I believe that our new Mayor, Julian Castro, is up to the task facing us.
These are tough, and in many ways, perilous times. He will be tested and I hope he meets the challenges we all face. he is bright and personable.
He has my support and hopes. Let him lead.
My advice mayor, stay focused and don't let them distract you.
National attention on Castro
In 2005, Julián Castro was compared to Barack Obama.
Back then, a story in the Los Angeles Times described talk about Castro and his twin, state Rep. Joaquin Castro, as bordering “on breathless.” The story drew parallels between them and a young senator from Illinois who the year before had wowed crowds at the Democratic National Convention and was being sized up as a presidential candidate.
Then Castro lost his mayoral race against Phil Hardberger, and reality set in.
Now, four years later, expectations remain high for the 34-year-old new mayor, who won 56 percent of the vote in a crowded field. But they are balanced by the knowledge that Castro has a job to do.
As he sits down this week for his first full-fledged meeting with the rest of the new City Council, the buzz has picked up again, although this time it's tempered with moderation.
Everything from here on out, Hispanic political scientists and others say, depends on performance.
Castro is still seen as a rising star among an emerging generation of Latino leaders. He's the beneficiary of Hispanic politicos, some legendary, who plowed the road before him. But unlike them, Castro enjoys a comfort level and broader acceptance among diverse constituencies.
His rise to lead the seventh-largest city in the U.S. is being celebrated and analyzed, and his future is being discussed in similar ways to that of former mayor and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros. Cisneros himself sees Castro's future as limitless.
State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte was in Puerto Rico recently for a conference on immunizations with about 80 Hispanic and African American lawmakers. In between sessions, politicians from all over the U.S. had the same question: How's your new mayor doing?
“I haven't seen this kind of excitement over a Latino since Henry Cisneros,” Van de Putte said. “It's that type of buzz.”
Van de Putte, who was co-chairwoman of the last Democratic National Convention and has higher political aspirations of her own, describes Castro as a well-credentialed politician “who walks well” among various groups.
Castro holds membership in a small class that includes Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; Albuquerque, N.M., Mayor Martin Chávez; Miami Mayor Manuel A. Diaz and state Rep. Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas, whom Texas Monthly magazine named “Rookie of the Year” in 2005.
The same youthful enthusiasm that elected Obama has paved the way for a new generation of young, well-educated ethnic candidates with broad appeal, said Luis Fraga, political science professor at the University of Washington. But, he said, “when I look around the country, I don't see that many.”
There's Cory Booker, the young African-American mayor of Newark, N.J., and a handful of others.
“I see Julián along those lines,” Fraga said. “There aren't very many young leaders who have attained this level of responsibility.”
According to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, there are 5,670 Latino elected officials in the U.S., including 250 mayors. Of the mayors, only 10 serve cities with populations of at least 150,000.
Though it's too soon to assess, Latino political scientists and Hispanic officeholders say Castro could tap into the same energy that elected Obama.
Fraga, who taught both Castro brothers at Stanford, said, “He and his brother represent a new generation of leader who is not afraid of the corporate world and the business community.”
“He's a lot like President Obama,” Cisneros said. “He starts from a humanitarian perspective with great understanding of populist public issues.” But, the former mayor added, “He is an inclusive humanitarian with a pragmatic sense of how you make the system respond.”
While Castro didn't have to overcome as much prejudice as Cisneros in getting to the mayor's office in 1981, Cisneros said Castro confronts other dilemmas.
“I faced a city that had not elected a Latino mayor since Juan Seguín, or right after the fall of the Alamo,” Cisneros said. “My job when I came to office was to persuade the city I could be the mayor of all the city.”
In 2009, San Antonio is much more comfortable with its “multicultural reality,” Cisneros said. Castro also benefits in that Hispanics have held key posts, including county judge, university president, archbishop and president of the University of Texas Health Science Center, among others.
“There's much less of what might be called racial antagonism, racial skepticism or doubt,” Cisneros said. Cultural background is seen as a virtue.
What Castro does face is a bad economy, in spite of San Antonio having fared well in it. While promising to increase the city's police force by 100, with the help of federal stimulus dollars, Castro also faces big decisions on whether to invest in more nuclear power, the transformation of HemisFair Park and toughening City Hall's ethics, among other issues — all while balancing a budget, addressing deficits, and keeping taxes down and service levels steady.
Van de Putte said Castro will “be tested in a way that Phil Hardberger wasn't.”
During crucial times, “real leadership appears,” Fraga said. “It will be interesting to see what style he uses to justify cuts and retrenchment the city will have to make. There are few good role models that he can learn from.”
Fraga predicts Castro's pragmatic nature will pay off. “He's not at risk of overextending himself. He's just a doer. He wants to get things done.”
Cisneros said Castro has to concentrate on the now. “I would say to him, as I did to Antonio Villaraigosa when I sat down with him before he assumed the mayorship of Los Angeles, that you have to just focus on this great opportunity that is before you. Because if you do a good job in this, other things will be possible.”
Cisneros advises Castro to pinpoint what he wants to accomplish. “The key discipline, I believe, that divides those who are successful from those who are not, is the ability to have a plan, test it, coalesce people around it, stick to it and deliver on it.”
“The nature of any public office, but particularly mayor of San Antonio, is that you're drinking water from a fire hydrant,” Cisneros said. “The volume is more than you can address.”
Castro vows to stay focused, and he plans to remain “as close to home as possible.” But he is expected to have a speaking role at NALEO's conference in Los Angeles this week.
To whatever degree there is state and national discussion about him, the mayor is grateful “to the extent that it raises San Antonio's profile.”
“But only if I do a good job here does any of that matter,” he said. “I'm certainly appreciative, but my focus is on San Antonio.”
Louis DeSipio, associate professor of political science at the University of California-Irvine, said Castro has the potential to go far. He needs to “do well at what he was elected to do. The danger with younger candidates is to move too quickly. Look at Mayor Villaraigosa. He got a little ahead of himself.”
Hardberger, not one to splash water on optimism, offers a straightforward wait-and-see assessment.
“He's got youth on his side, and eight years to prove himself,” he said. “His performance will have to be proved.”
