Latino Empowerment: Julián Castro

by | Aug 16, 2024 | Blog

You may know Julián Castro for his contributions to the Obama administration, or you might have read his memoir, An Unlikely Journey: Waking up from My American Dream. In either case, you know that he is a trailblazer.

Castro has made clear that he feels a deep connection to his heritage, as a third generation Mexican American. His grandmother, Victoriana, whom he refers to as Mamo, immigrated to the United States in 1922. She and her sister had been orphaned during the Mexican Revolution, and were seeking out their relatives who lived in San Antonio, Texas. She lived a hard life, full of difficult trials that would test her resolve to build a life in a new country, but she would ultimately live on to have children, and eventually know her grandson, Julián.

Castro’s mother, Maria del Rosario “Rosie” Castro, is also a prolific figure. She is a civil rights activist, who has been involved in such groups as the Young Democrats of America, the Mexican American Youth Organization, the Committee for Barrio Betterment, and the Raza Unida Party. She was the first of her family to go to college, which is where she began her civil rights journey, by forming the Young Democrats club at Our Lady of the Lake University, in San Antonio.

Victoriana and Rosie built an incredible legacy that would surely help inspire Julián Castro in his own immense journey into American politics and activism. Born in 1974, Castro grew up in San Antonio, Texas, like his grandmother and mother before him. Thanks to the hard work of two generations before him, Castro received an excellent education and was even able to graduate from high school a year early. He claims that his own political journey truly began in college; he enrolled in Stanford University, where he noticed a disparity amongst students’ paths to this prestigious university that reflected a greater inequity in the United States. He would graduate in 1996, with a Bachelor’s degree in political science/communications, and would go on to receive his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Harvard Law School, in 2000.

Soon after, Castro would return to his hometown, San Antonio, and quickly be elected as the youngest city council member in the city’s history, at age 26, in 2001. In 2005, rather than run for reelection for city council, he chose to run for Mayor. He would lose the election, but his resolve would not waver, as in 2009 he would run again and win with 56% of the votes. His time as mayor was considered largely successful, as he would go on to be reelected in 2011, and then a third time in 2013. It was during this tenure, that Castro would deliver an incredible speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2012. It was this speech that put Castro on the map for the rest of America.

President Barack Obama no doubt also took notice of his speech, as he would later appoint Castro as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in 2014. Castro would hold this position in President Obama’s administration until the end of his second term, in January, 2017. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Castro oversaw “8,000 employees and a budget of $46 billion, using a performance-driven approach to achieve the Department’s mission of expanding opportunity for all Americans,” during his time as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. A hallmark of his time in this position was the launch of “ConnectHome,” a project that aimed to “accelerate internet adoption in 28 communities, providing broadband and electronic devices to children living in public and assisted housing.”

Since July 12th, 2021, Castro has continued his political career as a NBC/MSNBC political analyst and guest anchor. He also serves as CEO of the Latino Community Foundation, the largest Latino-serving foundation in the United States. He continues to be a voice in American activism and politics, and his legacy is truly an excellent example of Latino empowerment.

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