Baby Phoenix Castro’s family were among about a dozen people who gathered Saturday for a San Jose vigil to remember the infant two years after her fatal fentanyl overdose — and to call upon Santa Clara County to offer help for parents struggling with addiction.
The 3-month-old infant, who died of a fentanyl and methamphetamine overdose in May 2023, was pictured next to a sign that read: “Princess.” Emily De La Cerda, her mother who also died of a fentanyl overdose four months after the baby, was pictured next to her.
For the first time, Rita De La Cerda, Emily’s mother and the baby’s grandmother, broke her silence and spoke publicly about her family’s tragedies.
“Even though we lost Baby Phoenix, I think a lot of change is happening after this tragedy that happened two years ago,” Rita De La Cerda said Saturday, with tears welling up in her eyes. “I don’t want to blame the system … but there could be more help.”
She remembered her daughter as a loving mother, adding that “those babies were my daughter’s life. She loved being a mother, even though she was struggling with addiction.”
In an interview with this news organization, De La Cerda said Santa Clara County residents need more homes for parents struggling with addiction to get clean.
“We need homes where people can go and have their kids with them,” De La Cerda said. “We’re a very rich county. There should be more homes.”
Accompanied by local advocates and some elected officials, De La Cerda also called on county officials to fund the Phoenix Center, which is a proposal from the family to build a rehabilitation center in Baby Phoenix’s memory that would offer addiction and mental health rehabilitation services to parents who need help getting clean while raising their kids.
De La Cerda declined to comment further on the evolving aftermath of her granddaughter’s death because she is a witness in an ongoing criminal case against the baby’s father, David Castro, who currently faces several felony charges in the death of Baby Phoenix.
Earlier this year, the father filed an application to have his felony charges dropped and be replaced with a court-ordered mental health diversion program. Prosecutors have fought against his request, recently revealing he called a friend two years ago to secure fake urine for him before he called 911 after discovering his infant died in his home.
San Jose Councilman Bien Doan spoke to the group Saturday to say that, as a retired firefighter, he’s seen a lot of tragic, untimely deaths as a first responder and wants to help put an end to them.
“It’s troubling that our society continues to be plagued with drugs that are killing our youth,” Doan said.
He added that he is committing his office to provide more Narcan, an opioid overdose-reversing nasal spray, to first responders to use in the field and promised to help provide greater access to facilities for mental health and addiction services.
Jennifer Celaya, who helped organize an advocacy group called Project Phoenix in Castro’s memory, also said Saturday that officials continue to make promises for reforming the county’s Department of Family and Child services that “falls on deaf ears.” She said Wendy Kinnear-Rausch, who was recently appointed as the new director to the county’s embattled child welfare agency, still has a lot to prove.
“I’m happy for her on a personal level,” Celaya said in an interview. “I fear that she will follow the same footsteps as previous directors. … We’ve been promised so many things over and over for years and it just falls on deaf ears.”
Kinnear-Rausch takes up the agency’s top administrative spot after the disgraced previous director Damian Wright resigned from his post in January. State officials in two incriminating reports have previously concluded that the county’s lawyers left vulnerable children in unsafe homes against the decisions of social workers to remove them.
Celaya said Kinnear-Rausch will be held “accountable” to follow through on what she has vowed to do.
Ed Morillo, Rita’s brother, said he plans to be part of that effort. “We’re going to make sure the change happens,” he said in an interview. “We’re going to give them a run for their money.”
