SAN ANTONIO – Big decisions are made on behalf of San Antonians inside City Hall. However, in the early 1970s, Rosie Castro said the people in charge didn’t reflect the entire city.
“It’s changed significantly from when I was young,” said Castro, the mother of former San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro and Congressman Joaquin Castro. “What was wrong at the time, though, is that the Latino population kept growing in San Antonio, and yet, we had very little representation.”
At the time, at-large members made up San Antonio’s city council. According to Rosie Castro, at-large councilors meant there were no individual representatives from individual districts.
All council members represented all parts of the city. Or, at least, that was the idea.
“You would see the council living on the North Side, and being Anglos, mainly,” she said.
In 1975, the City of San Antonio went through a major annexation.
She said the annexation gave people the chance to challenge the form of representation.
“There absolutely wouldn’t have, would not have that (representation) in 1971,” she said. “Several of us, around four of us, ran under the banner of the Committee for Barrio Betterment.”
While Rosie Castro and the others didn’t get elected at that time, their actions led to change.
In 1976, the Justice Department challenged San Antonio’s at-large structure, according to research completed by retired St. Mary’s University professor Dr. Charles L. Cotrell and University of Texas at San Antonio professor R. Michael Stevens.
The City of San Antonio amended its charter to switch to single-member districts, which is still in effect today.
“In ‘77, we elected a new council and, for the first time ever, the majority of that council were people of color,” Rosie Castro said. “All of a sudden, you saw the difference in community that had been represented by mainly elite Anglo.”
