Nederland, Texas

If one can envision a few tulip sprouts gasping for breath among a vast bed of Texas bluebonnets, then he or she can grasp the dilemma created by two opposing cultures when 1,000 Hollanders were abruptly wrenched from the snug comforts of their homeland and transplanted on a raw Texas prairie in 1898. While this might appear to be a crude and hypothetical comparison, it was indeed quite real for those newcomers who spoke no English and who questioned their ability to compete and survive in a strange land, climate, and environment where "furriners" were not always welcomed.