A ‘Forrest Gump’ Life

Ask Cisco Aguilar ’00 ’04 to name his political hero, and he points to his grandfather, Frank Verdugo, who gave his life fighting for the rights of Latino miners in the Arizona towns of Hayden and Winkelman. A union leader, Verdugo became a local hero after his vehicle plunged from a bridge following a negotiation. 

“He died for what he believed,” Aguilar says. “And he fought for what he believed.” 

In 2023, Aguilar — a graduate of Tucson’s University High School who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration and a juris doctor from the University of Arizona — became Nevada’s secretary of state. The state’s first Latino to hold the office, Aguilar has lived in Nevada since 2004. 

He likens his unexpected career path to Forrest Gump’s famous line: “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get.” Aguilar has worked alongside tennis legends Stefanie Graf and Andre Agassi as general counsel for their management company and foundation, chaired the Nevada Athletic Commission, and spent a year in Germany with Adidas through a Robert Bosch Foundation fellowship. 

Central to Aguilar’s work is the idea of “community rent” — the responsibility to give back. He spent 18 years on the board of Tucson’s Marshall Foundation and has focused much of his service on expanding educational opportunity, including helping found Las Vegas’ Cristo Rey St. Viator College Preparatory High School, where most students are Latino. 

Aguilar says Nevada owes much to Latino workers, whose voices he works to elevate. Wherever his journey leads next, he carries a lesson learned in Tucson: “When things are tough, it’s time to Bear Down.”