a million miles away on Amazon Prime tells the story of José Hernández’s rise from the farm fields of California to outer space. José’s dreams of becoming an astronaut were born when he was ten years old. NASA rejected José’s request to join the space program 11 times. However, on his twelfth attempt he succeeded.
José and his wife, Adela Hernández, united by their heritage, values and shared dreams
José and Adela met courtesy of his sister, Leticia, who frequented the Macy’s department store where Adela worked. [Leticia] “He kept mentioning his brother,” Adela said. Recordnet.com. “It took her a year to convince us to come out.”
Adela and José had a lot in common. Both were descendants of Latino farm workers who emigrated from the Mexican state of Michoacán. They both learned English as preteens and helped their families work on farms. “I started working in the fields when I was 14 during the summer holidays, sorting tomatoes and working in a packing shed,” Adela said.
Adela studied at San Joaquin Delta College and dreamed of owning a restaurant. José worked as an engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. As shown in the film, Adela laughed when José told her that she wanted to become an astronaut.
“She did it in a very loving way,” said Hernández. USA Today about Adela’s reaction. “She didn’t expect me to give her that answer and I did, and then we never talked about it again until later in life when we got married.”
José and Adela’s courtship was slightly hindered by their father’s rules. “I couldn’t say, ‘Oh, let’s go out to dinner at a restaurant.’ No, if he was going to see her, she had to court him there at her house and her father had to be present,” José explained.
Anyway, the couple’s relationship progressed. They married on May 30, 1992 in Lodi, California.
José, Adela and their five children moved to Lodi, California, after he retired from NASA in 2011.
José and Adela had five children: Julio, Karina, Vanessa, Yesenia and Antonio. In a 2009 interview with Recordnet.com, Adela described José as a loving father. “All the children are very close to their father,” Adela said. “José can spend a whole day with the children. He takes the girls to the mall. “They are still daddy’s little girls.”
“We always say that family comes first. We just try to stay very united,” Adela added. At the time, Adela was running a restaurant near the Johnson Space Center called Tierra Luna Grill. Her restaurant was frequented by astronauts and NASA engineers.
As José’s long-awaited trip to space approached, Adela struggled to stay calm. She explained: “It’s very difficult to express what you feel. I’m trying to prepare myself mentally. “I know that hopefully everything will be okay and he will have a safe trip.”
Both Adela and José achieved the dreams they had when they started dating: José was an astronaut with a successful space mission under his belt and Adela ran a successful restaurant. After José retired in 2011, Adela closed Tierra Luna Grill. The couple left the Johnson Space Center and returned to their homeland of California.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn