A voracious reader since his early years, Barrios recalls that he liked contemporary stories containing popular themes. At thirteen he started to write novels (unpublished) and some poetry, and also began to sharpen his critical ability by writing book reviews for the boys' school he attended. After he graduated from high school, at a time when discrimination against Chicanos in Texas was so bad that it was hard to get hired even as a janitor or store clerk, the editor of the
Victoria Advocate, the local newspaper, told Barrios that they were looking for a book reviewer and said, "We think you can do it." He took the job.
In the 1960s, while working as a medical corpsman in the U.S. Air Force for three years, Barrios entered the University of Texas at Austin, where he majored in English and received a B.A. in 1968. While still a student there he regularly contributed feature and literary articles to the local newspapers and magazines, such as Sight & Sound, Village Boys, and Film Quarterly.
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