The Castro Family of San Antonio

Julian (L) and Joaquin (R) Castro

Yesterday, in my comments, I mentioned that the Mayor of San Antonio is the twin brother of my state representative.  I had met him at meetings a few years ago while working  on Nemoway's Bill, legislation based on a family in San Antonio who were fighting an adoption that took place through CPS.  The mother's rights were terminated, rightfully, I understand, due to drug use.  However, there was an Aunt and Grandmother who wanted to take the child in, had agreed to do so in order that she not lose her family heritage, her culture and her lovely name, Nemoway.  They were taking the required steps to adopt her, but, before the termination of parental rights were ever signed into effect, CPS had ALREADY fast track adopted her out to a waiting family.  The Aunt and Grandmother fought in court, and all the way to Austin, but ultimately lost.  However, they got a law passed in Texas, known as Nemoway's Law, that guarantees that family members now get first option on a child before outside adoptions can be completed. Thank God for that!


One interesting side note on that is Nemoway's name.  When she went to the White Adopters, they told her that her name was ugly and changed it.  There were 2 other daughters who were born into  the family, and the newest adopted addition, little Nemoway-of-the-ugly-name.  All of the girls, every one, including Nemoway, now carry a variation of the adoptive mother's name.  Not too much ego there!
 
Joaquin Castro, state legislator for this area worked very actively on this legislation.  He was at several of the meetings I attended, and was also honored guest at a dinner I attended much later, after the law was passed, hosted by the Nemoway's natural family, as a THANK YOU to the volunteers who worked so hard to try and get Nemoway home, and ultimately get her law passed.  I was a little surprised, actually, at how actively involved in the entire procedure he had been,  but since I hadn't worked on Legislation before, accepted it as standard.

The other twin, Julian Castro, mayor of the city of San Antonio, is also a remarkable young man.  He was recently on the Colbert Report, discussing the Arizona legislation and Texas's reaction to it.  He is being groomed, apparently, to be the Latino candidate for President. 

I knew that one of the twins was the mayor and one the representative, but couldn't remember which was which.  I didn't want to confuse them, so I googled them.  I discovered a very interesting fact about them that may be one reason that Joaquin was so receptive to Nemoway's family.   VDARE.com, in an article about why Julian is being considered as a candidate for President,  notes the following....

Julian and Joaquin Castro are the twin sons of Rosie Castro, a prominent San Antonio 1960s Chicana college militant. (They were born out of wedlock—their seldom-mentioned father is a community organizer turned teacher named Jesse Guzman.)


Rosie was a radical activist in the La Raza Unida Party co-founded by José Angel Gutiérrez, the son of a Texas doctor and author of A Chicano Manual on How to Handle Gringos. Allan Wall wrote about Gutiérrez in VDARE.com in 2004 in Who is Jose Angel Gutierrez—And What Does He Want?

Gutiérrez co-authored the 2007 book, Chicanas in Charge: Texas Women in the Public Arena, which devotes Chapter Nine to Rosie Castro.                                                                         (emphasis added)

Joaquin, Julian & Rosie Castro

Joaquin and Julian Castro were born to an unwed mother.  Granted, his mother, Rosie, is a Latina woman and a militant activist. I have met her, and their father, too, although I didn't know who he was at the time.  She is lovely, a woman with a presence.  Latinos, for the most part, didn't lose their children to adoption.  But, she was in college at the time, and an activist student.   There were Latinas who did lose children to adoption during the EMS, especially the ones who were upwardly mobile, as she clearly was. 

Most significantly to me, however, is the fact of their birth date....born September 16, 1974...less than a year after the enactment of Roe vs. Wade.  There was such a shift in thinking about that time, due to the changes in the Civil Rights Laws that ALLOWED women, for the first time, to be autonomous individuals, not entirely dependent on men for their identity and support.  The shift was dramatic, almost an overnight change. 

Activist Rosie Castro

Rosie, as an educated and savvy Latina woman must have been aware of the option that opened for her to abort these twins, and likely the thought may have whiffed through her mind.  She is probably Catholic, as typically Latinas are, but for an activist woman, that may have had little bearing.  She could parent them successfully and she did. 

Will this make the march in July 2011 a more receptive audience than previous marches, a better attended march, guarantee a more sympathetic ear from the Mayor and his brother the State Legislator, one of the many to whom this conference (and by default march) is geared...that remains to be seen.  However, we know there is an awareness. 

I intend to contact Rosie Castro.  I would love to have her there at the demonstration, with us in the SMAAC booth, activist and mother!  She is a woman who KNOWS the struggle of mothering, and raising good children as a single mother.  Her boys are proof of what mothers of the EMS contend...with a little help, we could have raised children as well as any mother, married or un.  We can learn a lesson from Rosie Castro!  I hope she will come.  She is my newest hero!