Victor Castro, a foreman with Lorton Stone and member of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1 of Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C., joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast for Trades Day to discuss his 40 years of historic restoration work in the nation's capital and beyond.
Castro came to the United States from Spain in 1986, following in the footsteps of his father, a stonemason and carpenter who had worked in the United States before him. Over the past four decades, he has worked on some of the most recognized structures in America, including the Washington Monument, the National Cathedral and multiple phases of restoration to the U.S. Capitol.
Scott Garvin, president of BAC Local 1 MVD, also joined the conversation to recognize Castro's work mentoring apprentices on weekends and on job sites, and to reflect on why craftspeople like Castro are essential to the union's ability to carry the trade forward.
Castro became a U.S. citizen in 2008 and described the experience of working on historic American structures as a foreigner-turned-citizen as a privilege he said most people do not fully appreciate.
Victor Castro grew up in Spain. His father was both a stonemason and a carpenter, who had spent time working in the United States. In the mid-1980s, his father suggested he try working in the U.S. At the time, Castro was working in Switzerland and was uncertain, but less than a year later, he was in America.
That was 1986. He has been here, with one notable interruption, ever since.
He landed his first work in the masonry trade. He was not put through a standard apprenticeship. A foreman gave him a chance to prove himself alongside a helper who, Castro admitted, had more knowledge than he did. That helper taught him about the trade's culture. Everyone has something to teach, regardless of title, Castro said, and the job is to learn from whoever is willing to teach.
After completing work on the FDR Memorial in 1988, Castro returned to Spain. He spent two years there after his family pulled him back home. But he also missed the United States and came back. He became a citizen in 2008, more than 20 years after he first arrived.
When describing restoration work on the U.S. Capitol, the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral, Castro talks about careful, painstaking effort to preserve and extend the lives of structures originally built by craftspeople without modern equipment.
Castro has been part of the crew restoring the U.S. Capitol since 1998. The work on the exterior came in three phases, plus the visitor center addition. He described walking into the Capitol for the first time and being impressed by the scale of the stonework and the quality of the carving. He understood that stones weighing tons had been moved and set without damage by workers a century or more before him. He asked himself whether anyone doing the work today could match what was done then. His answer was probably not entirely. But the job is to try to preserve what was left behind.
The 2011 earthquake that struck Washington caused significant damage to both the Washington Monument and the National Cathedral. Castro worked on the restoration of both.
At the Washington Monument, the challenge was working on one of the world's most recognized structures while the National Park Service monitored every decision. The pressure of the assignment, the weight of touching something that belongs to the entire country, was real, he said, adding that he believes they did a good job.
At the National Cathedral, the scope was larger and the risks more immediate. The cathedral sustained extensive damage in the earthquake, and the restoration involved core drilling through walls up to 6 feet thick. Castro described one Saturday drilling operation that he tried to postpone because the cathedral had a wedding scheduled. He was sent inside with a flashlight and a radio while the crew worked from the outside. Near the end of the job, pressure was lost. Dust began falling inside the cathedral during the wedding. Castro said he wanted to disappear. Nothing was damaged, however, and the wedding proceeded. The only result was a new policy that no core drilling would take place on Saturdays.
He spent approximately two years on the National Cathedral restoration before moving back for another phase of the Capitol exterior restoration. He described it as a beautiful challenge and one of the most meaningful projects of his career.
Castro reflected on his career, which included watching and learning from American craftspeople, becoming a U.S. citizen, and working for decades on some of the structures that define this country, both physically and symbolically.
He said he does not think Americans fully appreciate what they have. He didn’t mean to be critical; rather, he made an observation because he is repeatedly stunned by the scale and quality of the work he found. He said he feels lucky every time he thinks about it, and wishes the country felt the same way.
Castro is a foreman now, which means part of his job is training the people who will do this work after he is gone. He knows that he owes too much to his trade and needs to give back what he can. He works with apprentices, showing up on weekends on his own time to mentor them. He tries to convey not just the technical skills but the importance of the work in D.C. He reminds them that they need to keep pushing themselves because they are not putting up a normal building; they are working on history.
BAC Local 1 MVD President Garvin said Castro’s mentorship of apprentices has earned him great respect. He gives his own time, without being asked. Without people like him working with the next generation, the union would not be able to continue the craft, Garvin said. The skills that built these structures do not transfer automatically. They have to be taught, person-to-person, and Victor Castro has been doing that teaching for decades, and still doing it.
More information on the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers is available at bacweb.org. More information on BAC Local 1 MVD is available at baclocal1.org.
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