On Thursday, Nov. 1, please join the Clements Center for National Security, the Strauss Center for International Security and Law and the LBJ School Research Colloquium as we welcome Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) for a talk at the University of Texas at Austin: "Intelligence and National Security Policymaking: A Congressional Perspective."
Castro was born in San Antonio, Texas on Sept. 16, 1974. A second-generation Mexican American, he was raised on the city’s West Side and is a proud product of the public school system. The Castro family’s history in the United States began nearly 100 years ago when his grandmother, Victoria Castro, came to Texas as a young orphan. She often worked two and three jobs at a time to be able to give her daughter (Castro’s mother, Rosie) and her grandchildren a better chance in life.
Castro has worked hard to seize the opportunities created by the sacrifices of his grandmother and prior generations. After finishing high school a year early, he left San Antonio to graduate with honors from Stanford University in 1996. He then attended Harvard Law School, where he received his Juris Doctorate degree in 2000. Upon his return to San Antonio at age 28, Castro joined a private law practice and was elected to the Texas Legislature, and served five terms as state representative for District 125. In 2012, Castro was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Texas' 20th Congressional District, which covers a large portion of San Antonio and Bexar County.
His identical twin brother, Julián Castro, was elected in 2013 to his third term as Mayor of San Antonio, and in 2014 became secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).