Eric grew up in the Outer Mission District with three siblings and almost every type of pet imaginable. His family has been in the Bay Area for six generations. Eric’s father, who built a custom cabinetry company, met his mother, a first-generation immigrant from El Salvador, one Sunday at church in Oakland.
At a young age, Eric discovered a passion for animals and became obsessed with learning all he could about every type and how to care for them. He has been a vegetarian since the age of 9 when he began to understand America’s food production system. He has been papa to dozens of animals including: rabbits, chinchillas, cockatiels, guinea pigs, and several cats and dogs.
During high school & college, Eric became politically engaged in social justice campaigns, including the Occupy Movement. The economic insecurity of the 99% was more than just a slogan for Eric, though, it was part of his lived experience.
In order to afford tuition, books, housing and food at UCLA – Eric had to get creative. He created Eric Curry’s Pets which provided exceptional pet care and peace of mind for their human companions.
He successfully rebuilt his clientele twice: once, after transferring to UCSB, where he received his degree in Chemistry in 2016, then again after returning home to San Francisco in 2019. When the Covid-19 pandemic decimated his business, he worked for two small businesses in San Francisco, including The Animal Company, San Francisco’s oldest pet shop.
With personal role models including Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta & Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Eric has never been willing to sit back when action is required – and the 2020 election was no exception. Eric was a volunteer on Kamala Harris’ Presidential Campaign and a participant in her organizing academy, and continued to organize for the Biden/Harris ticket. As a fluent Spanish speaker, Eric’s skills proved especially useful in outreach to Texans, and later Georgians as a volunteer for the Warnock and Ossoff Senate campaigns.
In addition to his activism and entrepreneurial ventures, Eric has self-published two books, A Real San Francisco Story. With Pets and Essential: How America’s Investment in White Supremacy Led to the Year That Changed Everything.
He is running for Congress to ensure his fellow San Franciscans can trust that their next Representative in Washington is prioritizing the 99%, and he will work tirelessly to legislate the changes required to meet the very real challenges of climate change, economic inequality and systemic racism.
