“Erin was a firecracker. She was so outgoing. She was loud. She was funny. She had a lot of friends,” recalled Rena Castro.
Rena is the mother of Erin Rios Castro. The youngest of four children, Erin had confidence that lit up a room.
“She was very determined, outspoken. If she thought something was wrong, she would speak up for the little person that wouldn’t speak up for themselves,” Rena told ABC13. “I didn’t believe that kind of person could be abused or made to feel less of themself, but it really can happen to anyone.”
It’s why Rena has made it her passion to talk to teens about healthy relationships to help break that cycle of abuse through the
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When Erin was in high school in San Antonio, she began dating another student, Joshua Garcia, and Rena noticed her daughter, the girl who loved to hang out with her tight-knit family and spend time at her grandmother’s house, start to pull away.
“It didn’t happen overnight. It was a slow progression of things, changing her makeup slowly, to changing her dress, to taking her away from her friends, and before you knew it, Erin had lost Erin,” Rena said. “She had lost herself, and whatever he liked, she liked.”