Rey Hernandez – Top Latinos
Springdale, AR /LWW/ Mr. Rey Hernandez, Marine Veteran, Community Health Worker with the UAMS – University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and the Democratic Candidate for the Arkansas House of Representatives District 11, has been recognized by the Top Latinos in the 2026 edition.
Rey Hernandez: A Life of Service, a Vision for Arkansas
There is a kind of person who moves through the world not for what they can take from it, but for what they can give back. Rey Hernandez is that kind of person. His story does not begin in a boardroom or a political dynasty. It begins on the sun-baked streets of El Paso, Texas, in a home shaped by sacrifice, love, and the unshakable belief that hard work is its own reward.
Rey grew up the proud son of Mexican immigrants who brought with them something no border could stop: a deep sense of purpose. His mother was extraordinary in the most quietly powerful way. She took in sewing, styled hair, and washed laundry until her hands had earned every dollar it took to buy a home and raise five boys. She did not ask for shortcuts. She asked for the chance to work, and she made the most of every one. Later in life, she earned her U.S. citizenship in her fifties and immediately joined LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens, to fight for the rights of her community. Watching her do that left a mark on Rey that has never faded.
From early on, he understood that service was not something you waited to be asked to do. As a young man in El Paso, he painted signs for Paul Moreno, a disabled veteran who would go on to become one of the longest-serving state legislators in Texas history. It was a small act, but it planted a seed. Rey saw that ordinary people, people who came from struggle, could stand up and lead.
At just 17 years old, Rey enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. The Vietnam era was not a comfortable time to wear a uniform, but comfort was never the point. The Marines shaped him into someone who could carry weight without complaint, who could lead without ego, and who understood that the mission was always bigger than any one person. It was during his service that he met Roselea, a fellow Marine and a native of Arkansas. They married, started a family, and raised three daughters together, building a life that moved across California, Washington, D.C., Oklahoma, and Missouri before they followed their hearts to northwest Arkansas in 1989.
Rey retired from the Marines after 20 years of service, a milestone that would have satisfied most people. But he was just getting started. He enrolled at the University of Arkansas, earning a Bachelor of Science in Education. He later returned to earn a degree in Human Resources Development, because Rey has always believed that learning is not a season of life but a lifelong commitment. He applied that belief in careers spanning education, advertising, and health care, each chapter building on the last, each one drawing him closer to the people he most wanted to serve.
In 1990, he and Roselea purchased a cattle ranch in northwest Arkansas, putting down roots in the soil of a place they had chosen to call home. He joined the Chamber of Commerce as a volunteer, building relationships with the business community that he still values today. He headed up the Multicultural Forum, bringing community leaders together to help Arkansas’s rapidly growing Hispanic population find their footing and thrive. Through LULAC, which he joined as a council member in 2001 and later led as State Director, he helped channel over one million dollars in scholarships to Arkansas students, opening doors to higher education for young people who needed someone to believe in them.
His commitment to public life led him to run for the local school board, where he could shape the future of education from the inside. He served as a Justice of the Peace in Benton County, appointed by Governor Mike Beebe, making history as the first Latino to hold that position in the county. It was not a title he sought for its own sake. It was an opportunity to represent people who had long gone without representation, and he treated it with exactly the seriousness it deserved.
Today, Rey Hernandez brings all of that life, all of those decades of service, learning, ranching, leading, and listening, to his campaign for Arkansas House of Representatives District 11. As a community health worker with UAMS, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, he sees every day what happens when people cannot access the care they need. He sees the stress on working families, the gaps that fall along racial and economic lines, and the quiet suffering of communities that have been told, in word and deed, that their needs can wait.
Rey does not believe they can wait any longer. He is running because the people of District 11 deserve a representative who knows their lives because he has lived a version of them. He will go to Little Rock to fight for expanded access to healthcare, to push for wages that actually reflect the work people do, and to open new pathways in education so that the next generation does not have to fight as hard just to reach the starting line. He will stand for every community, regardless of race or background, and make sure their voices carry weight in the state capitol.
If elected, Rey will make history once again as the first Latino state representative in Arkansas. That milestone matters, not as a symbol alone, but as proof that the doors of democratic power are opening wider. It matters to every young person in this state who has ever wondered whether someone like them could lead. The answer, with Rey Hernandez, is a resounding yes.
This is not just a campaign. It is the continuation of a life spent showing up, doing the work, and refusing to leave people behind. From El Paso to the jungles of Vietnam, from a cattle ranch in northwest Arkansas to the halls of the University of Arkansas, from the Multicultural Forum to the floors of LULAC meetings, Rey has always moved toward the people who needed him most. District 11 is next. Arkansas is ready. And Rey Hernandez is running.
Top Latinos is a prestigious New York publication dedicated to honoring the achievements of the Latino community. They meticulously identify and honor outstanding Latino professionals nationwide who have reached impressive levels of success in their respective fields. By showcasing their accomplishments, they aim to foster growth and appreciation of the Latino industry and culture. Since their establishment in 2010, Top Latinos has been wholeheartedly committed to fulfilling their mission of bringing awareness to the exceptional contributions made by the Latino professional and executive community.