MEET JOHNATHAN RYAN HERNANDEZ
Johnathan is a lifelong resident of Santa Ana, born and raised in the Artesia Pilar neighborhood. As a grandson of Mexican immigrants who came to the United States in the late 1950s, Johnathan was raised by a hard working single mom and his grandparents. His grandfather, Enrique, was an upstanding member of the Laborers International Union Local 652 for over 43 years. Johnathan is proud that his humble upbringing allowed him to learn the importance of resilience, determination, and compassion for others.
A product of Santa Ana Unified School District, Johnathan attended Fremont Elementary, Spurgeon Intermediate, and Santa Ana High School. At 23, Johnathan founded a community non-profit that aims to use arts, education, boxing, and advocacy as a social change model to disrupt the system of mass incarceration. He has devoted his career to serving our community, including roles in organized labor and as a Community Health Worker, where he supported families and children in foster care by connecting them to resources and promoting community-based treatment services. Before working with children, he worked in the field of Re-Entry and Gang Prevention, where he served youth ages 13-24 all throughout Orange County and in the City of Watts. Johnathan believes that people deserve a second chance and takes pride in helping others re-write their story.
Johnathan understands that Santa Ana is a diverse community with rich cultural history. Most notably, he has made great efforts in bringing the Black and Brown communities together to have a unified message of peace and hope.
As Councilman, he worked with the Black community to create a Juneteenth Festival, collaborated with Latinx leaders to establish the Chicano Heritage Festival, and also supported the work of Chinese leaders from Santa Ana to ensure that the city apologized for its role in burning Santa Ana's Chinatown over a century ago. He has also used his voice on the dais at city hall to advocate for Indigenous Peoples’ Day and Native American Heritage Month. He is committed to standing up for the formerly incarcerated and advocating for more infrastructure to keep children away from the prison system. He believes that investment in education, childcare, funding for the arts, job training, and ensuring our parks are clean and well funded, creates communities where residents have access to opportunity.
Johnathan is passionate about investing in our youth and funding that supports community spaces, Early Childhood Education programs, sports, and the arts. Growing up, Johnathan boxed and trained in mixed martial arts, and has over 10 years of training in MMA under his belt. Johnathan advocated for MMA fighters with the Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Association. His advocacy included fighting for the Muhammad Ali Act to be amended from the sport of Boxing to the sport of MMA.
Johnathan is a proud single father to his 15-year old daughter, Evoni, who is a talented multi-disciplinary artist and recently had the honor of working with world-renowned Santa Ana raised "La Artista" Marina Aguilera on the El Salvador Park Mural.
Johnathan has a strong appreciation for the arts and music as a listener of hip-hop, oldies, souldies, funk and jazz, and as a musician with experience playing the guitar, piano, and bass. He lives with his family in the Artesia Pilar neighborhood where he humbly grew up as one of us.
