Erica Lira Castro is the wife of 2020 presidential candidate Julián Castro, the former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the Obama administration.

Married for 12 years, Erica Lira is a marvel in her own right and has advocated for an improved education system through her work.

The second round of Democratic debates will take place in Detroit on July 30 and July 31—which is why we're reading up on all of this year's presidential hopefuls. One candidate racking up quite the following is Julián Castro, the former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the Obama administration. (Yes, his twin brother Joaquin Castro is a Congressman and his campaign chair). And while he has a strong support system around him, no one has stood by his side like his wife of over 12 years, Erica Lira Castro.

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Here's what you need to know about the potential future First Lady.

Julián Castro and Erica Lira Castro both grew up in San Antonio.

Edward A. Ornelas Getty Images

Both Castro and Lira Castro were born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, but that’s not where they met. The pair met the summer after Castro’s second year at Harvard Law School, when Castro had returned to San Antonio in 1999. They dated for eight years, and most recently celebrated 12 years of marriage on July 1, 2019, commemorating their 2007 nuptials on Instagram:

Julián Castro and Erica Lira Castro have two children together.

The couple welcomed daughter (and future scene-stealer) Carina Victoria in March 2009, shortly before Castro’s election as Mayor of San Antonio in May 2009. Their son, Cristian Julián Castro, was born in December 2014, a few months after dad took on his job at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

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Lira Castro prefers not be defined by her husband's achievements, but rather by her own, as she told The San Antonio Express-News. "I don't think I'm unlike other women of my generation. I want a marriage, children, my own career, and a chance to participate in public service," she said. "I think we can have it all."

Erica Lira Castro has worked in education for years.

Lira Castro, according to her biography with the U.S. Department of Education, became a first generation college graduate when she graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a degree in English, and later earned her master’s degree in Educational Leadership from UTSA. She’s always been a teacher, as she told The San Antonio Express-News. "I don't remember not wanting to be a teacher," she said. "When I was a girl, I played school—pretending to teach my three brothers."

She went on to teach elementary mathematics for 12 years, according to her Department of Education biography, served as a mentor and teacher to pre-service teachers at the university level, and has worked in public school education for over 15 years, according to a video Castro posted on Twitter.

In 2015, she teamed up with then-Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden for a video promoting #LatinosTeach, a digital campaign launched by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics with the goal of encouraging more Hispanic Americans to pursue careers in the education field. According to the U.S. Department of Education, less than 8 percent of teachers in the U.S. are Hispanic.

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Lira Castro made the following plea in the video from September 2015: “As a teacher, I have seen the tremendous effect we can have on our students by showing them that we believe in them and we expect great things from them. They rise to the occasion and succeed. As our nation’s Hispanic student population grows, there’s an increasing need for more teachers who are Hispanic, and for more teachers who understand Hispanic culture and communities.”



Lira Castro’s focus on education had a huge impact on her husband, who revealed a sweeping educational plan ahead of his presidential run, and also successfully led an effort to launch a Pre-K program as mayor of San Antonio.

"The truth, however, is I think the best thing I can do to help improve education is to be the best teacher I can be," Lira Castro told the Express-News in 2009. And clearly, she’s making the moves to get there, all on her own.

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