Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

Hey, hey, hey!

- It's one of the most rugged and remote destinations

in the United States.

Everything out here will bite, poke, or freak you out.

Everything.

People live in cubicles

and they're the king of their domain.

Out here, I mean, you ain't king of shit.

- Stick around and tell your friends

from the border to the basin out here in West Texas.

Great to be here tonight.

- The dream of the American West was come out here,

get your own little piece of paradise,

you work hard, raise cattle.

You make enough money to look after the family.

- Sure, I'd love to cook you one.

- This land, it's really for one thing,

and that's producing livestock.

They've tried to farm it, it doesn't work.

And, you know, except for beautiful views,

that's what it can produce.

- West Texas and Big Bend, this area,

are you the platonic ideal of the Texan?

The American hero. Lone rider on a horse.

Big empty spaces. Mexican music.

Mexican food.

- This is still where the punchiest cowboys

in the United States are.

It don't get no rougher.

- I mean, we're 120 miles from the nearest Walmart.

40 miles to a tank of gas or a loaf of bread.

- Out here, pretty much everything is five hours away.

- And the property has been in the family

how many generations now?

This is the fourth generation.

- Fifth. - Fifth generation.

My granddad came here in the '30s.

Bodie's family came out here in 1880.

- Not a lot of people who are left get to do this.

- The ranch is approximately 70,000 acres.

We don't use anything other than a horse.

No four-wheelers, no helicopters.

- Excuse me for saying so, that seems a little stubborn.

I mean, as far as practicality.

He is so opposed to change.

- It's not all bad, is it? - No!

- I mean, these guys, they love it.

I mean, they get up every morning

and this is their office.

Bodie, he had his teeth kicked out.

- By? - A cow.

- Ooh. - And then he got in that chute

with the steer and knocked him all out again.

- Hey, hey, hey, hey! - Hey!

- Oh, there goes Evan. - She's about to rope.

- How old were you when you learned to ride?

Oh, gosh.

- She had a horse when she was three.

- Three. - Yeah.

Evan shows horses all over.

She is top five in the world right now.

- In the cow horse, you have to show

how well your horse can do,

you know, different maneuvers and...

- Oh, here comes Levins. - How old?

He's ten. Watch this.

Damn.

Is that hilarious?

It's killing me.

Way to go, Levin!

Oh, sweet little hunter

My back into your side

There we go.

The cabrito that we're eating,

yesterday was a live goat.

Oh, killer so graceful

We like it spicy.

Jalapeños and onions and, you know, fresh tomatoes.

- If you got a bunch of gringos, it's perfect.

- How Mexican is West Texas? - This is where it is.

- On the other side of that mountain,

20 miles is the crow flies.

Those flavors, those sounds.

- That's yours also, right? - Oh, yeah.

I learned to talk Spanish

nearly before I learned to talk English.

- It's the good vanilla from Mexico.

- Old Mexico or New Mexico? - Old Mexico.

- Chuy's mother comes from Mexico.

- South of Ojinaga, right? - That's right.

- And how long you guys been riding together?

- Oh, me and him? - Yeah, you and him.

35 years.

- Yeah, it's an awesome way of life.

- Jalapeño cheese grits. - Nice!

- Of course, there are buttermilk biscuits.

- This is an area of Texas that is legendary for...

Whatever you might have thought

you were going to do here, nature wins.

- Always. - Always.

- Always. - It'll not rain for 20 years.

And you just stay as long as you can till it starts raining.

- Yep. - So how do you make a living?

Basically, dig in.

- Work like hell and don't spend any money.

Yeah.

- This table, right here, is filled with people

who truly care about the land and what happens to it.

- You just have to have the heart to stay

and want to stay and do it

and make something of it while you're here.

If you got a weak heart, you won't last.

- I mean, I'm graduating next year

and I'm going to go to college.

Go through law school, finish.

But I want to come back out here.

There are kids that are my age that will never see this.

Never have this, never be able to know people like this.

- And that's, I mean... - Priceless.

- Yeah, how can you say no to that?

- If you get to eat three good meals a day,

- and be happy. - Mm-hmm.

- Being happy is more important than anything.

Yeah!

- So, how else is the area changing?

I rode for three hours.

Some ghost towns, dead gas stations,

and nothing but nothing, and, you know,

suddenly we arrive in Marfa.

- And it's like, uh, "Would you like some bruschetta?

Some salumi," you know. Some $900 ponchos.

That's right

What... what's going on?

- Clearly, it's not the old, old family Marfa.

You're everything

- Marfa has become a pretty distinct culture.

Tourist town, art town, cowboy town.

It's just got it all. You can get calamari.

In Marfa. Who'd a thunk it?

20 years ago, nobody even knew what the word meant.

And it feels like

And it feels like

And it feels like

And it feels like

- This is the first bar I've ever been into where, uh,

the person next to me is petting a goat.

In here?

- Sometimes we got... - You got all types.

- Dogs come in without their owners.

As long as everybody behaves,

whether you got two legs or four,

everything's good.

- When it rains flew up in Memphis

Memphis make you see the scar

I was heading west through Dallas

- You've seen a bit of the world.

You've seen a lot of the world.

- I ran away from home a lot as a kid.

- Mm-hmm. - And by the time I was 16,

I got real good at it.

I went to Alaska, then I came back.

Joined the military. Cowboying, roughnecking.

- Running drugs and guns across the border?

I did run guns south.

And the ATF knows. They got an open file.

- But what motivated you to get into the bar business?

- Well, every cowboy has a dream of owning a saloon.

- I did not know that. - Mm-hmm.

- It's been around for some time under various...

Oh, almost a hundred years.

There's many different cultures

that come through here.

Hipsters, blue-collar city workers,

and I wanted everybody to be able to have a good time,

no matter who or what or where.

There ain't going to be but one intimidating

son of a bitch in my bar, and that's me.

You're seeing this town change in a lot of big ways.

- Mm-hmm. - Every single person

I've talked to down here is telling me the same thing.

That wall ain't never getting built around here.

- My ranch is on the river. - It's on the border.

We can't survive without the river.

And we can't survive without the people

on that side of the river.

- They can't survive without us. - Right.

- That and they're our friends for God's sakes.

Loyalty is a big thing in Texas,

and you ain't gonna build a fence between me

and my loyal friends.

- Every old school Anglo rancher I've met here

speaks Spanish fluently.

- Uh-huh. It's a mutual respect to speak a little Spanish.

And it's respect for them to learn a little English.

But you know as well as I do, if you go to Europe,

it's not hard to find somebody in France speaking English.

- Everybody. - They can...

- Yeah. - They don't mind.

They're not offended.

You know, Americans have a tendency to want to be