Mexican American Astronaut Jose Hernandez
Jose Hernandez is an Mexican American astronaut; born of immigrant farm worker parents. He has just returned from outer space. He was the first Mexican American in space, and is a beloved figure in Mexico. Upon his return from space, he became a vocal campaigner for amnesty for illegal immigrants.
This is from BUSINESS WEEK.
There are only 100 active astronauts working for NASA today, and Hernandez is one of the chosen few. Hernandez, 44, comes from a poor family in Stockton, Calif., where he was a farmworker in his youth. Brainy and ambitious, he went on to get his Masters in electrical engineering, and in 2004 was recruited by NASA to be a mission specialist.
The following is edited from an article in the Los Angeles Times on September 17, 2009. The italics are mine.
By Tracy Wilkinson
September 17, 2009
Hernandez was back this week on Mexican network Televisa’s popular morning chat show, where he has seemingly been a fixture, to update host Carlos Loret de Mola on how he was adapting to life back on Earth.
Loret de Mola asked Hernandez, 47, about the controversy, and the astronaut said he stood by what he had said earlier on the same program, advocating comprehensive immigration reform — a keenly divisive issue in the United States.
“I work for the U.S. government, but as an individual I have a right to my personal opinions,” he said in a video hookup from a Mexican restaurant owned by his wife, Adela, near NASA headquarters in Houston. “Having 12 million undocumented people here means there’s something wrong with the system, and the system needs to be fixed.”
He added that it seemed impractical to try to deport 12 million people. In the earlier conversation, he spoke of circling the globe in 90 minutes and marveling at a world without borders.
Hernandez, whose first language was Spanish, grew up picking cucumbers and tomatoes in the fields of California’s San Joaquin Valley. His parents, Salvador and Julia, had migrated from Mexico to Northern California in the 1950s in search of work. They eventually became U.S. citizens and raised four children, including Jose, the youngest.
As a kid, Hernandez continued to visit his parents’ home state of Michoacan (his cousins and aunts and uncles have been featured repeatedly in interviews in the Mexican media) and lived what he has called the typical life of a migrant worker, moving constantly with his family to follow the crops.
TV host Loret de Mola said viewers were flooding him with one question above all: How does a humble son of peasant immigrants manage to become an astronaut?
Hernandez, a father of five, cited two crucial factors: a good education and parents who forced him to study, who checked his homework and stayed involved in his schooling.
So we have a humble Mexican farmworker, son of farmworkers, who obtains his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering, and becomes an ASTRONAUT. Bedazzled Mexican parents want to know how one of their own becomes an astronaut and he replies, study hard and stop watching TV.
Let me submit a more seminal reason for the rise of a humble farm worker to the stars; he learned ENGLISH. We have a Mexican farm worker, who, if he had stayed in Mexico would still be a farm worker. He came to America and worked hard; I have been to Mexico; there are no lazy Mexicans. They all work hard.
He had a better education here, but why? Why is the education in America , by definition, better, than an education in Mexico? The teachers? no; the modern facilities? I have been to Stockton, the answer for that is NO,….the difference is the language of instruction. What turns Mexican farm workers into brilliant engineers is ENGLISH.
Spanish has a basic flaw, it cannot convey modernity; it cannot convey scientific knowledge; it cannot convey detailed information; it cannot convey precision. We can keep it around for the Literature of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a novelty language, like Latin or Aramaic. But if mankind is to reach for the stars, and still feed the people left on Earth, it has to go.
Since 1901, and as of July, 2008, 789 individuals have been awarded Nobel Prizes.
For the purpose of this blog, I will subtract the subjective awards.LITERATURE, PEACE, ECONOMICS, where feelings and intuition count. Spanish is good for that, like Latin and Aramaic.
Out of the 789 figure, we subtract the 105 NOBEL PRIZES for Literature,
Then we subtract 93 individuals awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Then minus the 62 awards for Economics
Leaving
529 individuals awarded Nobel Prizes for
MEDICINE
CHEMISTRY
and PHYSICS.
Out of 529 Prizes awarded for the Sciences,
7 have been won by Spanish speaking scientists since 1901.
That is 1.3%.
Argentina
- César Milstein, Physiology or Medicine, 1984
- Luis Federico Leloir, Chemistry, 1970
- Bernardo Houssay, Physiology or Medicine, 1947
Mexico
- Mario J. Molina*, Chemistry, 1995
Spain
- Severo Ochoa*, Physiology or Medicine, 1959
- Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Physiology or Medicine, 1906
Venezuela
- Baruj Benacerraf*, Physiology or Medicine, 1980
So you are telling me that Spanish speaking peoples have 1.3% of the scientific brain power on this earth? I don’t think Jose Hernandez would agree with that.
Spanish causes under achievement in science.
It should be abandoned.
Why should either Mexicans or Mexican immigrants cling to Spanish?
Spanish is not even the Native language of Mexico; the native language of Mexico is Nahuatl, among others. I would rather see signs in East L.A. in Nahuatl than Spanish.
Mexicans hate everything about Hernan Cortes and the Spanish Conquest of their country. There are no statues of Cortes in Mexico, except on the mural at the National Palace, in which he is portrayed as a syphilitic killer. The Conquest decimated the Native Americans, introduced disease, the rape of their women, the murder and enslavement of their warriors, the dismantlement of their religion.
Mexicans hate everything about the Conquest, and Cortes, except his LANGUAGE?
The advice Mr. Hernandez should have given the parents of Mexican children, both in Mexico and America is LEARN ENGLISH.
Mr. Hernandez wants open borders between Mexico and the United States. I am for that, if everyone in Mexico learns English. Abandon Spanish, the language of Cortes, for English, the language of Lincoln, and your children will also touch the stars.
This blog’s congratulation is forthcoming to Mr. Hernandez for his courage, achievements and altruism.
SALUD
JOSE HERNANDEZ
Tags: Amnesty, ARAMAIC, Argentina, Baruj Benacerraf, Bernardo Houssay, Cesar Milstein, ENGLISH, GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ, HERNAN CORTES, Illegal Immigration, Jose Hernandez, Latin, Loret de Mola, Luis Federico Leloir, Mario J. Molina, Mexico, Nahuatl, NASA, National Palace, NOBEL PRIZES, San Joaquin Valley, Santiago Ramon y Cajal, Severo Ochoa, Spain, SPANISH, Stockton, United States, VENEZUELA