SAN ANTONIO — Musician Juan Tejeda sees something very familiar in Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro.

“He is very indigenous and Chicano,” said Tejeda, a conjunto accordionist who has roots in the West Side neighborhood of San Antonio, just like Castro.

Castro, 44, is not the first Latino to run for president but he is the first of note, as far as Tejeda is concerned. That's because Castro, with his brown skin and roots in a poor Mexican-American neighborhood, is the first who looks like him and who has lived like him.

Since Barack Obama kicked open the door to the White House for African-Americans, there have been hopes by many that a Latino would follow him through it.

There are likely to be more than two dozen candidates seeking the Democratic nomination, including some starting out better financed and with more name recognition, such as Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts or former Vice President Joe Biden. Harris has said she's running. Warren has launched an exploratory committee and Biden is weighing whether to run.

But by being in the Democratic presidential field, Castro is giving Americans a view of Latinos that counters stereotypes and racist depictions of the country's largest minority group.

“In Julián, you see a very indigenous-looking person,” Tejeda said. “The whole world now is going to have to come to terms with one, the way he looks and also, that he is very smart, that he’s gone to the finest universities."

Castro attended Stanford and Harvard Law, was mayor of San Antonio and served as the secretary for Housing and Urban Development under Obama.

Should he be the Democratic nominee, the Ivy League-educated, former Cabinet secretary would go head-to-head with President Donald Trump, who described people who've come to the U.S. from Mexico — as Castro's grandmother did — as rapists, drug traffickers and criminals. Trump also accused a federal judge of being unable to do his job because he was Mexican-American.

At the same time, Castro is pursuing the White House after American voters elected the most diverse Congress in the nation's history and as the American population has moved closer to being majority minority.

"He's a leader who has excelled as a public servant — within him, he holds the hopes and aspirations for our children to be able to succeed,” Tejeda said of Castro.

Lucy Flores, a former Nevada assemblywoman and the CEO of Luz Collective, a Latina-focused digital site and organization, said Castro is the first viable Latino candidate for president who “really leans into his identity, who has said it is part of who they are as an American.”

Even if he doesn’t end up being the presidential nominee, his candidacy “is incredibly meaningful for members of a community that hasn't seen itself reflected in the highest office in this land,” despite being the largest minority group, Flores said.

Indeed, Castro put his heritage on full display when he announced his candidacy from colorful Plaza Guadalupe in San Antonio's West Side neighborhood. He made sure campaign signs, banners, pins and even a balloon display included the accent over the "a" in his first name.

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The low-income neighborhood of his childhood once thrived with commerce established by Mexicans who fled Mexico's Revolution, and also has been home to several generations of U.S.-born Americans of Mexican descent. Despite segregation and racism against its residents, the community launched other national leaders such as former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, who served under President Bill Clinton, and Henry B. González, a Democrat and the longest serving Hispanic member of Congress.