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10 things you probably don't know about Julián Castro
10 things you probably don't know about Julián Castro
9/4/2012
San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro is scheduled to deliver the keynote address tonight at the Democratic National Convention. The 37-year-old Castro is the first Latino to be the DNC’s keynote speaker, and is considered a rising star in the Democratic Party. Here are 10 things you might not know about Castro:
1. He is a twin. His brother Joaquin is a Texas state representative and is running for Congress. Joaquin will introduce his brother tonight.
2. In 1971, Castro’s mother Rosie, then 23, ran unsuccessfully for San Antonio City Council. Throughout the 1970s, she was a prominent activist for Mexican-American rights.
3. Castro grew up on San Antonio’s predominantly Mexican-American West Side. His grandmother, Victoria Castro, moved to the city from Mexico in 1920 as a six-year-old orphan.
4. The brothers finished high school in three years. They attended Stanford together, where they majored in political science and won seats on the student senate. The brothers also graduated from Harvard Law School together.
5. The night before the brothers were born, their grandmother won $300 in a menudo cooking contest. She used the winnings to pay for the newborns’ hospital bill.
6. In 2001, Castro was elected to the San Antonio City Council. At 26, he was the youngest person to ever win a seat.
7. He lost his first mayoral campaign in 2005, but won the office in 2009 and was reelected in 2011.
8. Castro does not speak fluent Spanish, though his “comprehension is good.” He took Japanese instead of Spanish in middle school.
9. He intends to run for reelection as San Antonio’s mayor in 2013 and 2015. Mayors in the city are allowed to serve four two-year terms.
10. Castro says he is close with his father, Jesse Guzman, a retired teacher who will attend the speech. Guzman and Rosie Castro, who were never married, separated when the brothers were eight.
http://now.msn.com/julian-castro-biography
Bio
A 37-year-old San Antonio native, Mayor Julián Castro is the youngest mayor of a Top 50 American city. First elected on May 9, 2009, Mayor Castro handily won re-election in 2011 with nearly 82 percent of the vote.
Throughout his tenure, Mayor Castro has focused on attracting well-paying jobs in 21st century industries, positioning San Antonio to be a leader in the New Energy Economy and raising educational attainment across the spectrum. In 2011, the Milken Institute ranked San Antonio the nation’s top-performing local economy.
Mayor Castro created SA2020, a community-wide visioning effort turned nonprofit that has galvanized thousands of San Antonians around a simple, but powerful vision for San Antonio - to create a brainpower community that is the liveliest city in the nation.
Under his leadership, the city in 2010 opened Café College, a one-stop center offering high-quality guidance on college admissions, financial aid and standardized test preparation to any student in the San Antonio area. In its first year, Café College served more than 5,000 area students, spurring an expansion of the facility in 2011.
Mayor Castro also has brought a sense of urgency to revitalizing the city’s urban core, including the underserved East Side of San Antonio, by initiating the “Decade of Downtown” and approving a series of incentives to encourage inner city investment. These efforts have spurred plans for the construction of more than 2,400 housing units in the center city by 2014.
In March 2010, Mayor Castro joined executives from Google and Twitter in being named to the World Economic Forum’s list of Young Global Leaders. Later that year, Time magazine placed him on its “40 under 40” list of rising stars in American politics. Mayor Castro also serves on the board of directors of the National League of Cities, is a member of the Inter-American Dialogue and is an Aspen-Rodel Fellow. In addition to his community service, Mayor Castro has taught courses at The University of Texas at San Antonio, Trinity University, and St. Mary’s University.
Mayor Castro earned his undergraduate degree from Stanford University with honors and distinction in 1996 and a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School in 2000. In 2001, at the age of 26, Castro became the youngest elected city councilman at that time in San Antonio history.
He is married to Erica Lira Castro, an elementary school teacher, and they are the proud parents of Carina, born in 2009.
Mayor Castro’s brother, Joaquin, serves in the Texas House of Representatives.
http://mayorcastro.com/bio.php
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