By ZEV CHAFETS The New York Times
In early December Julin Castro the newly elected mayor of San Antonio visited the White House to attend President Obamas national jobs-and-economic-growth forum. Castro was one of only five mayors in attendance and at 35 the youngest.
When his turn came to speak the subject was the creation of green jobs the president looked at him midway down the long conference table and said: I thought he was on our staff. I thought he was an intern. This guys a mayor?" The other participants world-famous economists environmentalists and politicians burst into laughter.
Of San Antonio Tex." Castro said evenly.
Obama grinned. Im messing with you" he said. I know who you are."
Castro was neither flustered nor flattered by the presidents bantering familiarity. Of course Obama knew who he was gate-crashers might make it into White House social events but they dont get to the table of high-level West Wing policy meetings led by the president himself.
Castro smiled politely at Obamas jest and then proceeded to the business at hand delivering prepared remarks about employment and the energy market in San Antonio. He is cerebral serious self-contained and highly efficient. If he were an energy source hed be zero-emission. A video of the event shows the president listening intently to Castros presentation and nodding occasionally Harvard Law 91 silently encouraging Harvard Law 00.
A few days before the meeting Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood visited San Antonio and told the mayor that he was on the radar in Washington." The morning of the meeting Castro was included in a small working breakfast hosted by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; Valerie Jarrett one of the presidents closest advisers was there too.
Castro was being noticed and auditioned. It had been about a dozen years since another brilliant young man from San Antonio Henry Cisneros regarded by many as the emerging national leader of the Hispanic wing of the Democratic Party lost his political future in a sex-and-money scandal. Cisneross implosion left an opening. For a while Bill Richardson the governor of New Mexico and Antonio Villaraigosa the mayor of Los Angeles were Great Hispanic Hopes but scandals eventually knocked them out of contention too.
A lot of very smart people not all of them in Texas see Julin Castro as the favorite to fill the leadership void. Julin really stands out" says Ral Hinojosa-Ojeda an associate professor of Chicano and global studies at U.C.L.A. There are other talented young Hispanic politicians around but few have his stature or national potential. Hes from San Antonio but hes very much admired in California. Hes like Obama one of us but someone who also comes out of a broader American experience."
Castro has all the assets to become the next favorite son" is how John A. Garcia a political-science professor at the University of Arizona puts it. He has an elite education which has given him a national network and a quiet serious public persona that appeals to a lot of younger Hispanic voters" Garcia says. People look at him and say Finally we have somebody who wont screw up. Of course hes still young and he might be too good to be true but if I were betting on the next national Hispanic political leader Id bet on Julin."
In 1984 Mexican-American political activists were thrilled when Walter Mondale publicly considered Cisneros for the Democratic vice-presidential nomination. But second place no longer seems such a great prize. In 1984 there were 20 million Hispanics in America" according to the political activist Antonio Gonzalez who heads the William C. Velasquez Institute.
Today we are 50 million and more and more people are registering to vote." Who they will vote for and what issues will cement their party loyalty is one of the great questions of American politics. This year Democrats hope to exploit the ire among Hispanics over the new G.O.P.-inspired law in Arizona that empowers local police forces to crack down on illegal immigrants.
Mark McKinnon is prepared to be more explicit about the long-term stakes. An early member of George W. Bushs inner circle in Austin he knows Texas political talent when he sees it. Julin Castro has a very good chance of becoming the first Hispanic president of the United States" he says flatly.
Julin Castro is the son of Rosie Castro a well-known 70s firebrand who was among the leaders of La Raza Unida the radical movement in Texas that was dedicated to defending the civil rights of Mexican-Americans and promoting a strong Chicano" identity.
One of Castros first acts as mayor was to hang a 1971 La Raza Unida City Council campaign poster featuring his mother in his private office. But this was a gesture of filial loyalty not of ideological solidarity. A Democrat Castro is a pragmatist sometimes unpredictably so.
He supports free trade including the North American Free Trade Agreement advocates an energy policy that includes fossil fuels believes in balanced budgets and refers to David Souter as his ideal Supreme Court justice. Like a large plurality of his fellow San Antonians Castro is a Roman Catholic but he was the first San Antonio mayor to be grand marshal when he marched in the annual gay rights parade and he is pro-choice. We disagree on this the pope and I" he says with a smile.
