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Popular Culture Review
Southwest and the South within the U.S. and the four-comer borders dividing
the Texas Oil Country (the Permian Basin, which comprises another larger
portion of the northwest area of the Edwards Plateau) to the northwest, the
Texas Hill Country (the southeastern Edwards Plateau) to the southeast, the
Rolling Plains to the northeast, and the high desert mountains (the Chihuahua
Desert/Big Bend area) to the southwest within the state. The east-west poles of
this plus-shaped border region constitute, roughly speaking, the internal border
between the American Southwest and South, given that the Pecos River, about
110 miles west of San Angelo, is the famous late 19th century frontier dividing
line between “civilization” and the lawless frontier. Thus, this desert region, as
well as the Permian Basin (the southern portion of which lies within this desert
region), are associated with a clearly Western symbolism, while the other two
regions—the rolling plains and the Hill C