He was well-greeted by old friends and many Laredoans eager to meet the writer of Laredo Stories – A Boyhood on the Río Grande
Writer Dan Clouse — Laredo born, Laredo educated — now from Lake Bay, WA, spoke to a full house at the Laredo Center for the Arts on Friday, March 27, about his book, Laredo Stories, A Boyhood on the Río Grande.
He was in his hometown to share his work in response to an invitation from three non-profit art organizations — Daphne Art Foundation, the Laredo Center for the Arts, and the Laredo Cultural District.
The standing room only plática and book signing was sponsored by Hank Sames, Sonia and Memo Benavides, L & F Distributors, Killam Development Ltd., stx media, Texas Community Bank, and Caffe Dolce.
The evening event began with a rousing Laredo bienvenido by Mariachi Los Caporales, followed by words of welcome from Meliss Amici-Haynes of the Laredo Center for the Arts. Hank Sames introduced Clouse with sincere admiration for capturing and memorializing Laredo of the 1950s and 60s.
Mayor Victor Treviño (NHS Class of 1966) and his wife Rosa took front row seats, and at the podium the Mayor lauded Clouse’s stories and his work to preserve the City’s culture and history.
The author spoke to his audience in English and impeccable Spanish, at times with anecdotes that evoked laughter, but also with eloquent narratives about the experiences of having been raised in the small town of Laredo.
Some of Clouse’s stories call up longstanding friendships that began in elementary school, on the streets near his childhood home on Garfield Street, on the Little League field near Three Points in South Laredo, and at Nixon High School. In the audience that evening — in addition to the many who did not know him but attended to hear a good writer speaking about a more simple, less complicated Laredo — were teammates from the Yankees baseball team and many NHS classmates.
Most of the stories appeared one at a time as Clouse wrote them in the online version of LareDOS from 2017 to 2025. I recall editing those stories, editing them only minimally because they were good, really good. As I read them more recently as a volume of stories, I have understood what he may have known as he composed them — that they were an homage to Laredo, to the landscape of ranchlands and big blue skies, to good parents, to the brilliant science teacher at Lamar, Humberto Segovia, who opened our minds with curiosity about the world around us, and to the good friends, fellow travelers, with whom we navigated through a lifetime to sooner or later become adults.
In addition to bringing an excellent writer like Dan back to Laredo, having him here represented the unprecedented collaborative work of volunteers of three of the City’s arts non-profit organizations. That and a full house at the Center for the Arts on March 27 speaks volumes about the value to Laredoans of the art of the written word.
(Photos by Michael Amici)
