The true story of Jose Hernandez is amazing.
As a child, Hernandez was a migrant farm worker, working in the fields of California alongside his Mexican parents and siblings. That hard work fueled his big dreams of becoming an astronaut. And he never gave up on his dreams, even though NASA turned him down nearly a dozen times.
Now, his inspirational journey from rejection to acceptance has become a feature film called “A Million Miles Away.”
Hernandez shared his inspiration for outer space travel with CBN News’ Studio 5.
He said, “The stars always fascinated me. When I was a kid, Star Trek, the first series on the air, was coming on with Captain Kirk. Then when we would go out in the field, we would go away from the light pollution of the city. It was still dark and man, you could see the constellations up above.”
“When I was 10 years old, I saw the last Apollo mission, Apollo 17, Gene Cernan walking on the moon, on black and white TV. That’s when I had this idea. I thought, ‘I want to be like that guy. I want to go to outer space.’ I told my father, and my father did something incredible. He only had a third-grade education, but he had the wisdom to give me the strength to believe in it because he told me, ‘I think you can do this.’ At 10 years old, I never looked back. As I grew up, I only grew in perseverance,” he added.
Hernandez described his personal path of perseverance.
“I always tell people that when you choose something, make sure you enjoy the journey because it takes 80 to 90% of your effort. So I was enjoying that journey,” he told CBN News.
Faith also played a major role in Hernandez’s life.
“A lot of people always argue with me and say, ‘Isn’t it a contradiction in life, science and religion?’ And I say no. Quite the opposite. Science explains how things work. Religion explains why things happen. Not how things happen, but why they happen. And so it fills you up spiritually as to why things happen. So, I think they go together,” he told CBN News.
Now many people are enjoying watching his story on the big and small screen.
He said, “It’s like I have opened the door of my house to the common people and now they are all looking at me. I think it’s good in the sense that I want people to see my story and understand where I come from, so that they can be able to say that if they had such a bad situation and they were able to do all this, then why can’t I achieve my goals.”
As a devoted father of five children, he is building a legacy they can emulate.
He added, “My oldest son graduated four weeks ago with a PhD in aerospace engineering from Purdue. I asked him why Purdue? He said, ‘Do you know Purdue produces the most astronauts?’ That’s how he told me he wanted to be an astronaut.”
Jose has since returned to the farm to work with his father in their family-owned vineyard, while supporting his son’s space dreams.
,a million miles away” is streaming on the Amazon Prime platform.
