Power Players features state lawmakers rising through the ranks or making a notable mark on the 87th Texas legislative session. Each week, Capital Tonight will feature an elected official to give you a chance to get to know the person behind the powerful position.
AUSTIN, Texas — She was a teen on the drill team, so maybe it makes sense the one film Rep. Ana Hernandez, D-Houston, can watch over and over again is the 1978 musical classic, “Grease.”
“I love to watch Grease,” Rep. Hernandez said laughing.
The 16-year-old high school graduate, who was also trained in martial arts, knew the one thing she wanted to be was a lawyer, but not without traveling to South Africa, first, for a stint in the Peace Corps. There, she had the opportunity of a lifetime to meet Nelson Mandela at 19 years old.
“As you can tell I had a huge, huge smile at the time,” she said showing Spectrum News 1 a picture of her and Mandela that came from a disposable camera.
Hernandez was born in Reynoso, Mexico, and was raised in Pasadena. Hernandez, her parents, and sister overstayed their visas and were living as undocumented immigrants in Texas for eight years until President Ronald Reagan passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.
“My mom and dad have always been very supportive. We're an immigrant family, and so our first language is Spanish. Even though they weren't able to help me sometimes with my homework or give me, you know, in advice on college, they're always there and continue to be there to support me,” she said.
Hernandez was elected to serve the 143rd District in 2005 and was sworn in at 27 years old. While she was elected during a special election in 2005, Hernandez said she actually caught the Texas legislature bug 23 years ago when she was a Capitol intern. She then became a staff member for Houston Democrat Rep. Jessica Farrar. That is how Hernandez first met her predecessor, the late Rep. Joe Moreno, who was Farrar’s chief of staff at the time. Hernandez keeps Moreno’s committee plaque and their last photograph together from 2005 at her State Capitol office. Moreno died in a car accident later that year.
“Joe was a great mentor and just provided incredible support. He said, ‘you know, you're gonna run for office one day,’” Hernandez said. “I always keep his memory with me because he believed in me before I believed in myself.”
Her Austin office is also full of photographs of her biggest motivation: her 8-year-old son Gregory Eli. Her son may be in Houston for most of session, but Hernandez keeps little reminders of him at work.
“This is Gregory's clothes from last session, you know, they're required to wear a coat and tie,” she said. “I like to see it just as a reminder, because this is this is what I live for my son.”
Gregory celebrated his first birthday on the House floor. As he grew up at the State Capitol, his mom rose through the ranks. Hernandez is now the vice chair of the powerful State Affairs Committee, which sat front and center in the testimony over Texas’s fatal winter crisis.
In her opening remarks at the hearing, Hernandez held back tears remembering the 11-year-old Houston boy among others who died suffering freezing temperatures.
“This is a child that lost his life, because of the errors of the state, and so that's what we need to keep at the forefront, that we're not just talking about bill numbers, and, you know, finances and megawatts. We're talking about people's lives,” Hernandez said.
She tells Spectrum News 1 she believes the session will be failure if no big legislative changes are done to prevent future widespread power disasters.
“Once is one too many, when you talk about the people and the families that have been impacted by this,” she said.
A state lawmaker fighting to give her child and other young Texas a better future.