ONE twin is a member of Barack Obama’s cabinet and the other is a congressman. Now 41, they were barely old enough to vote when Hillary Clinton became first lady.
They share a surname with a pair of Communist dictators in Cuba who have bedevilled America for more than 50 years. But the Castro brothers — Julian, US housing secretary and the elder by a minute, and Joaquin, who is in the House of Representatives — are central to Clinton’s plan to woo America’s growing Hispanic community. It now accounts for about 9% of voters and could even help deliver her the White House.
Clinton has been basking in the afterglow of a commanding performance in the first Democratic party debate in Las Vegas last week and enjoying a much-needed bump in the polls.
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But she is anxious to cement her advantage with minority voters in advance of the possible entry into the 2016 race of the vice-president, Joe Biden. He is said to be close to deciding whether to join the Democratic field dominated by Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the socialist senator embraced by white liberals but still viewed by party chiefs as an unlikely nominee.
Keen to signal she is focusing on next November’s general election, Clinton flew to San Antonio, Texas, site of the Alamo and now the seventh largest city in America, and dropped heavy hints that Julian Castro could be her vice-presidential running mate.
Clinton “appeals to Americans of all backgrounds and colours, different perspectives and walks of life”, Castro declared on a stage at Sunset station, once a stop on the Southern Pacific railroad, with the former US secretary of state standing next to him, beaming.
She responded that Castro, a popular former mayor of San Antonio, was a great leader who “gives a really good speech”. When asked earlier if Castro could be Biden’s successor, she responded: “I’m going to really look hard at him for anything because that’s how good he is.”
Two of the leading Republican candidates, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Florida senator Marco Rubio, are fluent Spanish speakers.
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Clinton advisers most fear Rubio, the son of Cuban émigrés, because at 44 he could paint her as a candidate of the past.
If selected by Clinton, Julian Castro would be the first Hispanic vice-presidential candidate, and just two years older than Richard Nixon, the youngest vice-president of the modern era when he was elected in 1952.
More than 1,000 attended the raucous rally in San Antonio. Clinton, widely seen as the winner in the Las Vegas debate, was in ebullient form and had shed the downbeat demeanour of recent weeks.
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One Clinton supporter, Maria Anita “Sammie” Monsivaiz, 70, had a remarkably good version of the candidate’s visage shaved into the back of her head. A group from the Red Hat Society, an organisation for women over 50, whooped and cheered.
Biden’s name was not mentioned once during the Las Vegas debate and it did not cross Clinton’s lips in San Antonio. But with Biden aged 72, Sanders 74 and herself a mere 67, Clinton’s appearance with the Castros seemed aimed in part at presenting herself as more aligned with the younger generation.
In her speech, Clinton evoked her 24-year-old self visiting San Antonio during the 1972 election to register poor Hispanic voters for the campaign of George McGovern. She said she was accompanied by her then boyfriend Bill, who had bushy hair and a beard and looked “kind of like a Viking”, and ate lots of green enchiladas and mango ice cream.
She even claimed to recall babysitting the children for Mexican migrant workers in Chicago when she was 11 and telling her mother: “You know, they’re just like we are.”
Clinton sought to capitalise on what she described as the “prejudice and paranoia” of Republicans, led by the surprise frontrunner Donald Trump, who had characterised Mexican illegal immigrants as rapists and criminals.
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“I plan to continue calling out that kind of hateful speech whenever and wherever I see it, because Latinos and Latinas, you’re not strangers. You’re not intruders. You’re our neighbours, our friends, our families.”
Calling herself “a progressive who gets things done”, Clinton renewed her successful debate attack against Sanders on gun rights, which he has supported. A poll on Friday showed she had drawn level with him in New Hampshire, where he had been leading.
In San Antonio, though, it was her embrace of the Castros, of Mexican heritage and the sons of Rosie Castro, a prominent activist, that most endeared her to supporters.
“I hope she chooses Julian,” said Kristel Buente, 42, who grew up with the twins. “For a long time Latinos thought that this nation wasn’t for us. Julian and Joaquin, where they are, show that we’re valued and give me a sense of pride that this is my country.”
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Biden close to joining the race
The longest-running guessing game in Washington is reaching a conclusion.
Joe Biden, the vice-president, is preparing supporters for a decision on a presidential bid in 2016.
A leaked letter to former employees said Biden, 72, would run a “positive” campaign if he decided to put his name forward.
Meanwhile, a trade union boss said Biden had told him on Friday that he would run.
Biden has struggled with preparations for a campaign for the presidency while mourning the death of his son Beau in May.