Voices of the BIG
BEND
Jim Glendinning: The Galloping Scot, Author, World Traveler and tour operator to Copper Canyon, Mexico.
Story and photographs by Jim Glendinning
MIKE PALLANEZ
Miguel Pallanez (Mike) was born in
Alpine in 1943, the youngest of five
children, to Antonio and Virginia
Gallego Pallanez. He was preceded by
three sisters and a brother, who died at
age 18 from pneumonia.
His father was a World War I veter-
an who worked in a variety of jobs
locally. He successfully raised goats for
their angora wool and was a stock
hauler. He opened a café, El Charo
Café, on Harrison Street in Alpine, and
also had a hog farm.
Antonio Pallanez died in 1974 at
age 80. He and Virginia were sticklers
for education and would have been
immensely proud of their son’s career
in coaching as well as of their daugh-
ters, who were all involved in educa-
tion. Pallanez started at Centennial
School, attending through eighth
grade. He didn’t excel in any one sub-
ject but recalls “very good, dedicated
teachers.”
In 1957 he started at Alpine High
School. “Everyone got along well,” he
recalls, “especially the athletes.” He
played baseball for four years and foot-
ball for three years. He loved competi-
tion and learned that you win as a team
and lose as a team.
In fall 1961, Pallanez enrolled at Sul
Ross, but suffered a car accident. He
re-enrolled in 1963, studying Physical
Education with a Minor in Biology,
and graduated in 1967. His first job
was teaching Physical Education and
Science at Centennial School.
Pallanez married Rosie Valenzuela
in 1970, whom he met at Centennial
School where she worked as a teacher’s
aide. They married at Our Lady of
Peace Catholic Church in Alpine and
subsequently had five children: Mary,
Julie, Michelle, Tony and Linda. Tony
became head baseball coach at
Riverside High School in El Paso.
Three of his daughters became school
teachers like their mother, who was an
exceptional elementary school teacher.
Linda works in the DA’s office.
20
MIKE PALLANEZ
Alpine
Pallanez’s first year at Centennial
School was a great success, going unde-
feated in football, basketball and track
in 1967/1968. In 1974 he moved to
Alpine High School and restarted base-
ball, followed by a brief stint coaching
at Fabens High School.
Here he enjoyed remarkable success
during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
Alpine were District Champions in 17
out of 18 years in baseball and in 1994
qualified for the State final four.
Asked to explain the importance of
sports competition at the high school
level, he replies that putting on a uni-
form gives you the ability to reach fur-
ther. In a team, you learn to cope with
adversity and how to come back.
Competition is the key to improving
the man. Coaching is teaching in a dif-
ferent context.
Pallanez’s awards include West
Texas Coach of the Year (1994) and
the Odessa American baseball Coach
of the Year (1998). In 2015 he was
inducted into the Texas High School
Baseball Coach Association Hall of
Fame. Pallanez retired in 2008 after
Cenizo
Third Quarter 2016
BETH GARCIA
Alpine
Photo by Tim McKenna
coaching from 2001-2008 at Sul Ross.
Today he is a County Commissioner.
As a man who loved teaching and
coaching, Pallanez’s message is: “If you
love what you do, keep doing it.”
BETH GARCIA
The main characters in Beth
Garcia’s popular crime novels are
tough people living in a rugged terrain.
Residents of Big Bend can easily recog-
nize this landscape since they live there.
They can empathize with the charac-
ters due to Garcia’s skill at drawing the
reader into the story. How Garcia
achieves this is bound up with her own
life’s journey.
Elizabeth Anne Egger (Beth) was
born in Rochester, NY in 1949, the
eldest of three daughters of the Rev.
Henry T. and Anne Eggers, a teacher.
Her father’s calling as an Episcopal
priest meant the family moved fre-
quently. Her childhood years were
spent in Charleston, NC and later in
Gainesville, FL, where Garcia attended
PK Younge High School.
After graduating from high school in
CHARLIE ANGELL
Presidio
1967, Garcia attended community col-
lege in Marianna, FL. She didn’t com-
plete the course; instead, she married
Ernest Frey, who worked nearby in the
US Air Force. The couple eloped to
Alabama to marry since she was too
young to marry in Florida.
Ernie quit the Air Force and took a
job. Garcia gained experience in the
insurance business, got a license, and
showed an entrepreneurial ability in
sales that would help her later.
However, their lives were moving
apart, and they divorced in 1979. In
1980, Garcia took off for the west and
never returned.
In 1984 she fetched up at Lajitas
Resort, tending bar. She was hired by
Big Bend River Tours at a period when
the river ran high and the rafting busi-
ness boomed. She bought the company
in 1988. The business grew, and at one
stage she had 43 employees.
In 1983, she married Efrain Garcia,
by whom she had a daughter,
Margarita. Margarita would later play
a role in Garcia’s book-writing career,
as a part role model for Deputy Ricos,