Nothing seems to ruffle him. Recently after Arizona passed its tough immigration law most Hispanic politicians reacted with fury. Some even compared the decision to apartheid. Castro through a spokesman phrased his own opposition to the decision in characteristically understated and inclusive language saying in part: Texas has long been an example of how two neighboring countries can co-exist in a mutually beneficial way for the American economy. A law like Arizonas would fly in the face of that history."
Julin Castro seems entirely comfortable expressing views on national and international matters normally outside the purview of first-term mayors. He and his identical twin Joaqun are scions of the west-side barrio political machine their mother helped build and they were raised with the expectation that they would be leaders young men of personal excellence and public spirit.
They were the undisputed stars of Jefferson High School where they played on the tennis team earned top grades and skipped 10th grade. In their spare time they accompanied their mother to political events and strategy sessions where they were exposed to her fiery style of radicalism (which in any case was softening over time); met the key figures in the Chicano political world; became practiced community organizers on political campaigns; and learned to make the system work for them.
Joaqun and I got into Stanford because of affirmative action" Julin says. I scored 1210 on my SATs which was lower than the median matriculating student. But I did fine in college and in law school. So did Joaqun. Im a strong supporter of affirmative action because Ive seen it work in my own life."
In college Julin majored in communications and political science and tied his brother for most votes in the student senate election their junior year. During the summer of 1994 he was a White House intern. (You think I look young now you should have seen me then" he says.) When Joaqun did not get into Yale Law School the brothers settled for Harvard.
Julin joined Alianza an Hispanic organization at the school and served on the Law School Council but his thoughts were on San Antonio politics. In his last year at Harvard he decided to run after graduation for the City Council seat that had eluded his mother and he was so eager to get going that he held his first fund-raiser among his fellow students in Cambridge. He won that race and took a seat on the council in 2001. The following year Joaqun was elected to the Texas State House of Representatives from a district that includes San Antonio. The Castro boys were back in town.
Julin and Joaqun were young but not new" Jim Dublin a veteran San Antonio political consultant says. Weve been reading about their exploits in the paper since they were at Jefferson High."
A place on the San Antonio City Council doesnt come with a salary and the Texas State House of Representatives which meets only 140 days every two years pays what averages out to be about $16000 annually. The Castro brothers already had day jobs at the local branch of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld a major law firm with offices around the world. Later they started their own practice. A celebrated personal-injury case in which they represented victims of a fatal drunken-driving accident earned them enough to comfortably continue their political careers.
In 2005 Julin ran for mayor. His opponent was the retired judge Phil Hardberger a Democrat who was a decade older than the combined ages of Julin and Joaqun. Rosie Castro cast a shadow; Julin found it hard to raise money in the Anglo business community and he worked hard to reassure voters that he was not just a barrio candidate. When I represent I represent everyone" he said.
He won a plurality in the first round of balloting but narrowly lost the runoff to Hardberger. It wasnt just the Rosie factor that hurt. Hardbergers predecessor Ed Garza was widely regarded as lackluster and voters werent in the mood for another boy wonder from Jefferson High as Garza had been. Four years later Hardberger retired from office and Castro captured City Hall in the first round of balloting. At 34 he was the mayor of the seventh-largest city in the United States.
SAN ANTONIO is located in south central Texas about 150 miles from the Mexican border. Like Houston Phoenix Los Angeles and Oklahoma City San Antonio swallows its suburbs and expands as it goes. You can fit Chicago Boston and Miami into the city limits and still have room for Manhattan. At the center of this sprawl is the old town of San Antonio built by the Spanish in the early 18th century. And at the heart of the old town is the Alamo.
When I visited in September the small mission and the plaza surrounding it were full of tourists of all ages. This place means so much to so many people" says Bruce Winders the curator and historian of the Alamo who with spontaneous Texas hospitality had volunteered to serve as my guide. Folks come here as pilgrims. They want to see the cradle of Texas independence. To those from around the country it reinforces their identity as Americans. To Texans it says You are part of this story. The Alamo is a place that helps parents pass their history along to their children."
The Alamo where a small band of volunteers held off the Mexican Army for 13 days inspiring the ultimately successful fight for Texas independence is run by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. For a decade according to Winders the Daughters have been trying in vain to get permission from City Hall to put up some explanatory signs on municipal property bordering the plaza. He attributed this failure to ideological hostility" in a city where some people take a dimmer view of the Alamo. People like Rosie Castro.
