When young activists collected nearly 38,000 signatures to get police reforms on the ballot this May, they didn’t expect to take on the city’s entire business community and Mayor Ron Nirenberg.
Fortunately for them, however, the effort has the support of a well-respected new councilwoman who has some experience challenging the city’s power structure.
Now in her mid-70s, longtime civil rights activist Rosie Castro worked with La Raza Unida party in the 1970s to recruit Mexican American candidates for office at a time when all City Council seats were elected at large from across the city and local political power was in the hands of the business-aligned Good Government League.
Though Castro helped elect many others, she didn’t succeed in getting her own seat at the dais until last month, when current members of the City Council sought to correct history by temporarily appointing Castro to represent District 7 after three-term Councilwoman Ana Sandoval resigned to accept a new job.
Castro is the mother of U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio) and former three-term mayor and District 7 Councilman Julián Castro.
Although she only has a few months to sit on City Council — her interim term will end once a new District 7 council member is seated in June — she’s advising on the city’s advocacy strategies on the council’s Intergovernmental Relations Committee, and will have a chance to shape the city budget.
Sitting in her relatively bare City Hall office, she told the San Antonio Report that watching young people pursue their vision for government has been one of the most encouraging aspects of her new job.
“One of the things that I really feel good about … is that there are a lot of young people who are looking for a different way of doing government, a different way of creating the city,” Castro said.
“Just like many of us fought for things when I was young, they are now fighting [for] things like the paid sick leave,” she said. And trying “to force the government, particularly the state government … to look at people [through a lens of] how do you help them? Not how do you make them miserable.”
Castro’s comments come as Proposition A‘s proponents have demonstrated political organizing prowess around police reforms over the past two years, but say they’re disappointed to see powerful voices opposing a charter amendment full of ideas the community largely supports — like directing police not to make arrests for abortion or marijuana use.
They also comes as Republican lawmakers in Austin are working to preempt similar progressive initiatives, like paid sick leave, from being considered by cities in the first place.
The San Antonio Report caught up with Castro to talk about Proposition A, her new colleagues and political perseverance.
San Antonio Report: When you ran for City Council in 1971 the political power was in the hands of the Good Government League. Today San Antonio’s business leaders are assembling a handful of new political groups that have struggled to find candidates for this May’s municipal election, and are pouring money into defeating Prop A. Has there been a power shift in San Antonio?
Rosie Castro: I don’t think there’s been a switch of power. We’ve heard all this before, and I think it’s the way they try to stop the progress by scaring people into thinking that the worst will happen.
I know they’re afraid of the cite-and-release … but what they don’t seem to understand that is, if you’re cited, you still have to go to court. It’s not a freebie. … You’re not [getting] off. And what they’re not looking at is the cost for government, especially the DA’s office and the police officers. … It will give them a chance to look at the higher crimes like murder, rape, domestic violence. So I think that that’s what they’re missing.
To me, the portion about the police is extremely important, [restricting the use of] chokeholds and no-knock warrants. Right now, I like the [police] chief very much. I’ve known [San Antonio Police Chief William McManus] for a long time, and I think he’s a good man. But what happens if he leaves? When the next person comes around, they may not decide that they want to keep those policies that the chief has in place now. So this is a way to codify them. I know that not everybody agrees with that. But I think it’s been proven that there are things we need to do regarding the police that and that’s two of them right there.
SAR: How do you think the Justice Coordinator position called for under Prop A would work?
RC: I think that it’s possible to have someone that would look at all the departments [as opposed to just SAPD]. Let me give you an example: If you look at who gets contracts, you’ll see the same names over and over and over again. To me that’s not just. To me that’s not a distribution of how you should be fair with everyone.
Consequently, over the years, there are a lot of, particularly people of color, that never get to rise to the level of having the ability to do these contracts … because they’re never given an opportunity. So there’s all sorts of things that you could do with a Justice Coordinator. And that’s just one example.
SAR: Has the business community lost influence at City Hall?
RC: No they’re here all the time. And I’m not anti-business. I think that business plays an important role in what our city looks like and how we grow. But the business community has been used to having a lot of its own way, and I think the minute you don’t do that, they like to holler about it.
A really good example was when all the chambers [of commerce] got together and [opposed] paid sick leave. Now, if we really want to do something about poverty, we need to have paid sick leave, and [a] $15 [minimum wage] … things that would make life easier and better for people. And they’re always opposed to them. It’s a shame, but this is a persistent pattern.
SAR: Paid sick leave and other pro-labor policies that have found political support in Texas’ blue cities have repeatedly been knocked down by the courts or the Legislature before they could take effect. Should progressives keep bringing them forward?
RC: Absolutely. With the paid sick leave, it’s going to happen one day. Even at the national level there are efforts going on to get it to happen. But I think one of the things that happens is that people get discouraged. They want things to happen now, today, and it doesn’t happen that way. Sometimes it takes 30 years, sometimes 20 years, sometimes 10. But eventually, I think we’ll come to better policies.
SAR: What is an example of something that people wrote off as impossible in San Antonio, but has since come to fruition?
RC: Thinking about when [Mayor Ron Nirenberg] came in, he wanted to look at the budget through the lens of inequities. And so he started putting money into the West Side, into the East Side and the South Side. Everybody knows right now, for example, the fact that the hospital is not going to be there anymore, in the South Side. That’s a whole area of coverage that will have no coverage. … So the lens that Ron decided to look at the budget through, I think is important, and no one had done that before.
Another example is Julián’s Pre K for SA. There had been problems a few years before with [a federal daycare program, so] people said, “ain’t gonna happen.” But he got business on board, and he got all the other folks on board and now we have a program that really is looked at as an outstanding program in the city.
SAR: How do you think Nirenberg is doing as mayor?
RC: I think that he’s tried his best. If you go back to the early days, he did that 2040 report, where they did research to project what San Antonio would look like. I’m reminded of that constantly because the things that we do [at City Hall].
For example, that report talked about how big we’re going to grow, how many people will be coming to San Antonio. It’s already happening. And when that happens, you have to build housing. … People complain about homelessness, but they don’t want anybody to build housing apartments in their neighborhood. Well, you can’t solve the problem. If you can’t build housing. And I think that that is persistent with the city government.
SAR: What kind of influence are the new progressives, Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) and Teri Castillo (D5), having on the City Council?
RC: They’re doing an excellent job. When I looked at Teri … she has been a real blessing to District 5. She’s on fire. She’s getting things done. Her point of view is, “How do we help this community?” And she works towards that every day.
I think it’s the same is true for Jalen. If you listen to Jalen, he is very well educated. And I think he’s very smart. Both of them are. And to me, they’re a fresh new blood I would hope to see more of, because I think that the city — you know we keep wanting to be a first tier city, city on the hill. Well, you don’t get to be that with just the same old ideas. You need people who are innovative, who really work toward making sure that their district and the whole city is in better shape, and I think that’s what they do.
SAR: Why do you think San Antonio hasn’t gone the way of other big cities?
RC: I think one of the things that makes San Antonio different — and it’s a good thing and not-so-good thing sometimes — is I think we have a very accommodating public. Because of not knowing our history, not being taught in school, people really don’t have a big problem with issues of equity in terms of thinking about it [even though] it’s happening, there’s inequities everywhere.
But I think that people also feel that they have a say in their government. If you look at the neighborhood associations, little or big, they feel they have some kind of say. And that’s what San Antonio has always been able to do.
