Julian Castro, 35, is the mayor of San Antonio and the youngest mayor of a top 50 American city, according to his City Hall biography. He was elected on May 9, 2009.
He was the youngest city councilman in the city’s history when elected in 2001 at the age of 26. A graduate of Stanford and Harvard Law, Castro founded his own law firm in 2005. He is married to Erica Lira Castro, an elementary school teacher. They have one daughter, Carina, born in March 2009.
Mayor Castro's twin brother, Joaquin, serves in the Texas House of Representatives.
In 2005, when Castro first ran, unsuccessfully, for mayor, The Los Angeles Times declared the twins “heirs to the Chicano movement.”
The Times wrote: “Castro wants to turn San Antonio, which maintains the feel of a small town and can be a parochial place, into an important metropolis while retaining its colorful identity -- no small task, he says, in an age of gated suburbs and strip malls.
‘San Antonio is at a crossroads as an emerging American city,’ he said. ‘Will we become like every other generic city? Or will we retain a sense of community, a sense of belonging?’
‘That is what is at stake. You have to have some substance behind you. You can't be a cream-puff politician.’
In a March 2009 campaign profile, the San Antonio Express-News led the story with a juxtaposition of Castro’s ambition and commitment to public service.
“To his supporters, Julián Castro is seasoned, focused and ready to lead San Antonio. To his detractors, he's still a young man in a hurry, too calculating, too driven by ambition.
Castro certainly doesn't make it easy to sort out where his political ambition ends and where his desire to improve the city begins — or whether there's even a difference between the two.”
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