Our Interview With the Rising Political Star Expected to Join Obama's Cabinet

By Fusion Staff  |  May 17, 2014 | 10:04pm
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President Barack Obama plans to nominate San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro to his cabinet as housing secretary, according to reports.

Castro is widely considered to be a rising Hispanic political star, and the news, reported by The New Times, the Associated Press and several other outlets, could raise his profile and the likelihood that he could be a vice presidential candidate in the 2016 elections.

Fusion spoke to the three term mayor in December in an extensive interview about how he saw his political future, his Latino identity and his views on disparity in access to education. The first part of that interview is posted above, and a second part is embedded below.

We also profiled him in 2012, just before he would give the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention that would begin to make him a national figure. At time, asked if he would accept a cabinet appointment to a position such as housing secretary, the same position his role model Henry Cisneros held in the Clinton administration, Castro said he would turn it down.

“Yeah,” he said. “I can’t imagine what they would offer me.”

Times appear to have changed.

Some highlights from the two-part interview:

On his DNC keynote address in 2012:

“The number one thing that I wanted to do was to connect my own family’s story to the American Dream story that so many people from different backgrounds have lived in our nation.…”

On speculation about his political future:

“I think it’s very flattering… But I do think as with anything in life if you work hard and do a good job with what’s in front of you, then you put yourself in a good position for whatever comes next. I don’t know what comes next but I want to work very hard and do a good job as mayor of San Antonio and see what happens.”

On the bi-cultural balancing act:

“That’s always the balance. Being proud of my heritage and who I am and relating to the Latino community and hopefully making people proud, but then also making sure that when I represent people, that I represent everybody.”

On disparities in educational access:

“For a lot of folks in the Latino community and also in low-income communities no matter what their background, the issue is that they don’t have parents or relatives often times who have gone to college and so it’s a new experience.”

On the responsibility of success:

“I hope that all of us that have been blessed with the kinds of opportunities that we have, whether we are in politics or in law or in medicine or business, wherever it is. That we take the time to share with younger people our own story and try to do what we can to inspire them.”

@JaredGoyette is a digital news editor at Fusion.

 
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