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Similarities in Julian Castro and Marco Rubio? Their Hispanicness, Not Much Else
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Julian Castro and Marco Rubio are both silver-tongued young Hispanics, both rising stars in their parties who feel touched by the hand of destiny.
But their philosophy on policy for this country? About as far apart as a polar ice cap and a banana plantation.
Castro, mayor of San Antonio, keynoted the whole shabang in Charlotte Tuesday night -- the first Hispanic to do so.
It was an impressive position on the speaking roster for a 37-year-old whom CBS News described as "plucked from relative obscurity." Castro served on the San Antonio City Council previously, but has only been mayor for three years. And that mayoral position is virtually toothless.
San Antonio may be the nation's seventh largest city, but it operates under a city manager form of government. It's the city manager, not the mayor, who runs the place.
Nevertheless, enamored Democrats who remember Obama's speech eight years ago skip right past the Rubio comparisons and are already calling Castro "the Hispanic Obama."
Publicly, Castro rejects that description, saying "I don't put myself in (the president's) shoes." But many close to him, including Estelle Ruiz, a San Antonian who worked on his early election campaign, say he's already talking in eager terms about what he's going to do when he's term-limited after eight years.
On Tuesday night Castro underscored his convention address by harking back to the sacrifice of his Mexican grandmother. It was as if he'd taken a page straight from Rubio's inspirational speech at the Republican National Convention last week when he regaled the sacrifice of his parents who had fled Cuba for freedom in America.
Castro was equally compelling. He called the American dream "not a sprint, or even a marathon, but a relay."
"Our families don't always cross the finish line in the span of one generation," he said. "But each generation passes on to the next the fruits of their labor. My grandmother never owned a house. She cleaned other people's houses so she could afford to rent her own. But she saw her daughter become the first in her family to graduate from college. And my mother fought hard for civil rights so that instead of a mop, I could hold this microphone."
Sturdy stuff, Castro's speech.
The Stanford Law School grad is not at Rubio’s level yet. Nor is anybody talking about him as a potential 2016 presidential nominee in the way they are about University of Miami Law School graduate Rubio. But in giving the San Antonio mayor the keynote speech, the Dems were going for a two-fer -- broadening their bench of nationally known figures and wooing the Hispanic vote.
The canyonesque difference between Castro and Rubio lies in a cultural and political split that has divided millions of U.S. Latinos for decades.
They often are lumped together as Hispanics, yet Rubio and Castro personify the acute political distinctions between Mexican-Americans, largest Latino group in the U.S., and Cuban-Americans, the most politically active. Their shared language matters not a hoot. These two groups have different histories in the United States and are subject to distinctions in immigration policy that go easier on Cuban immigrants.
The political philosophies of Julian Castro and Marco Rubio -- in their definition of the role of government and how the American dream works -- are polar opposites.
Mayor of San Antonio, Texas, Julian Castro | Credit: mayorcastro.com
Castro believes government has a responsibility to pay for the people's needs. Right now in San Antonio, for instance, he wants an initiative on the ballot for a sales tax increase to pay for a new pre-K program. No big deal, he maintains. With some tax increases, the end justifies the means.
Them's fighting words to tea party favorite Rubio, who believes the people are best served when government backs off, when it works to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit, grow the private sector, reduce government regulation and encourage free enterprise by whatever means.
Rubio and Castro are more than a pair of well-matched political opponents. They're all about party muscle, party domination in a nation of changing demographics. Now numbering more than 50 million, America's Hispanic population is projected to approach 80 million by 2030. That's 22 percent of the population -- most affecting the red-blue balance in key states.
The differences between Rubio and Castro are over far more than tea party conservatism and immigration reform.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
Comments (18)
¿Quién es patético?
His mom raised him to be an American and a Democrat. Deal with it, and stop the belittling - then you might get some respect.
I applaud the Castro brothers’ (Julián and Joaquin) parents for providing their sons' academic opportunities, but there is an interesting difference between the individual efforts each politician-brother made to address Spanish language mastery.
My original posting made two points: the DNC put a Latino politician front-and-center that does not speak Spanish fluently, and Mayor Castro does not oversee the day-to-day executive operation of his home city. Some might find those tidbits interesting, but you obviously do not.
As for your earlier “English firster types” labeling, you missed the mark with me. While I might support efforts to conduct governmental activities in a common language, I do not advocate anyone go through life without the benefits of being multilingual. I find an ability to converse in Spanish almost universally beneficial around the globe, not just when I was a young adult living along the Texas-Mexico border.
The question is are you a Republican?
If so, then with your political support, you are supporting the "English First" positions contained in the Republican platform (regardless of how many languages you speak - I speak three and read one - Spanish, which I learned from reading Cuban scientific literature while in grad school):
From the Republican Platform:
(1) "we support English as the nation’s official language"
(2) "we support the English First approach"
Unfortunately, both of these "positions" have been used previously in subtle and not so subtle attacks against multi-culturalism, immigrants and even American citizens. It is the insidiousness of such sometimes subtle discriminations that is the problem. Your same statements (in almost identically framed language) are being currently used to belittle the same Castro brothers whose education you applaud. That's the basis for comments attacking the hypocrisy of "English First" Republicans who attempt to belittle Hispanic Americans that only know English.
That position is clear hypocrisy and pathetic. I'll now assume you didn't mean it that way.
You English firster types are slamming an American because they don't speak fluent Spanish . . . come on. . . . . And of course, you know this because you've met him, right, and attempted to speak Spanish with him, correct . . . . .you didn't just gleam this from some far right blog site trying to demonize him, correct?
PATHETIC!
Marco Rubio- "You see, he stood behind the bar all those years so that one day I could stand behind a podium in the front of a room"
Julian Castro- "My mother fought hard for civil rights so instead of a mop, I could hold this microphone"
Castro clearly copied Rubio. It only goes to show how much cooler Marco Rubio is!
Perhaps we just need to stir around in Rubio's Cuban familial connections to have this proxy demonization strategy cease.
Ok, moving on...
And to Mr. Coaster: Nobody cares that Castro doesn't speak Spanish except for Republicans and some clueless political operatives. The majority of Latinos care about the ISSUES, not being pandered to in Spanish.
And since you think attacking families is a legitimate political ploy, explain Rubio's family going back to a communist country, or why other relatives have stayed in Cuba? Explain about Jeb's wife, son and daughter's arrests and troubles - want to explain them, too. And no, you don't need to, they're rhetorical and to prove my point.
If you're going to slam Julian Castro for who he is, address him and his actions, not character assassination of his family or his mother. That's just a cheap shot. In your world, we should be addressing Mitt's great-grandfather and the reasons he had to flee from the U.S. to Mexico. Pathetic.
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