The Port of Houston (1998 population estimate 1,630,864) dominates oil and gas shipping on Texas’ Gulf of Mexico coast and has underpinned the modern growth of this Sunbelt metropolis. Houston began in 1836 as speculative real-estate venture; today the city sprawls across highways, far-flung suburbs, edge cities and malls (metropolitan population nearly 4 million).

Houston proves more cosmopolitan than many other Sunbelt cities, with an important historic black population and many Latinos (old Tejano families, recent Mexican immigrants and Central American refugees), as well as global migrations of Asians and Africans. Citizens also include Sunbelt white-collar migrations, national and international, associated with shipping, oil and other activities. Houston boasts major medical centers and universities (Rice, University of Houston), as well as the Menil Museum.

Houston’s enclosed stadium, the Astrodome, hosted professional baseball (the Astros); it figured in Robert Altman’s Brewster McCloud (1970), but is now obsolete. The city also has football (the Oilers), basketball (the Rockets), hockey and a major rodeo. The National Aviation and Space Administration (NASA) stands closeby. Houston hosted the 1992 Republican presidential convention and is one of the homes of the presidential Bush family.