I met the mayors mother in her office at Palo Alto College where she runs a student-services center. She was born in San Antonio in 1947 to an immigrant mother who didnt get past fourth grade; she didnt meet her father till she was 34. To Rosie the Alamo is a symbol of bad times.
They used to take us there when we were schoolchildren" she told me. They told us how glorious that battle was. When I grew up I learned that the heroes of the Alamo were a bunch of drunks and crooks and slaveholding imperialists who conquered land that didnt belong to them. But as a little girl I got the message we were losers. I can truly say that I hate that place and everything it stands for."
That evening I dined with the mayor and his wife Erica at Rosarios a large upscale cantina favored by young businesspeople and political types. Erica is a consultant to math teachers four years Julins junior who grew up on the south side hearing tales of the amazing Castro brothers. Julin and Erica met one summer when he was home from Harvard and then dated mostly long distance for eight years.
The mayor asked about my session with his mother. She hates the Alamo" I said.
Yes I know" he said with what might have been a slight smile.
What about you? How do you feel about it?"
The Alamo?" he said. Its the largest tourist attraction in Texas. And tourism is one of San Antonios major economic engines."
I mentioned that the Alamos curator complained that the city wouldnt give permission to put up signs on municipal property.
Ive never heard that before" Castro said. Ill look into it."
The curator called it a shrine."
Castro considered that briefly then nodded. There are people for whom the Alamo is a sacred place" he said without any discernible emotion.
ROSIE CASTRO proudly calls herself a Chicana" a term that connotes political activism and ethnic pride but she says her son is different. I dont think Julin would call himself a Chicano" she told me. A Latino maybe." When I relayed this to the mayor he didnt disagree. I consider myself Mexican-American both parts of that phrase" he said. I dont want to turn my back on my mothers generation. But we are less burdened."
Historically Mexican-Americans have generally been considered white" in Texas; they served in white units of the segregated military including the National Guard and were allowed during the Jim Crow years to marry white (but not black) partners. In the early 40s the Texas Legislature even passed a Caucasian Race Resolution" which affirmed their status as white.
Today the U.S. Census treats Hispanic" Latino" and Spanish origin" terms that apply to anyone of Spanish-speaking background as an ethnic category. Race is a separate category with various options including a nonspecific some other race." In 2000 about half of all Hispanics checked white" for race. Castro told me that he was planning to check some other race" in 2010. He is uncomfortable referring to himself as brown" and he doesnt use the term people of color" when he discusses Mexican-Americans.
Whatever their racial and geographic differences Americans from Spanish-speaking cultures in different parts of the country increasingly see one another as sharing a common identity and interests. Partly this is a result of astute marketing by Spanish-language mass media.
But politics plays a major role. The pan-Latino process in the U.S. encompasses everyone though the Cubans lag behind" says Antonio Gonzalez of the William C. Velasquez Institute. And the biggest single unifier among subgroups across the Latino community is compatibility on issues." Roughly 60 percent of Hispanics identify themselves as Democrats.
And because Mexican-Americans dominate the national pan-Latino community through sheer numbers they make up about 60 percent of the total Hispanic population and they are concentrated in key electoral states like Texas and California simple arithmetic and political logic make it very likely that one of the next national political leaders of Hispanic America will be a Mexican-American Democrat.
In 2000 while Castro was still in Cambridge the political theorist Samuel P. Huntington argued that mass immigration from Mexico poses an existential threat to the United States. Mexican immigration" he wrote is a unique disturbing and looming challenge to our cultural integrity our national identity and potentially to our future as a country." At the heart of Huntingtons critique which many Americans share is the sense that Mexican-Americans will form a permanent unassimilated superbarrio across the Southwest and elsewhere. Julin Castros San Antonio is one place that counters that concern.
San Antonio is the city of the future the avatar" says Karl Eschbach until recently the official demographer of the state of Texas. The Mexican-American population is about 60 percent of the city but it is now several generations old. There is comparatively little immigration these days. Mexican-Americans in San Antonio experience a continual drift" into a blending with non-Hispanic whites and others.
