José Hernández and his father, Salvador.
By Reynaldo Mena
Honoring Immigrant Culture and Aspiring Dreams
It’s not a complicated movie, nor does it pretend to be. It’s a plot that envelops us and captivates us from the very first images.
“A Million Miles Away,” the film that portrays the life of José Hernández, the first Latino astronaut and Mexican migrant on a journey to space, doesn’t invite controversy, unlike the recent “Flammin’ Hot,” produced by Eva Longoria, because it doesn’t aim for that. Instead, its sole purpose is to depict a very simple thing: that dreams can become a reality, and that migrants in the United States have no limits when they set their minds to it.
José Hernández enjoys talking to young students about his passion, the universe.
“A Million Miles Away” tells the story of the Hernández family, from their journeys in their homeland in Michoacán to the agricultural fields in California. The parents’ dream of saving up to buy a house in Michoacán. José Hernández’s dream of answering the reason for the existence of the stars and becoming an astronaut. This provokes laughter, surprise, and questions, especially from the people around him, for whom the word “astronaut” means nothing, and a journey into space is as useless as it is unnecessary.
At first glance, the Hernández family breaks away from the usual description of a broken, disunited family due to the migrant experience, engulfed in drugs or alcohol. Here, family cohesion is one of the vital elements that enable José Hernández to achieve his dream. They decide to stay in the United States so that José can study, and they work together in the fields, with his father proudly saying, “We harvest the food that other people can eat.”
There is no shame, no sin; there is pride in hard work, like the migrants who pick crops in the California fields.
The movie shows a curious José, asking more questions than answering them, which leads him on the path to knowledge. This allows him to complete his studies and go further.
He had to apply to NASA’s space program 12 times, and it was in the last attempt that he was approved.
And what more can be said about the music that accompanies his story? Between one story and another, you can hear the ballad of Camelia la Texana, heard with much innocence when compared to the extremities reached by narcocorridos. And Hernández’s anthem, “El Hijo del Pueblo.”
“Es mi orgullo haber nacido
En el barrio más humilde
Alejado del bullicio
Y de la falsa sociedad
Yo no tengo la desgracia
De no ser hijo del pueblo
Yo me cuento entre la gente
Que no tiene falsedad…”
From work in the agricultural fields to NASA and then to space.
Unlike “Flamin Hot Cheetos“, this is not the story of an immigrant who (supposedly) changed an industry and became a millionaire. This is the story of a Mexican family that managed to achieve their dreams not for money, not for fame, but for the simple curiosity that draws a line between the extraordinary and authentic and the excuses for staying confined to stereotypes.
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