{"id":1305,"date":"2012-09-05T22:17:02","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T05:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.malcs.org\/archive-2017\/?p=1305"},"modified":"2012-09-10T22:42:51","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T05:42:51","slug":"the-julian-castro-i-knew-and-how-hes-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/2012\/09\/05\/the-julian-castro-i-knew-and-how-hes-changed\/","title":{"rendered":"The Julian Castro I Knew – and How He’s Changed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s a thoughtful essay <\/a>by Texas Chicana anthropologist and journalist Cecilia Ball\u00c3\u00ad,\u00c2\u00a0reflecting on the trajectory of San Antonio mayor’s Julian Castro’s political career. \u00c2\u00a0Julian and his brother Joaquin are the twin sons of single mother and longtime Chicana community organizer Maria del Rosario “Rosie” Castro<\/strong>. \u00c2\u00a0The Chicana por mi Raza Project<\/a> writes that Rosie “served as president of the Bexar County Young Democrats and as vice-president of the women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s division of the Young Democrats at the state level. She ran for city council in 1971 and finished second out of four candidates on the Committee for Barrio Betterment slate. She earned a MA in environmental management from the University of Texas-San Antonio. Castro was also instrumental in making San Antonio shift from electing City Council members at-large to creating districts.”<\/p>\n

But about Rosie’s boys, Cecilia Ball\u00c3\u00ad\u00c2\u00a0writes:<\/p>\n

In 1995, as a freshman at Stanford<\/a>, I watched two Texans two years above me land the highest number of votes in the race for student senate. They were identical twins, no less, a fact that made for a catchy story in the school paper (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Twin Senators Not Two Close for Comfort\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) and a portrait of the smiling, newly minted politicians clad in khakis and polo-style shirts, sitting back-to-back on the floor of the Stanford Quad. It seemed Juli\u00c3\u00a1n and Joaquin Castro had grasped a critical lesson my sister and I had learned running for our junior high student council: Being a twin pays in politics because it doubles your publicity and votes\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand people love twins.<\/p>\n

That was 17 years before Juli\u00c3\u00a1n would keynote the Democratic National Convention, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153plucked from relative obscurity,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as CBS News put it Tuesday, though he is now the mayor of the nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s seventh-largest city.<\/p>\n

I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the Castros well at Stanford, but we had friends in common and a natural affinity as fellow Mexican Americans from Texas, meaning we smiled at each other when we crossed paths on campus. I perceived them to be more mainstreamed Hispanics less invested in the ethnic politics that others of us had embraced away from home. When one or the other showed up to a party at Casa Zapata, the Chicano-themed dorm, I sensed he was there mostly to watch, to check it out, maybe, to understand one part of his constituency better. I had no idea they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d already had their own schooling in 1960s-style Chicano activism from their mother, Maria del Rosario Castro, a longtime community organizer (and single mother) who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d battled for the political inclusion of Mexican Americans, a demographic majority that remained outside the power structure in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

It was Rosie Castro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s values around public service that made Juli\u00c3\u00a1n, the elder of the twins by one minute, wonder if it now was his turn to continue advancing her cause. In a lyrical essay he penned in a freshman writing class in response to the prompt \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Do people ever make assumptions about what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll do after college, and how do you feel if they do?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he described the political gatherings he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d grown up around (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153functions,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d his mother called them) that all seemed to him to blur together (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153the same speeches and speakers, the same cheese and ham sandwiches\u00e2\u20ac\u009d). But he concluded that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153maybe politics\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was his future.<\/p>\n

Stanford became the Castros\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 first staging ground. Both brothers double-majored in political science and communications, working under the mentorship of professor Luis Fraga, who specialized in Latino urban politics. After they graduated in 1996, they returned home for a year and took a job at City Hall while they waited to begin Harvard Law School the following fall….<\/p>\n

Several years later, I met up again with the twins to write a\u00c2\u00a0piece for\u00c2\u00a0Texas Monthly\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/a>about their formal launch into politics. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d finished law school, and now 26-year-old Juli\u00c3\u00a1n was serving his first year as San Antonio\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s youngest councilman, while Joaquin, previously less sure about politics, had thrown his name in a local state representative race he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d win that fall.<\/p>\n

Surrounded by energetic young volunteers, they were running grassroots campaigns that hinged on heavy analysis of voting data and relentless canvassing. Their mother served as their chief strategist; always a feminist, she wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allow them to use the supposedly masculine term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153war room\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for their workspace. In fact, it was a failed attempt by Rosie 30 years earlier to get on the council that helped the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund to make a case, successfully, to the U.S. Justice Department that San Antonio needed single-member districts to ensure fair representation.<\/p>\n