Arturo Madrid a professor of humanities at Trinity University in San Antonio agrees with Eschbachs assessment. The power of America is undeniable" he says. Like Rosie Castro Madrid is a proud product of the Chicano movement but he has no illusions about the shape of the future. People may check Hispanic on the census but in San Antonio they are Tejanos Texans of Mexican ancestry" he told me.
This is the model of what America will look like in other cities. English will be the dominant language. Young Mexican-Americans may display minor symbols of their ethnicity I eat spaghetti therefore Im Italian that sort of thing but their kids will consider themselves American. We are already your neighbors and fellow workers and are or soon will be your in-laws."
Madrid considers it only natural that the young mayor of San Antonio is seen as the new man in Hispanic politics. We were the first big city with Hispanic political leadership" he says.
Paradoxically Julin Castros appeal to fellow Hispanic voters may be limited by his own assimilation. Although he pronounces his name HOO-lee-un" he doesnt really speak Spanish a fact he isnt eager to advertise. La Raza put a high premium on the mother tongue but Rosie Castro spoke English to her sons and Julin studied Latin and Japanese in school while Joaqun studied Latin and German.
A lack of Spanish fluency isnt unusual in San Antonio especially among Castros generation but in the immigrant barrios of Houston and the colonias south of Interstate 10 down to the border Spanish is the first and often only language. A Mexican-American with statewide political aspirations needs to be able to do more than pronounce his name correctly. Early in his administration Castro assigned his chief of staff Robbie Greenblum a Jewish lawyer from the border town of Laredo whose own Spanish is impeccable to discreetly find him a tutor. Rosie Castros son is now being taught Spanish by a woman named Marta Bronstein. Greenblum met her in shul.
ITS NOT CLEAR what Castro can accomplish as mayor. His executive clout is limited. The daily business of San Antonio is conducted by a professional city manager. The mayors power derives from being the senior elected official in the city and his role as chairman of the City Council the body that wields ultimately authority over municipal affairs.
He gets an office a car and driver a secretary police protection and the same per-meeting stipend paid to other members of the council. Some of his predecessors have treated the mayoralty as a part-time job but Castro is at his desk every day. He has also surrounded himself with a high-powered staff that includes Greenblum who was a prominent local attorney before signing on with the mayor; the spokesman Jaime Castillo a former political columnist for The San Antonio Express-News; and Manoj Mate a friend from Harvard Law and a Ph.D. candidate in political science who serves as senior policy adviser. This is not the sort of team you put together if you are planning to settle in for a nice long career as a politician in San Antonio.
Castro knows that his future is a matter of constant speculation; given his age and his meteoric career path it could hardly be otherwise. But talking about it is dangerous. Theres a push-and-pull here" he told me. Ive read about Bill Clinton how he rose. Even Arkansas people who didnt like him took pride in his success." But in San Antonio he added nobody likes people with big heads."
Still in his quiet way Julin Castro is fiercely competitive and he keeps score. In our first conversation he rattled off the names of his Harvard Law contemporaries who have already been elected to public office around the country. Most like Joaqun are still in state legislatures.
And being in the House of Representatives means being one of 435 Representatives" he told me. You cant really get that much done on your own. I prefer executive positions." (Joaqun is considering a Congressional run in 2012 if there is an open seat. He is a minute younger than Julin and for now defers to his elder twin.) Julin conceded that the Senate might be a slightly more interesting job but there remained the problem of being one in a crowd.
Would you accept a cabinet position?" I asked. That was the route taken by Cisneros.
Not likely no" Castro said in a way that suggested he had been considering it.
I asked what that left: President?"
It is way too early to be thinking about that" Castro said.
TO BE HONEST I can see a path to Washington for Julin" Joaqun Castro says. That path leads through the governors mansion in Austin. A Democrat who can win the governorship of Texas would automatically be under consideration for a spot on the national ticket."
For the moment it seems a distant goal. Texas is Republican territory Republicans hold every statewide elected office and polls show Gov. Rick Perry running ahead of his Democratic opponent the former Houston mayor Bill White. But if White loses in November it will present Castro with an opportunity. Mexican-Americans already make up a third of the states population and they are registering to vote in increasing numbers.
The majority of the Mexican-American vote in Texas (and beyond) went to Obama in 2008 and it is widely assumed by Democratic strategists that their party will continue to benefit from Latino voters. This however is not settled political science. The Democrats are way ahead of the Republicans" John Garcia says but there isnt a complete buy-in. The attitude is They are better than the Republicans but not great."
