Julián Castro, who helped build Hispanics’ presence on the national political stage with his 2020 presidential bid, is now focused on building Latinos’ power to help themselves.
Just four months into his role as CEO of the California-based Latino Community Foundation, Castro has plunged the philanthropic-activist group into the high-stakes 2024 election with grants to Latino groups in Arizona, Nevada, other key battleground states and California, where a few congressional races could decide control of the House.
“The desire to go and do this work outside of California is a reflection of the urgency of lifting up the economic prospects of our community and making sure that people will exercise their right to vote,” Castro said in an interview at a Mexican restaurant in his hometown. Castro has remained in San Antonio but travels to and fro in the new position.
He has also signed up the foundation to take the lead in ensuring that Latinos, who are the overwhelming majority in California’s Imperial Valley, are not left out of any boom resulting from the lithium mining frenzy unfolding in region.
“In the Imperial Valley there is going to be a tremendous amount of wealth created, and we want to do our part to make sure it’s not just an extractive economy but that the people who live there benefit, as well, and not only economically, but in terms of the health, education, of greater opportunity in every way, quality of life,” he said.
The Latino Community Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan philanthropic organization that invests in Latino-led organizations. He has worked largely in California and boasts having the largest network of Latino philanthropists in the country, investing more than $25 million in more than 375 grassroots, predominantly Latino-led organizations.
Its work ranges from investing directly in Latino groups to creating and administering what it calls “giving circles”: 17 groups of Latinos whose members each give $1,000 a year and then choose which community groups will receive the money they have collected. The giving circles have invested $2.9 million, it says on its website.
Castro said the foundation’s grants to Make the Road Nevada and the Arizona Center for Empowerment are a start to extending their work beyond California and to helping groups get more attention for Latino votes in those states. Both are progressive groups focused on turning out Latino voters registration.
The foundation also commissioned BSP Research to poll 1,200 Latino registered voters — 400 in each state — to measure their takes on candidates and issues and their likelihood to vote.
“I want all candidates and all parties to pay attention to the needs of the Latino community,” said Castro, a Democrat who was mayor of San Antonio and housing secretary in the Obama administration. He is also a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC.
Clear majorities of Latinos polled in each state said they planned to vote, but significant shares also said they were not well-informed about President Joe Biden’s or former President Donald Trump’s policy agendas.
“My point to political candidates is that it doesn’t matter what your ideology is, if you want to win, you need to address the concerns of the Latino community,” he said.
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