“The Boy Who Reached the Stars” Visits UTRGV

Distinguished Speaker Series: Jose Hernandez

Jose Moreno Hernandez, engineer and former NASA astronaut, visited the UTRGV Edinburg campus on Tuesday. The visit was part of the Distinguished Speaker Series sponsored by Student Activities.

A packed UTRGV Performing Arts Complex welcomed Hernandez to the Rio Grande Valley. Hundreds of people were turned away as the auditorium reached maximum capacity. 

Stephen Hirst, UTRGV associate vice president for Strategic Enrollment and Student Affairs, welcomed the audience and gave an introduction about the Distinguished Speaker Series.

“Our journey is now in its 20th anniversary, a milestone,” Hirst said. “… Throughout [the series’] history, we have welcomed Nobel Laureates, world leaders, authors, poets, inventors, former presidents and renowned scientists. … We know that our students will learn so much from [Jose Hernandez’s] story.”

The former NASA astronaut said he leads motivational talks throughout the country, with the purpose of empowering the next generation of Hispanic professionals as he was inspired by Eugene Cernan’s Apollo 17 mission at 10 years old.

“It’s too bad these seats don’t have seatbelts because I am going to take you for a ride,” he said to launch the talk. 

Hernandez was born in 1962 in Northern California to a family of Michoacán-native seasonal farm workers. His family traveled throughout the state working on crops for nine months a year and returned every Christmas to Mexico.

His parents, with only third-grade education, motivated Hernandez and his three siblings to pursue a higher education and achieve their dreams. After the 10-year-old shared his aspirations of becoming an astronaut, his father validated the ambition and shared his five-ingredient recipe for success: Define your goal, recognize how far you are from it, create a roadmap to get there, education is key and develop a strong work ethic.

“I’m not here to tell people, ‘Hey, look how great I am. Look at me,’” Hernandez said. “No, I am here to tell my story and to say, ‘You’re no different than I am. I was able to do it and this is how I did it.’ … I’m giving you the strategy. The only thing you’re missing and you probably have is ‘las ganas.’ You get that and you put everything else together and … you’ll reach for your own stars, whatever they may be.”

Hernandez began his journey toward space with his father’s recipe. He graduated as an electrical engineer from the University of the Pacific. Then, he pursued a master’s degree in engineering with a full scholarship from the University of California Santa Barbara.

His first job was at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in which he worked on an x-ray laser for military defense.

After the Soviet Union fell, his work was redirected to medical research. He said his proudest accomplishment is not becoming an astronaut but co-developing the first full-field digital mammography imaging system for early detection of breast cancer.

Meanwhile, Hernandez applied to NASA’s Astronaut Selection Program. He was rejected 11 times before being accepted to the 19th class of NASA astronauts. After the sixth rejection, Hernandez said he was about to give up, but his wife, Adelita, “pushed the right buttons.”

“She looked at me and said, ‘So you’re a quitter,’” Hernandez said. “I said, ‘No manches, obviously NASA doesn’t want me.’ She looked at me and said, ‘I agree NASA doesn’t want you this time. I agree NASA doesn’t want you the other five previous times. … You don’t know if they want you the seventh, eighth, ninth or 10th time. I do know this. If you don’t apply, you are not gonna get selected.’” 

Hernandez’s 14-year-journey to space added a sixth ingredient to his father’s recipe for success: “Persevere. Never give up!” 

After his time at NASA, Hernandez co-founded Tierra Luna Engineering, a successful aerospace consulting agency; published three books and is working on a fourth; inspired the creation of “A Million Miles Away,” an Amazon Prime Video production; and said he has now come full circle with Tierra Luna Winery, a project in which he harvests his own grapes. 

“I want to see [people] see me as an example of what they can do themselves,” Hernandez said. “I am no superhuman or Einstein; I am just a hard worker. It’s the good old farm work that has made me successful—the work ethic my parents instilled in me.”

Criminal justice junior Lluvia Esparza said the talk motivated her to continue following her dreams and more than what she has in mind.

“Don’t quit college,” Esparza said. “Sacrificing everything [my parents] did is a no for me. That really … me prendió el foco.”