town of Palacios on the Matagorda Bay.

And like a lot of the communities down here, the principal

industry is fishing, shrimp in particular.

It's also where, beginning in the 1970s,

as the Vietnam War ground to its ignominious conclusion,

the thousands of Vietnamese found new lives and a new home.

To have remained would have meant, in most cases, arrest,

imprisonment, reeducation camps, or worse.

So all you want is shrimp at this point.

Yeah.

I got shrimp and fish.

But I got enough fish.

Shrimp, you take.

Yup, yup. Big shrimp.

- The small, we don't get the shrimp. - You don't want it.

No, I don't want to.

The shrimping has declined considerably since the 1980s,

but the bay still provides a solid livelihood

for people like Vin Nguyen, who made it out of Vietnam

on a tiny handmade boat.

His engine died, and he and his family were lost

in the South China Sea for nine days before being rescued

by a cargo ship.

He became a United States citizen in 1990

and raised his family here in Palacios.

So what year did you come here?

How long have you been doing this?

I have been... I start for shrimp on 1985.

And what year did you arrive in this country?

I left my country 1979.

How old were you when you got here?

21-year-old.

You were 21.

So why shrimp?

How did you come to this business?

- Because my... my... my cousin. - Cousin, okay.

- He was living here. - Right.

And I work on a job first.

But he told me... my cousin told me that it's very good

for shrimping.

Good for shrimp.

Make money more.

♪

Back on dry land, Vince first stop is The Point.

The town's general store.

It's owned and operated by pillars of the community

Yen and Bryan Tran, who separately came over from Vietnam

around the same time, met, married,

and raised three children here.

This is fulfilling my dream.

I came here with nothing, 17-years-old.

First job I ever worked in washing dishes.

So my boss told me and say, "Hey, you are hard worker.

You know, maybe one day, you gonna be the boss."

So I have that thing in my mind.

After I get married, I told my wife, said,

"Open a restaurant."

And she stopped me.

And she say, "No. You crazy."

So after all my kid went to college, they got a good job,

I would mention again, and she say, "Okay."

Aw, that's... that's nice.

♪

Convenience store, bait shop, quick stop for a meal,

The Point is, in many ways, typical in a way it's geared

towards serving the immediate needs of its community.

Food for Vietnamese and food for Mexicans.

Yen, Bryan, their kids Jennifer and Kimberly,

as well as cousin TV and his son Donnie...

All proud citizens of the United States

of America, by the way.

You know, I... I really feel fortunate we live in this town

and we have a lot of support.

When we went to open this store, all my friends say, "I want"

to have Vietnamese food."

I know that here, you have to have Mexican food.

So I went and talked to the best Mexican

cook in town, Maricela.

Yeah, this is the chef right here.

Yeah.

Good chef.

Yes.

Here's Maricela.

♪

The pho here is good.

Brisket, eye round, meatball, tripe, and tendon

just like back home.

Ceviche made from Vin's fresh shrimp.

And of course tacos, migas style, with eggs, jalapeños,

and tomatoes.

The kids who grew up in this community...

These are the kids.

Yeah, these the kids right here.

What are they doing?

I was born here in '76, so I'm a natural-born citizen.

Working with my dad, right-hand man, you know, shrimping,

doing the boats.

Just kind of seeing what they went through,

I mean, it's... I definitely appreciate life, you know.

Jenn here is a lawyer.

My sister's an engineer.

I'm in the medical field.

So there's still that... You know, your parents

want you to have practical jobs. So... Right.

So you came here what year?

1975.

So you came over in the first... Yeah, I get

on American ship and get the hell out of there.

I come over here no shoe.

I tell the truth, I don't have even penny in my pocket

when I come over here.

No, serious.

And now I have a great business, and, you know, really,

I say this a great country.

♪

This community of Vietnamese people are very fortunate.

We always see the generosity of people over here,

because we live in, what, 30 years of civil war?

Yeah.

So no one trusts anyone.

But when you come over here, people take you in,

and they trust you.

And I... I always say that United States opened a house

for the immigrant and for the refugee.

I feel this is my home.

♪

My name is Gertrude.

I'm from Congo, Brazzaville.

I'm married to Albert, and we have four children.

♪

It's my dream... my dream, I need to big boss.

I need to have my land.

For sure, we like the weather, because we don't

we have snow here.

On summer, I know it's very hot here, but it's good

for planting, and people are nice in Houston.

♪

Many of the more recent arrivals in Houston

come from places where life is unbelievably hard

and often dangerous.

Many come from agrarian backgrounds, arriving here without

- the skill set needed to compete for jobs - in an urban situation.

Plant It Forward, a non-profit urban farming program,

provides refuges like Gertrude and Albert Lombo

access to land where they can make a living

from the ground.

So here we are, middle of Houston, a lush, fertile plot

where eggplant, squash, string beans,

and other produce is grown to be sold at farmers' markets

and to restaurants around town.

♪

Fellow Congolese Houston transplants

Gimoule and Constant Ngouala, chefs when not tending

their crops, prepare an outdoor meal for the Lombos

and a group of friends and fellow farmers,

Congolese but with a definite Cajun touch.

Or is it the other way around?

A slow-cooked stew of sausage, shrimp,

dried mackerel, and Malabar spinach over fufu.

Then Texas beef brochettes marinated in chilies

and cilantro and Maggi bouillon with a ratatouille made from

produce grown right here.

What did you all think when... When you heard that you were

gonna be resettled in Texas?

In... in my country, when... when people

are talking about Texas, they know that is where

many farmer is.

Really? And now, do you feel welcome?

Yes.

Do you feel the community is happy you're here?

Wonderful.

