MEET ME

I served for 20-years in the Marine Corps. My oath is to the Constitution.

I was born in El Paso, Texas and joined the United States Marine Corps during Vietnam. I met my wife Roselea, who was a Marine from Arkansas, while serving. We had three girls while in California. My duty took me to Washington, D.C., and I retired from the Marines after 20-years. I worked in Oklahoma and Missouri before we settled in Rogers, Arkansas in1989. I received my BS degree in Education from the University of Arkansas. My work was focused in education, advertising and health care.

My involvement with area non-profit organizations gave me an up close look at the condition of working people in the state. It prompted me to run for the local school board. I also served as a Justice of the Peace for the county before seeking other elective office. My choice to run for state representative grew out of an abundance of concern for how little the state government was doing to improve the lives of hard working Arkansans.

A proud child of Mexican immigrants, Rey comes from parents who taught him the importance of tenacity, faith, family, and reverence for his roots. Rey’s mother, through hard work in sewing, hair, and laundry, bought a home in El Paso, raising Rey and his four brothers.

Rey values honest work and helping others. Watching his mom earn citizenship in her 50s and join LULAC to advocate for Latino rights inspired Rey to engage in early public service. He fondly recalls painting signs for Paul Moreno, a disabled veteran who became one of Texas’s longest-serving state legislators.

A former Marine, cattle rancher, and public servant, Rey isn’t afraid of a fight and understands the importance of working hard for the things that matter. In Little Rock, Rey will work nonstop to forge new opportunities for education access, drive higher wages in the workforce, and ensure that every community, regardless of race or background, has access to the vital healthcare they need and deserve.

In 1969, at 17, Rey enlisted in the Marines, meeting his wife, a native of Arkansas. Once they’d completed their service, they moved back as they found it the perfect place to raise a family. In 1990 they purchased a cattle ranch in northwest Arkansas. Rey started serving as a volunteer member of the Chamber of Commerce. He still values the knowledge and relationships he forged with northwest Arkansas’ business community during that time.

Rey’s sense of duty to others continued in the non-profit space. He headed-up The Multicultural Forum, bringing community leaders together to help the rapidly growing Hispanic population settle and thrive in Arkansas.

Rey understands the need for authentic representation that will put the people of District 11 first and open new doors in Little Rock to deliver health, wealth, and education back to northwest Arkansas.

Rey, realizing the importance of higher education for the Latinx community’s success, joined a local LULAC council in 2001. As State Director in recent years, he oversaw more than one million dollars in scholarship contributions for Arkansas from councils in Little Rock and Rogers.

Rey’s efforts in promoting diversity and inclusion at University of Arkansas—where he also earned a Human Resources Development degree—led to his appointment to the Benton County Quorum Court by Governor Mike Beebe as the first Latino Justice of the Peace in Benton County.

Motivated to advocate for his community, Rey ran again after becoming eligible. Despite not winning, the experience ignited a passion that drove him to run for County Assessor and, more recently, Arkansas State Representative for District 11.

Rey knows that this race for District 11 is winnable and his victory can bring about meaningful change and opportunity for the Latinx community and all residents of the district. For too long the Latinx population has been underserved and overlooked by the Republican majority in Little Rock. When elected, Rey will once again break barriers as the first-ever Latino State Representative in Arkansas.

This election is our moment to turn out in numbers so large the Republicans can no longer drown us out. It is time for a rancher, military veteran, educator, health worker, and family man, someone who understands the need for authentic representation putting us, the people of District 11 first. It’s time for Rey.

Better health, education and insurance, lowers medical costs for all of us.