This year Marco Rubio is making a strong run for the open U.S. Senate seat in Florida. Rubio the favorite son of the Cuban community is an attractive young Republican but his appeal doesnt extend to the broader Hispanic community. Sergio Bendixen a Miami-based political consultant predicts that Rubio would lose the non-Cuban Hispanic vote to Kendrick Meeks the African-American Democratic candidate.
Rubios problem is not simply ethnic; it is not very likely that any Republican will make strong inroads with Mexican-American voters as long as the G.O.P. remains hawkish on border control supports Arizona-style policing of illegal residents and calls for fewer government entitlements. If Republicans hope to compete nationally they will need more flexible policies and candidates as appealing as Julin Castro. The name that most often arises is George P. Bush son of Jeb Bush the former governor of Florida and nephew of President George W. Bush. A
s governor of Texas W. was popular with Mexican-Americans and in the 2004 election he won more than 40 percent of the national Hispanic vote. His nephew George P. (whom George H. W. Bush famously described as one of the little brown ones") is now all grown up and living in Texas. He is a graduate of Rice University in Houston and the University of Texas law school and recently helped found a political-action committee in Austin to recruit Hispanic Republicans. He has all the tools good looks fluent Spanish ethnic bona fides on his Mexican-American mothers side instant name recognition and access to a network of political and financial connections on his fathers that could make him a formidable vote-getter. Mark McKinnon who helped put Bush 43 in the White House half-jokingly refers to George P. as 47."
Julin Castro and George P. Bush have been aware of each other for some time. We have mutual friends" Castro told me. They introduced us in Austin three or four years ago. George worked for Akin Gump after law school just like Joaqun and I did. Hes a reserve officer in the Navy. Theres a lot to admire about him. And of course he has a lot going for him."
Still the Castros are not intimidated by the Bush pedigree or by other contemporaries in the Anglo establishment. Julin and I are just two guys from the bad side of San Antonio" Joaqun told me. When we went away to school we didnt know what to expect. At Stanford and Harvard we were among all these people from the leadership class people with fancy educations and pedigrees and very often we were the only Hispanics in the classroom. But we listened to the people at Harvard and I have to say we were never overwhelmed."
ON SEPT. 16 the Castro brothers celebrated their 35th birthday as they always do together. This time though they were joined by a thousand or so of their best friends and voters at a gala held in Sunset Station an old railroad depot near the Alamo that has been remade into an ornate party space.
A long line of people waited for the chance to have their pictures taken standing between Julin and Joaqun who were dressed in nearly identical suits and ties. In the 2005 mayoral race the brothers caused a minor scandal when it was discovered that Joaqun substituted for Julin at a campaign event. Some voters were amused by this others infuriated claiming it raised questions about the mayors maturity.
Perhaps the greatest difference between Julin and his younger brother is that Joaqun is still single and known to enjoy his status as San Antonios most eligible bachelor. During the course of the evening a number of very attractive young women posed between the brothers. Erica who can tell them apart kept a watchful eye although probably unnecessarily. From an early age Julin and his brother have been taught by their mother that bad company especially bad female company is Kryptonite to young politicians.
The party was loud and eclectic a mlange of Mariachi cool jazz R&B and country music performed by locals. A parade of men in black shirts playing drums whistles and maracas and women decked out in gold lam snaked through the party. The boys took the stage and thanked everyone for coming. Julin announced that the Senate had just confirmed Sonia Sotomayr for a seat on the Supreme Court which elicited a loud cheer.
Rosie Castro was working the room that night and I was on her to-do list. She introduced me to old comrades from the movement made sure I got a piece of cake and reminded me that while I may have come to San Antonio to write about Julin Joaqun was just as talented. There is a potential for them both to go much further" she said. It was hard to disagree. When Barack Obama was their age he was still only on the cusp of entering the Illinois State Senate.
About two months later I got a call at home from Julin. He was in Boston attending a conference but there was something on his mind. I looked into the problem you asked about" he said. The signs for the Alamo? I think there might have been some misunderstanding about that in the past." City officials could find no record of a request for signage. But of course well allow them to put up their signs on city property. Ill see to it personally."
I cant say I was surprised. You dont get where Julin Castro is or where he intends to go by forgetting the Alamo.