The first challenge was the language.

It wasn't easy.

Even now, it's not easy.

But you already speak how many languages?

In Congo principal, we have three languages.

Of course.

We have French, Lingala, and Mono Kutuba.

So don't feel too bad.

Most Americans struggle with one.

It's okay.

♪

I'm a refugee from DRC.

What did you do in Kinshasa?

I... I did electrician and construction too.

And here?

I was machine operator.

After that, I decide to be farmer.

It was my dream.

My dream, it was to get my own garden.

Uh-hmm.

And when I harvest, I need to cook.

What are you cooking now?

I work at Four Seasons Hotel.

- Oh, that's not a bad gig. - Yeah, yeah.

How African will Houston be in 20 years?

Oh!

A lot, right?

I want all my family still over there... -my mom, my sister.

And you'd like them to come?

I want them to come.

A lot of first-generation and second-generation

African babies gonna be happening.

Yeah. Yeah.

Houston is gonna look real different.

You'll hear Lingala at the 7-Eleven?

No problem?

No problem.

In 10 years?

♪

♪

The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd.

Two teams locked in struggle.

Take me out to the ballgame, man, though the smell wafting

from behind the bleachers is not hot dogs, or popcorn,

or roasting peanuts.

It's a hell of a lot better, actually.

Basically, it's practically like baseball.

First international game, believe it or not,

was USA versus Canada.

Really?

Yes, in 1844.

Yeah, I don't know if you knew, but cricket is second-most

watched sport... I... I just read that.

Yes.

India is number one.

USA is number two.

I do like a sport where you can aim

at somebody's crotch, though.

I think that's sort of awesome.

I'm not even gonna try and explain

the sport of cricket to you.

There's a ball, and there's bats, and I think you run

to, like, base.

Go out to Sardar Patel Stadium in Houston's Richmond

neighborhood, and ask league president

of the Houston Indian Cricket Club, Kuldeep Patel,

what it's all about.

He knows. He was once a big cricket star himself.

Let's go. Let's go!

Who's winning?

The first team scored 120 runs.

- Right. - They're chasing right now.

I see.

So we can't really say, 'cause they haven't

had an opportunity.

Exactly, right?

See, this is why it didn't happen.

We need... we like winners in America.

We like to know who's winning at all times.

But this is very high-energetic game.

Baseball, when we watch baseball, it's kind of slow to us.

- When we're playing... Well, even us, it is. - It's a slow game.

It's really all about the snacks in baseball.

Hot dogs.

The shitty hot dogs too.

And the beer's even worse.

Now for a hot dog.

Oh, no, right.

Now for some tandoori chicken, cooked to perfection.

Some spicy, tender, and totally delicious curried goat.

And made-to-order potato masala dosas.

Are there fewer rules here?

The caste system, you lose that right away?

It's not right away, you got to understand,

because when... when somebody's come from a rich,

middle-class family, it's gonna take them a minute

to get used to that culture shock over here.

It's going to take about two years.

Like when I got married, back then, in the '90s,

it was like I was supposed to marry a girl from my caste.

It was an issue then, but now it's not an issue.

Now, you know, 20 years later, it's changed.

What about white Houstonians?

Welcoming? Nice?

In my experience, I moved from Singapore.

Right.

First six months, whenever we used to go anywhere

and say we recently moved to USA, and everybody go,

"Welcome to Texas."

Welcome to Houston.

"Welcome to USA."

And, like, that made us very comforted.

I mean, that's not the stereotype.

The stereotype is that this is an intolerant state

filled with, you know, right-wing cowboys

who don't like foreigners.

Not Houston.

Definitely not.

In the beginning, you might feel that Texans are,

like, not that friendly to you, but once you know them,

they are really friendly people.

We see this is the best place to dream

and achieve the dream.

The same opportunities in India I get, I won't make as much

of my life as I would over here.

You work hard in this country, and if you put your

mind to something, you know, it is achievable,

and I think so America is land of opportunity

and best place to stay in the world.

Some people say, "Make America great again."

I say America was great all along.

Some of us just forgot why.

It's great because your grandfather and my grandfather

and just about everybody's damn grandfather

or great-grandfather crammed themselves,

snuck, bought their way, or was dragged onto a boat

and one way or another allowed themselves

eventually to dream.

You still can.

There's still room.

And in some places in America, apparently you

are still welcome.

Welcome, stranger.

This land is your land.

♪ Jose can you see, how diversity in Texas is ♪

♪ Don't mess with it, the best with it ♪

♪ It's intricate, complex with it ♪

♪ Headlights is beamin' ♪

♪ Twilights is gleamin' ♪

♪ Broad stripes, bright stars ♪

♪ Racing stripes, bright cars ♪

♪ Yo, you could end up dead there ♪

♪ The Houston Rockets'

red glare ♪

♪ Hardened on the hardwood ♪

♪ The finals, they might get there ♪

♪ Thug brought the whips out ♪

♪ He posted at MacGregor ♪

♪ Houston are go-getters ♪

♪ They hustle, very clever ♪

♪ Eating migas with my 'migos ♪

♪ I'm at Guadalupana ♪

♪ My tia make birria with tortillas chichicana ♪

♪ They can't deport us all ♪

♪ Chinga bling make the tamale good ♪

♪ Shop and get Masala Radio ♪

♪ Bumpin' that Bollywood ♪

♪ Sugar from my mama out in Sugar Land ♪

♪ My cousins and my family out in Sugar Land ♪

♪ That's my hood ♪

♪ Sugar from my mama ♪

♪ Out in Sugar Land molasses ♪

♪ Hanging with my homies ♪

♪ When I kick it in Palacios ♪