Voices of the
BIG BEND
Jim Glendinning continues the tradition of his popular radio interviews from “Voices of the Big Bend,” an original production of KRTS,
Marfa Public Radio. The program continues to be broadcast occasionally throughout the region at 93.5 FM.
Story and photographs by Jim Glendinning
CATFISH CALLAWAY
Gary Callaway was born on May 26,
1947 in Houston to Marsh and Margaret
Callaway, the youngest of four children.
His father had been a teacher before
becoming a printer. “I had a swell time,
growing up” is how Catfish, the name he
is known by in the Big Bend, describes his
childhood. He attended Bellaire High
School but best remembers outdoors
activities like riding his bike along the
bayou and canoeing with his local Boy
Scout troop.
After high school he moved in 1966 to
Wharton Junior College as an arts major.
He next moved to North Texas State
University (1968-70), where he joined the
Drama Club. Appearing on stage
appealed to him. “Applause was the
whole deal,” he says of the experience.
He had an exceptional teacher in Dr.
Stanley K. Hamilton, “the best director I
ever had.” He was hooked. In 1970
Catfish married fellow student Helen
Weicker, whom he later divorced, and he
subsequently lived for a time in Houston
with sustainable gardening pioneer
Camille Waters.
During the 70s Catfish put into prac-
tice what he had learned at college, form-
ing a theater group in Madrid, N.M. in
1970 followed by work with the Reunion
Theater, behind the Alley Theater, in
Houston from 1973 to 1978. The 90-seat
theater, with a mixed bag of repertory
plays, was the darling of the local press
and seats were usually sold out. The core
group, however, decided to split, and the
venture closed.
Meanwhile, following his first river-
rafting experience with White Water
Experience in 1976, he became a Far
Flung Adventures river guide in 1978,
one of only four. He subsequently
18
CATFISH CALLAWAY
Terlingua
worked with Far Flung from 1978 to
1992 in New Mexico, Colorado,
Arizona and Mexico. He found it easy
to be a boatman, combining entertain-
ment, cooking and boat skills. It was on
the river he obtained his nickname from
Far Flung’s John Morelock, known as
“Wild Man,” who on a three-day river
trip called him “Catfish, all mouth and
no brains.”
Reverting to his earlier stage career,
he staged The Ballad of the Sad Café with
Sarah Bourbon in 1989, his first play
since Houston, and was hooked again.
Forming a nonprofit company in 2000
arose out of a dare by Nola Lafayette of
Terlingua, a fellow theater enthusiast.
Conditions were primitive and the budg-
et low, as demonstrated by the company
name, “Last Minute, Low Budget” pro-
ductions. Free use of a building for per-
formances was generously provided by
Cenizo
Third Quarter 2012
EVA CALDERON
Alpine
landlady Delia White of Terlingua.
The company grew, and it staged three
or four productions annually through
2010. With a small cast, a leaky building
and almost no funds, the enterprise grew
and consolidated. The positions of direc-
tor rotated; sometimes it was Catfish,
sometimes Martha Stafford, Scott
Watkins or Trevor Hickle. Looking ahead,
the group plans a move to a permanent
site nearby under the name Mercury
Performing Arts Center, which they
intend to share with other performing-
arts groups. If past efforts as anything to
go by, this talented and determined troupe
will have new digs in three or four years.
EVA CALDERON
Born in Ojinaga, Chihuahua on Oct.
18, 1962, Eva Martinez was the youngest
of five daughters of Jesus Martinez, who
LARRY FRANCELL
Fort Davis
worked in the local flour factory, and
Felicitas, the homemaker. Three of her
sisters married early and left for the
United States; Eva was an aunt at age 3.
She passed her school exams with little
difficulty, and she loved folklorico dancing.
At 18 she became an instructor in a
community-service program for two
years in remote villages near Manuel
Benavides, 55 miles from Ojinaga and
reachable only on horseback. This was
her first time away from home, living
under hardship conditions and coming
into contact with poor families who had
nothing.
Speaking of those days she says, “You
have to use everything you have; I
learned how to make things last.” She
persevered and also started taking sum-
mer courses in business administration
at the Tech- nological Institute of Juarez.
This course developed into a four-year,