UPDATE 10/10: This event will be live streamed. 

The San-Antonio Express-News will be at GET LIT with Julián Castro to live stream the event, which will be hosted on their Facebook page. Texas Public Radio will also be in attendance recording the event, and will available on their website following the event.

UPDATE 9/25: This event is sold out. To be added to the waitlist, sign up below. 

The San Antonio Book Festival proudly presents GET LIT with Julián Castro, former Mayor of San Antonio, the 16th U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama, and the author of An Unlikely Journey: Waking Up from My American Dream. Castro will be joined by his brother Joaquín, the Congressman for Texas’s 20th district, for a discussion about this new memoir. 

5:30 PM – Reception & cash bar
6:00 PM – Program
7:00 PM – Book sales & signing

RSVP REQUIRED! Scroll down to save your seat!

(FYI: Tickets may arrive in your junk email. Please check your spam folders for your RSVP confirmations. You do NOT need to print your tickets. If your plans change and you are no longer able to attend, please email Josh McCormack.)

About the author: After more than two decades on the national stage, one of the leading political figures of his generation, Julián Castro, will finally tell his story, in the new memoir AN UNLIKELY JOURNEY: Waking Up from My American Dream. With the heated midterm elections fast approaching and our country appearing more splintered than ever, we’ll look for assured voices of reason like Castro’s to empower us to move forward together.

When President Obama introduced Julián Castro to the world, he said, “Julián, you have lived the American Dream.” And indeed he had. Julián and his twin brother were raised by a single mother and bounced around rental homes in a San Antonio, Texas, barrio. Graduating from Stanford and Harvard Law School, Julián was elected to public office at the age of 26 and went on to become his hometown’s mayor at just 35, making him the youngest mayor of a top-50 American city. Named to the World Economic Forum’s list of Young Global Leaders in 2010, he was recognized by Time as one of “40 under 40” rising stars in American politics.

About the book: In AN UNLIKELY JOURNEY, Castro poignantly explores his family’s story, beginning in 1922, with the border crossing of a seven-year-old orphan girl, his grandmother—Victoria Castro—from Mexico into America. His beloved grandmother “Mamo” grew up without her parents and struggled to raise her daughter Rosie as a single parent, all while working as a maid. Rosie would go on to plunge herself into activism in the late 1960s during the Chicano Movement, the push for Mexican American civil rights amid prejudice and limited opportunities. Just two generations later, this immigrant family’s long-sought American Dream would be fulfilled as Rosie’s sons, Julián and Joaquin, experienced tremendous success.

Rosie instilled in both of her sons a true grit and desire to achieve—they harnessed an intense sibling rivalry, driving each other to new heights. But Julián faced setbacks both financially and professionally, including nearly losing his home to foreclosure after he quit his law firm job, and losing his first campaign for mayor of San Antonio, in 2005. He persevered, and eventually as mayor revitalized and transformed San Antonio into one of the country’s leading economies.

The national spotlight fell upon him and he rose to the occasion, as keynote speaker for the 2012 Democratic National Convention—selected by Barack Obama. As the first mayor to deliver that speech, Castro’s charisma and eloquence won hearts and minds. The international press was quick to draw parallels between him and Obama, himself a little-known keynote speaker just eight years earlier. President Obama welcomed him as the 16th Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and Castro sheds light on those whirlwind early days of the administration.

Shortlisted as Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016, Castro had an insider’s view of one of the biggest upsets in American politics. Now, in the post-Obama era, Castro’s unforgettable experiences and family story underscore both our right to pursue the American Dream and our responsibility to defend it.