That Rosie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s son was now the direct benefactor of those struggles moved her, enough to inspire her to believe a Latino could someday be president, she confessed to me. But that was before Barack Obama, when many of us couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet imagine the country embracing anything but a white president….<\/p>\n

Read full article at ZocaloPublicSquare.org<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a thoughtful essay by Texas Chicana anthropologist and journalist Cecilia Ball\u00c3\u00ad,\u00c2\u00a0reflecting on the trajectory of San Antonio mayor’s Julian Castro’s political career. \u00c2\u00a0Julian and his brother Joaquin are the twin sons of single mother and longtime Chicana community organizer Maria del Rosario “Rosie” Castro. \u00c2\u00a0The Chicana por mi Raza Project writes that Rosie “served […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-general-news","7":"entry","8":"override"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":69,"url":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/2006\/12\/03\/chicana-scientists-on-tour\/","url_meta":{"origin":1305,"position":0},"title":"Chicana scientists on tour…","author":"la Webjefa","date":"December 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Professors Elma Gonzalez, Diana Marinez, Elvia Niebla and doctoral candidate Elisa Ruiz read excerpts from their essays in Norma Cantu's recent book project, Flor y Ciencia: Chicanas in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Thursday, Nov. 16 on the UT San Antonio campus. Sponsored by the departments of Women's Studies, English, Classics,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Members in the news"","block_context":{"text":"Members in the news","link":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/category\/members-in-the-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1442,"url":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/2013\/03\/15\/new-book-on-sacred-iconographies-by-malcs-member\/","url_meta":{"origin":1305,"position":1},"title":"New Book on Sacred Iconographies by MALCS Member","author":"Theresa Delgadillo","date":"March 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Member Clara Roman-Odio shares this announcement of her newly published book and link to video interview on it: Sacred Iconographies shows how Chicanas look beyond local histories and confront new asymmetries produced by transnational systems in the era of globalization. Empowered by the rich traditions of their indigenous spiritualities, Chicanas\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Publications"","block_context":{"text":"New Publications","link":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/category\/new-publications\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"RomanOdio","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.malcs.org\/archive-2017\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/03\/RomanOdio.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19,"url":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/2006\/08\/13\/new-publications-in-chicana-studies\/","url_meta":{"origin":1305,"position":2},"title":"New publications in Chicana Studies","author":"la Webjefa","date":"August 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Speaking of books, don't miss the latest Chicana scholarship by MALCSistas Marta Sanchez, Catri\u00c3\u00b3na Esquibel, and Tey Diana Rebolledo. Catri\u00c3\u00b3na Rueda Esquibel's With Her Machete In Her Hand: Reading Chicana Lesbians assertively maps the depiction of lesbian characters and desires in a wide range of plays, novels, and short stories\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Publications"","block_context":{"text":"New Publications","link":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/category\/new-publications\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29,"url":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/2006\/09\/16\/more-promotions-heidenreich-delgado-ochoa-blanco-cano\/","url_meta":{"origin":1305,"position":3},"title":"More promotions! Heidenreich, Delgado, Ochoa & Blanco-Cano","author":"la Webjefa","date":"September 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Dr. Linda Heidenreich, received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor of Women's Studies, Washington State University, Pullman in Spring, 2006. Linda is cranking out publications as well: she has an essay in the forthcoming 6:1 fall issue of Chicana\/Latina Studies, titled \"Learning from the Death of Gwen Araujo?: Transphobic Racial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Congratulations!"","block_context":{"text":"Congratulations!","link":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/category\/congratulations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1547,"url":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/2014\/04\/11\/call-for-participants-malcs-writing-workshop-2014-si-july-30-aug-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1305,"position":4},"title":"CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS: MALCS Writing Workshop @ 2014 SI (July 30- Aug 2)","author":"la Webjefa","date":"April 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Chicana\/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social invites your participation in the Writing Workshop at the 2014 MALCS Summer Institute at Northern New Mexico College. \u00a0 One Writing Workshop will be held this summer: 1) The Academic Article, July 30 and Aug. 1 BOTTOM\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Announcements"","block_context":{"text":"Announcements","link":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/category\/announcements\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":168,"url":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/2008\/06\/15\/job-asst-prof-chicana-chicano-studies-csu-fullerton\/","url_meta":{"origin":1305,"position":5},"title":"JOB: Asst. 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Interested persons can find all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Jobs and fellowships"","block_context":{"text":"Jobs and fellowships","link":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/category\/jobs-and-fellowships\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malcs.org\/archive-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}