‘Originators from the very start’: Mary Helen and Dr. Hector Gonzalez, 2025 NHI Persons of the Year

Thirty years ago, a young man from San Antonio, Texas, learned of a National Hispanic Institute summer leadership program, and signed up for it. But as his mother recalls, the night before the program was to start, he expressed he didn’t want to go after all. 

“We told him, ‘Well, I’m sorry, but like any other Latino family, we’re committed, and you’re going,” she said. 

Indeed, Analco González attended the Lorenzo de Zavala Youth Legislative Session that summer of 1995, and it changed his life. By the next week, he had assembled five other students who wanted to help spread the word about NHI throughout San Antonio, and asked his parents to serve as the first adult leaders for what would become NHI at San Antonio (NHI@SA). 

And thus, Analco’s initial NHI journey also changed his parents’ lives. 

Now starting their fourth decade affiliated with NHI, Mary Helen and Dr. Hector González have been the leading force in the organization’s growth and development in San Antonio and South Texas. Primarily working to build up San Antonio into one of NHI’s most consistently engaged regions, they’ve also been MVPs in supporting NHI founder and president Ernesto Nieto.

“They are originators from the very start,” Nieto noted. “They’ve been loyal to the organization almost as long as the organization has existed.”  

Because of that work, Mary Helen and Dr. Hector González are NHI’s 2025 Persons of the Year – the first time NHI has honored a couple in 10 awards given, going back to Humberto Saenz, Jr. being selected in February 2017 for 2016, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – then a challenger for a Congressional seat, six months away from her historic 2018 primary victory — kicking off the tradition of announcing the winner via NHIMagazine.com five minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve. 

The ‘aha moment’

As Mary Helen recalls, on the way home from Analco’s LDZ experience, “He kept talking about …all the platicas we used to have, everything we spoke in terms of community, because we’d been involved in the community in various activities. All of a sudden, it made sense to him. He had that ‘aha moment.’” 

“We went ahead and agreed to participate and went by what those 6 students told us our role would be referring us to talk to Ernesto Nieto,” Mary Helen said of the early days of the San Antonio project. “After speaking to him and [NHI co-founder] Gloria de Leon, we were invited to participate in NHI program,” learning about the Community Leadership Council, a forerunner to today’s project administrator-led NHI Alliances engaging parents in different NHI cities. 

Hector notes that he and Mary Helen incorporated the group to help create a formal structure, without losing sight of how important it was to allow students within the program to take on leadership responsibilities. 

“From Analco coming back and telling us they needed guidance from adults to create an organization to make all students aware of NHI, we never lost the focus that this is youth-run, student-run at different levels,” she said. “And I think that’s the beauty of NHI, that you have freshmen coming in, being guided by sophomores, juniors, seniors and college students … participating and continuing the guidance at the different levels.”  

The growth of NHI@SA has been impressive, considering that San Antonio’s first-ever Texas Great Debate team was just seven students, whereas in recent years, they routinely send a total of 75 to 100 students to four-day Great Debate tournaments comprising three teams, and in 2025, had 200 students from NHI@SA participate in summer leadership programs.

Recruiting has been a continual quest for the couple, but the sheer number of San Antonio students at programs reflects the work they did from the outset. 

“We bought a fax machine, brought it to our home, and we would fax to over 100 high schools,” Hector recalled, noting that the sheer number comes from San Antonio having 16 school districts plus private and charter schools. “It required research to understand how each school district allows for outside organizations to recruit as  it was important to ensure that every high school had the information.” 

He also claims that when Analco learned of the program while at Health Careers High School, it was through a chance visit to his counselor – seeing an NHI flyer that had been discarded in a trash can at the side of the desk. 

“We didn’t want a student to go through what Analco did,” Hector said, determined to build relationships with high schools and universities throughout the metro area to create a network of people who believed in NHI’s mission. 

Most recently, Hector, working with Anita Fernandez and then NHI Executive Vice President Nicole Nieto, rekindled NHI’s relationship with Trinity University, which became the new home of the storied Texas LDZ program in 2025. With St. Mary’s University hosting the Texas Ambassador Great Debate to continue its summer program history, and with Our Lady of the Lake University hosting the Texas Star Great Debate, three of NHI’s 11 summer programs take place in San Antonio. 

And they haven’t limited their engagement to San Antonio. When work took him to Laredo in 2010, Hector involved himself in growing NHI in that border city while continuing to grow NHI@SA. 

Protecting culture, legacy, and tradition

Fernandez, the 2023 NHI Person of the Year, who has also been instrumental in NHI@SA’s growth, praises and thanks Hector and Mary Helen for their leadership. 

“NHI at San Antonio wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for them,” she stated. “They have never shied away from stepping up to be either the catalyst or the beginning or open a door so that opportunities can exist and can continue to exist.” 

She also recognized the work they’ve done across communities in the United States and Mexico. Hector has been a national leader in epidemiology and community health, and Mary Helen has been a visionary, co-founder, and executive of one of the state’s largest community health plans, with the two of them also collaborating for a time, running a rural clinic. 

In talking about their leadership style, and how it’s influenced NHI@SA, she points to two NHI Fundamentals: Proceed Only On Faith and Treat People Like Family. 

“Protecting culture, legacy, and tradition is also something that’s really unique to us here,” she added. “That was what hooked me when I first got involved, not necessarily the public speaking or … being able to hone skills. Those are all things that are important, but for me, it was about that connection to our history, that connection to current events, and the connection to being a direct part of something that would create the future of our community in San Antonio, Bexar County, and across the world. Dr. and Mrs. Gonzalez set that tone and created that environment from day one.” 

She and Analco, along with Analco’s two siblings, Luis and Ixchell, and two other NHIers, Olivia Travieso and José Alberto Vidal – all heavily involved in NHI@SA throughout the years – formed OCI Group, a San Antonio-based social purpose consulting group, in 2009. That allowed them to channel what they learned from NHI, and from Hector and Mary Helen in particular, into their professional lives – with the couple still serving as advisors to the firm. 

Though they’ve moved on from key administrative roles within NHI@SA, OCI Group members remain involved, often behind the scenes, to enable the latest generation of NHIers to have life-changing experiences. 

“Through their work as leaders, mentors, advisors, and familia, the González family has touched the lives of thousands of young people across the world,” Fernandez said.

“Had we not gone through NHI and not had the opportunity to be involved locally through the foundation that they created … we wouldn’t have a company,” she added. “We wouldn’t have lifelong friendships, and we most certainly would not have the next generation of leaders for our community. For that, I, along with countless others, will be forever grateful.” 

Readying the next leaders

Though the couple remains involved in NHI@SA, they remind those involved that they’ll someday be passing the torch on.

Yet, for now, they continued their tireless work, which of late has included outreach to city and county officials to secure grant money supporting nuts-and-bolts needs, like renting the bus to get San Antonio students up to Austin College in north Texas for the annual Texas Great Debate. 

They also provide students with guidance on tuition support, approaching people from the perspective that this is an investment. Hector says it can be as simple as an “ask your uncles” approach, but as both of them underscore, it’s really about harnessing the power of community, small donation by small donation, persuading them to invest in that community’s future leaders. 

But they also admit to some moments of generosity to help promising students who need it, including gifting one Stanford University-bound student luggage to help her embark on her college journey. 

Now married 53 years — with Mary Helen now 73 and Hector now 72 — they remain energized by the work they’re doing, in part because they get to see young people learn how to become leaders, and in part because they are woven so indelibly into the fabric of NHI. 

As Hector put it, “I still am a firm believer that NHI is a trustworthy organization, and one that believes in you as the future leaders of communities.”