The Democratic party has high hopes for young San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro, the first Hispanic keynote speaker to be featured at a Democratic convention. In fact, even before Tuesday night’s speech, some were already drawing comparisons between Castro’s star power potential and President Obama’s unprecedented rise to fame after he spoke at the 2004 convention as a little-known state senator. Not only has Castro been mentioned as a viable candidate for governor after Rick Perry’s lifetime appointment has ended, he’s now being viewed as a possible presidential candidate.
No pressure.
Being groomed as the next Latino breakthrough politician in Texas isn’t necessarily a good thing. Just ask Henry Cisneros, another popular young San Antonio mayor as well as the first Hispanic mayor of a major U.S. city. Like Castro, Cisneros also attracted national attention, going on to serve as HUD secretary under President Clinton before falling from grace after the FBI discovered that he had been paying off his mistress.
State Rep. Rafael Anchía of Dallas has been a rising star for some time. People have expected him to seek higher office, such as senator or governor (although now he’ll have to work that out with Castro). In 2009 D Magazine asked whether Anchía was the “Hispanic Obama.” According to Politico, he was “one to watch” outside the Beltway. But for now, Anchía seems content to stay where he is.
Castro’s keynote address was definitely impressive. (I’m assuming it was Julián and not his twin brother Joaquin. Although they’ve been known to pull that stunt before, kind of like that Peter Brady-Arthur Owens switch.) Castro, who spoke about his personal experience of growing up poor in an immigrant family, repeatedly emphasized his theme that opportunity created today will lead to prosperity tomorrow.
Speaking of his mother Rosie, an outspoken Latina activist, Castro praised her for fighting hard for civil rights “so instead of a mop I could hold this microphone.” It was one of the best lines of the night, even more moving than Mitt Romney’s claim that he once smiled at a janitor.
“I think [Mitt Romney’s] a good guy. He just has no idea how good he’s had it.” While that may be true, Romney’s had his fair share of struggles. You think it’s easy to outsource American jobs? To manage multiple offshore bank accounts? To keep track of all those sons? Taking a jab at the nominee’s conflicting views on health care, Castro said, “Governor Romney has undergone an extreme makeover, and it ain’t pretty.” Now that’s hitting Romney where it hurts. He is nothing if not a pretty face.
But Julián isn’t the only Latino rising star from Texas. Last week Senate nominee Ted Cruz, a conservative tea party candidate, spoke at the Republican convention about his love story with America and his immigrant father. “Fifty-five years ago, when my dad was a penniless teenager, thank God some well-meaning bureaucrat didn’t put his arm around him and say let me take care of you. Let me give you a government check and make you dependent on government. And by the way, don’t bother learning English. That would have been utterly destructive.”
Quite a different tone from the mayor, who said, “Texas may be the one place where people actually still have bootstraps, and we expect folks to pull themselves up by them. But we also recognize that there are some things we can’t do alone.”
Castro ended his speech with, Que dios los bendiga, which means “May God bless you.” Republicans immediately seized on this as more evidence that Democrats want to make this country a Spanish-only nation.