CNN –
More than a decade after becoming the first former migrant worker to fly into space as a NASA astronaut, José Hernández reached another milestone this month.
The film about his remarkable journey from the fields of California to the International Space Station debuted as the most popular movie streaming on Amazon Prime and has received praise from critics and audiences since its release on September 15th.
Actor Michael Peña plays Hernández in “A Million Miles Away,” which tells the story of a boy who grew up picking cucumbers and cherries but kept his eyes on the stars.
Hernández, an engineer, made history in 2009 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, the first shuttle mission to send two Latin American astronauts into space.
“Who better to leave this planet and plunge into the unknown than a migrant farm worker?” Hernández says in the film, quoting his cousin at a press conference as he prepares to fly on this mission.
Hernández’s story made headlines from the moment NASA selected him for its 2004 astronaut class. And he and his family members have spoken to CNN and CNN affiliates many times over the years, from the days of his first space flight to the highly anticipated release of the film. Here’s a look at what we learned.
Hernández grew up for years in a family of migrant workers who followed the crops from California and Mexico. His parents were originally from the Mexican state of Michoacán. Hernández was born in California.
“While others were looking forward to summer vacation, I hated it,” Hernández told CNN in 2016. “Summer vacation meant working in the fields seven days a week.”
Daniel Daza/Prime
“A Million Miles Away” shows Hernández helping his family pick fruits and vegetables and the frustrations he felt at the time.
In a 2009 interview with CNN, his father, Salvador Hernández, described the conversations he had with his children after they finished a hard day of work.
“I would put her in the back seat of the car. They were all very dusty. I would tell them that they better start taking school seriously because if they don’t, they will have to work in the fields all the time. … This will be their future.”
It is a scene that viewers of the film will recognize and is portrayed almost verbatim by actor Julio César Cedillo.
Hernández says his dream of becoming an astronaut began after he watched the Apollo 17 moon landing in 1972 and held up the rabbit-ear antenna to get reception on his family’s black-and-white television. In sharing his dream, Hernández said his father gave him important advice.
“He had the wisdom to sit me in the kitchen and give me a recipe with five ingredients,” Hernández told CNN en Español in 2020.
In the film, director Alejandra Márquez Abella uses these five ingredients as chapters in her retelling of Hernández’s story:
• Find your goal
• Know how far along you are
• Draw a roadmap
• If you don’t know how, learn
• If you think you’ve made it, you’ll probably have to work harder
With these steps in mind, Hernández did everything he could to further his education. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering and then worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for 15 years.
But his goal of becoming a NASA astronaut remained unattainable.
The film chronicles Hernández’s persistence as the space agency rejected Hernández’s astronaut applications eleven times before selecting him for the program in 2004. And it shows what a crucial role Hernández’s family played in supporting him.
In the film, actress Rosa Salazar portrays Hernández’s wife Adela with emotional determination as someone who holds his husband accountable while urging him not to give up.
Daniel Daza/Prime
In “A Million Miles Away,” Michael Peña and Rosa Salazar portray Hernández and his wife Adela and show how their relationship played an important role in helping him achieve his dreams.
In a 2016 interview with CNN, Hernández described how important Adela was in his journey.
“The sixth year NASA rejected me, I crumpled up the rejection letter and threw it on the bedroom floor. I wanted to stop trying, but she talked me out of it,” Hernandez said.
His wife’s words: “Let NASA be the one to disqualify you. Don’t disqualify yourself.”
The couple’s determination paid off when, against all odds, Hernández became an astronaut.
“I was 41 when I became an astronaut,” Hernández said. “The average age of new astronauts is 34 years old.”
In an interview with Televisa after his return from space, Hernández made a comment that was controversial at the time He hoped the Obama administration would pass comprehensive immigration reform, the Mexican television station said. He noted that there were no limits when looking at the Earth from space.
His comments led NASA to take its own stand. In a statement released to the media, NASA said Hernández’s opinions were his own and did not reflect the opinion of the space agency. The statement added that Hernández has every right to express his personal views.
NASA/Portal
This photo from NASA from 2009 shows Hernández working aboard the International Space Station.
Hernández has reiterated his original stance over the years.
“When I went to the window and showed Superman as best I could as we hovered over North America, I could see Canada, the United States and Mexico. What I found so beautiful was that you couldn’t tell where Canada ended and the United States began, or where the United States ended and Mexico began,” Hernández told CNN en Español in 2020.
“That is, from my perspective from below, we were all one. How sad that humans invented the concept of borders to divide us.”
In a recent interview with CNN en Español, he said he hopes officials will create a more welcoming environment for migrants in the future.
“I would demand more, that they be more tolerant and improve the environment for our migrants,” he said. “Because everything in our country right now is anti-immigrant.”
Hernández recently spoke to CNN en Español about what it was like to see his life made into a film.
The former astronaut makes an on-screen cameo in which he helps Peña get dressed while flying into space. But he said his role in the film goes far beyond that appearance.
Steve Ueckert/Houston Chronicle/AP
Hernández talks about his upcoming space shuttle flight in a 2008 interview.
“I was involved in the process because Alejandra took the time to get to know our family. When she wrote the script, she sent it to me and I gave her comments,” Hernández said. “Some were included, others could not be included due to time constraints. It’s hard to pack a whole life into two hours, right? So sometimes it wasn’t included. But she did a great job putting the story together and bringing it to the screen.”
The film is based on Hernández’s 2012 memoir, “Reaching for the Stars: The Inspiring Story of a Migrant Farmworker Who Became an Astronaut.” Hernández hopes the film adaptation of the story will reach an even larger audience.
“It’s a great opportunity to motivate those who see the film to really maximize their potential and achieve every dream they have,” he told CNN en Español.
In 2009, shortly after returning from space, Hernández told CNN en Español that fame had not changed him.
“I’m still the same person. The family keeps you firmly grounded,” he said. “I continue to be a father and husband and take out the trash every Thursday. I have tasks at home that I need to do.”
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Space shuttle Discovery crew members, Mission Specialists Nicole Stott, Christer Fuglesang, Jose Hernandez and Patrick Forrester, along with Pilot Kevin Ford, as they prepare to head to the launch pad from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, August 28, 2009.
These days, when he’s not doing those tasks, promoting the new movie, working as an aerospace engineering consultant, or telling his story as a motivational speaker, the 61-year-old sometimes finds himself back in the fields, working alongside his father.
“I started working in agriculture, and here I am working in agriculture, although now under different conditions, on my own terms, and I really, really enjoy it,” Hernández said in a recent interview with CNN -Subsidiary KCRA.
This time they are working in California at a winery they jointly own.
On its website, Tierra Luna Cellars is described as the “next big dream” for Hernández, with a line of wines inspired by the constellations he saw from space.
CNN en Español’s Eduardo Serralde and CNN’s Octavio Blanco contributed to this report.