Otra vez bienvenido a La Voz Newspaper. As you can see, we have placed on our cover Julián Castro, candidate for President of the United States of America. I know many people believe he doesn’t have a chance of winning the Democratic Party nomination. And I know many people believe his candidacy is a waste of time. But I have a different point of view. As so for what ever its worth, hay te va.
Julián Castro is indeed making history. He is on a national stage with more than a dozen other candidates who believe they should be the next President of the United States. But Julián Castro is doing more that just participating in the debates. He is showing America that as a Mexican American, he doesn’t speak English with an accent.
You would be surprised by how many people listen to him speak and comment
with. “That boy don’t have no accent! We he from?” Then when they learn that he
graduated from Stanford and Harvard universities, they are shocked. “Who let
him into those schools?”
On the national stage Julián Castro has shown he can compete with intellect, ideas
and reason. He is smart and knows how to carry himself. I personally am very proud that
he has the courage to get up and go out there and represent not only himself, his
family, the state of Texas, but also the best that America has to offer.
Julián’s candidacy reminds me of three men from my hometown of Uvalde,
Texas. In the early 1950s, when the poll tax still existed, Alfonso Canales, Robert
Tafolla and Baltazar Ramirez had the audacity and unmitigated gall to run
for the Uvalde City Council. Never before had a Mexican American in Uvalde
dared to run for public office. They were young men in their 20s and they
knew the time had come to stand up. They probably knew they were not going to win,
and they didn’t. But that was not the driving point. The point was to show
people in Uvalde that the time of walking with one’s head down and their hands in
their pocket were coming to an end.
Can Uvalde be an example what is possible?
It took more than ten years for a Mexican American to finally win a spot on the
Uvalde City Council. (Jose V. Uriegas in 1966) And in much the same vein, it might take a Mexican American 10 or 20 years to win the Presidency of the United States of America. But it will happen.
Julián Castro is following a path carved out by many others who have come before him. He may not make it, but we will always remember that he tried. Just like Balta, Robert and Alfonso from Uvalde, Texas, Julián Castro is giving it his best.
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Copyright 2019 by Alfredo Santos. To read the entire September issue of La Voz visit: http://www.lavoznewspapers.com