Mantecan’s been farmworker, astronaut, congressional candidate. Movie will tell his story
Jose Hernandez first imagined himself flying into space when he was 10 years old and picking crops in the San Joaquin Valley.
His dream came true 37 years later, when he lifted off on Space Shuttle Discovery for a 15-day mission.
Hollywood has latched on to this underdog story, with a film set for a 2023 release on Amazon Prime Video. Michael Peña will play the adult Hernandez in “A Million Miles Away,” based on the astronaut’s autobiography.
“The message there is that it’s OK to dream big as long as you’re willing to work hard and convert that dream into reality,” Hernandez said in a Sept. 5 interview with The Modesto Bee.
Hernandez, 60, lives in Manteca and works as an aerospace consultant in Stockton. He did the interview during harvest at the vineyard he purchased north of Lodi in 2017.
The movie started shooting in late August in Mexico, which Hernandez visited often on childhood trips to his parents’ hometown. Other sites will re-create the family’s annual migration for farm work around the Valley, and NASA centers in Houston and Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The producer is Mark Ciardi, whose work includes “McFarland, USA,” the true story of a high school cross-country team in Kern County. He also made the sports-themed “Secretariat,” “Million Dollar Arm” and “The Rookie,” among others films.
Ciardi talked about the Hernandez project in a Sept. 7 phone interview from Mexico City.
“It’s every little kid’s dream, and Jose had it,” he said. “He had certainly a higher mountain to climb than most others.”
Ciardi declined to disclose what he paid for the rights to Hernandez’s book, “Reaching for the Stars,” or the film’s total budget.
Not Peña’s first astronaut
Peña already has portrayed an astronaut, part of the fictional crew that left Matt Damon behind in the “The Martian.” The young Hernandez will be played by Juan Pablo Monterrubio, a child actor based in Mexico City.
Rosa Salazar, star of “Alita: Battle Angel,” was cast as Hernandez’s wife, Adela. They have five children, all of them born by the time their dad was chosen for astronaut training in 2004.
The director is Alejandra Marquez Abella, whose credits include “The Good Girls” and “Semana Santa.”
Hernandez said he has had inquiries over the years about filming his life story and decided on Ciardi because of his reputation for inspiring stories. He has consulted on the script to ensure the details are accurate, all the way from the Valley to outer space.
Ciardi noted Hernandez’s persistence in applying to the astronaut program. “He had 11 rejections before being admitted,” the producer said. “Amazing story, amazing life he’s had.”
Ciardi, by the way, had an earlier connection to the Valley. He spent six years as a minor-league pitcher, including a 1985 stint with the Stockton Ports.
Ciardi said “A Million Miles Away” does not yet have a release date but it could be in or around September 2023.
Raised in rough neighborhoods
Hernandez was born in French Camp in 1962 and spent most of his childhood in rough parts of nearby Stockton. His parents, Salvador and Julia, hailed from La Piedad in the state of Michoacán.
Hernandez recalled how his parents encouraged their four children to study hard on school days. They spent weekends and summers harvesting crops up and down the Valley — cherries, tomatoes, grapes, cucumbers, onions and more.
Jose could not speak English fluently until he was 12, but he could take in the world around him, and beyond. He said he caught the astronaut bug on a day in 1972, watching Apollo 17 crew member Eugene Cernan step onto the moon. A rabbit-ear antenna directed the broadcast to the family’s black-and-white TV.
Hernandez went on to graduate from Franklin High School in Stockton. He remained in town to earn a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of the Pacific. He later got a master’s in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
LIfesaving work in Livermore
Hernandez joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1987. While there, he helped develop a digital mammography system that helps with early detection of breast cancer.
Hernandez started applying to the astronaut program in 1992. NASA still wasn’t taking him, but it did hire him in 2001 as chief of the Materials and Processes Branch.
Hernandez’s eventual astronaut selection was followed by two years of training. He learned about weightlessness and general shuttle operations. He flew in a T-38 jet and practiced survival skills in case things went haywire on the spaceship.
Hernandez served as a mission specialist on Discovery’s seven-member crew, in charge of installing and maintaining computer systems. The ship delivered equipment, supplies and scientific experiments to the International Space Station, 254 miles from Earth.
Two moments stand out in Hernandez’s memory of the mission. One was when the shuttle first orbited over North America and he could see no sign of the borders that divide its nations. The other was when the sun rose on his home planet at an angle that showed just how delicate is the atmosphere that makes life below possible.
“It’s scary thin,“ he said. “... That’s when I became an instant, card-carrying environmentalist.”
A run at Congress
Hernandez left NASA in 2011. The next year, he was the Democratic nominee in the 10th Congressional District, losing to Jeff Denham.
Hernandez is CEO at the consulting firm of Tierra Luna Engineering, which is Spanish for “Earth moon.” He advises clients on satellites and other topics in the booming field of private space flight. The firm also deals in renewable energy, manufacturing and a few other sectors.
The former astronaut promotes science education through his Reaching for the Stars Foundation, based in Stockton. Just last month, a charter school named for him opened in the same city, sponsored by El Concilio, an advocate for today’s farmworkers.
Hernandez grows Burger grapes on nearly 20 acres along Jahant Road. He sells most of the crop to Korbel Winery, which blends them into sparkling wine in Sonoma County.
He keeps some for his own wine label, which also uses grapes purchased from a few other growers. It’s named Tierra Luna Cellars, available online.
‘I’ve come full circle’
The onetime farmworker was among the supervisors as the 2022 harvest got rolling in early September. A labor contractor provided about 80 people for the task, which took three days.
The extreme heat prompted Hernandez to begin the picking around 3 a.m. This safeguarded both the health of the workers and the quality of the grapes. They labored for four hours with the aid of spotlights and flashlights.
No matter the hour, picking grapes by hand is strenuous. The workers cut each bunch off with a knife, dropped it into a tub, then emptied the full tub into a bin. The total weight determined the pay.
Labor contractor Jesus Toledo said a typical worker earned about $120 for the four-hour shift. Hernandez recalled getting about $50 for a full day as a child in the 1970s, most of which went to the household budget.
He said he enjoys being on a tractor at other times of the year — mowing, tilling and other tasks — as a break from his office work.
“There’s a saying, ‘You can take the kid out of the farm but you can’t take the farm out of the kid,’ ” he said. “I’ve come full circle.”
This story was originally published September 12, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
