Manuel Castillo was born in South Austin in 1922 and, except for his WWII service in the Army, has lived there for his entire lifetime. Manuels father was a painter, but the times were hard. There was seldom enough money from that work, so most years the Castillos would go down to Corpus Christi in late Summer where the whole family could make money picking cotton. When that was gone they would then go out to West Texas and continue to pick until the seasons cotton crop was finished in the late Fall. In most years, by the time the Castillos returned to Austin, it was too late in the school term for Manuel to enroll for that years classes. It took him 3 years to complete...
