Prolific playwright called ‘a renaissance guy’
SAN ANTONIO — Gregg Barrios did not lack for stories to tell.
The South Texas native started writing book reviews at the age of 16 for his hometown paper, the Victoria Advocate, and went on to write for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Antonio Express-News and Film Quarterly, among a slew of other publications. He served in Vietnam, taught school in tiny Texas towns, founded an influential film society at the University of Texas at Austin and spent time in the Factory, Andy Warhol’s famed studio in New York.
He published poetry collections, and his plays were produced in San Antonio and across the country.
Barrios always had several projects going. Recently that included a play about fabled Texas burlesque artist Candy Barr.
The work came to a sudden stop Tuesday when he died of a heart attack. He was 80.
“I don’t think I’d ever met anybody that did literature, journalism, playwriting and poetry,” said Ellen Riojas Clark, professor emerita at the University of Texas at San Antonio, who knew Barrios for years. “He was just a renaissance guy.”
Barrios grew up in Victoria, where he started writing book reviews for the newspaper at the urging of two librarians he knew. He was drafted into the Air Force at age 19, and his tour of duty included a stint in Vietnam. He went to college at UT Austin, where he founded Cinema 40, a film society that, among other things, pushed for the creation of a film department at the school.
Cinema 40 also presented the first Andy Warhol Film Festival, giving Barrios a connection to the artist. When Barrios later moved to New York, he wrote for Interview, the pop art superstar’s magazine, and spent time at the Factory, where he made a few experimental films.
Barrios also had a long career as a teacher, starting in the 1960s, when he taught high
school English in San Antonio.
He was part of a group of teachers who went to Crystal City in 1969 to tutor Chicano students who had taken part in a walkout to protest a lack of diversity on the faculty and other issues. He continued teaching there after the protests.
“He exposed these kids to all sorts of literature and the richness of where they lived, even though it was such an oppressive environment that they lived in,” said Clark, who also was part of the group of teachers that helped out in Crystal City. “At the core, he was always about justice for everyone. And I think that will be his legacy, that he searched for and produced literature for unrepresented communities.”
They stayed in touch after Barrios moved to Los Angeles, where he continued teaching and writing. When Clark got a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a workshop to train teachers in Latino literature, Barrios was one of 20 from across the country who took part. When it was over, he decided to stay in San Antonio.
This is where his passion for playwriting ignited. His drama “Dark Horse, Pale Rider,” based on the life of Texas writer Katherine Anne Porter, premiered in 2002 in the Cellar Theater of the San Pedro Playhouse (now the Public Theater of San Antonio).
He was then book editor for the Express-News, a post he held for two years before leaving in 2003 to dedicate himself to his art. He published several books, including the script for his play “Rancho Pancho.”
Over the past five years or so, Barrios received a number of honors. He was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2015, and in 2019, he hosted screenings during the Austin Film Society’s tribute to Cinema 40. He will be the recipient of Gemini Ink’s Award of Literary Excellence during the literary center’s annual Inkstravaganza gala Oct. 15.
George Cisneros, co-founder of Urban-15, said Barrios’ death was a huge loss to the city.
“Gregg was the gregarious interrupter of the status quo who would not leave well enough alone,” Cisneros said. “He never accepted a culture that insisted he should stay in his place. Gregg pushed all of us to extremes with sharp wit, indelicate truths and edgy critiques.”
Barrios is survived by his nephew, Robert Barrios. Memorial services are pending.