Rafael Hernández Colón (born 1936), Puerto Rican political leader and twice-elected governor, was one of the foremost defenders of commonwealth status for his country.

Rafael Hernández Colón was born on October 24, 1936, in Ponce, Puerto Rico, the son of Rafael Hernández Matos, a lawyer who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, and Dorinda Colón Clavell. After receiving his elementary education at private schools in Ponce he attended high school at Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1953. He then entered Johns Hopkins University, from which he graduated with honors in 1956 with a B.A. degree in political science.

Upon returning to Puerto Rico he studied law at the University of Puerto Rico; where he received his law degree in 1959, graduating magna cum laude and as valedictorian of his class. That...