Falta unas cuantas horas para el despegue! Que bonito se siente!!!

September 24, 2009 10:11 AM

José Hernández was a migrant worker when he first started to dream about becoming an astronaut. He is the first astronaut to Twitter in Spanish from space on shuttle mission STS-128. NASA wasn't happy about the controversy he caused when he advocated for the legalization of undocumented immigrants. He is not the first Hispanic-American to fly on the space shuttle. Hernández is a national hero in Mexico and has been invited to dine with President Calderon.
posted by desjardins (15 comments total)

In case anyone else had the same misunderstanding I did, the link doesn't say that he advocated for the legalization of undocumented immigrants while mid-mission twitting. He waited until he got back - which is much different.
posted by Joe Beese at 10:16 AM on September 24, 2009

The really neat thing about the ISS is how many nationalities have gone into space because of it. It's a frickin' melting pot at times.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:22 AM on September 24, 2009

Uh oh, Lou Dobbs. There are brown people to the South, East and West and now straight up. You got nowhere to run to but North or down...TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. (Coming this fall, watch your local station for times!)
posted by DU at 10:28 AM on September 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

See? This is why I'm not an astronaut! Immigrants coming here and stealing our jobs!

Well, that and the motion sickness.
posted by JoanArkham at 10:47 AM on September 24, 2009 [3 favorites]

Fantastic and inspiring!
posted by letitrain at 11:42 AM on September 24, 2009

His family is from La Piedad, Michoacán, with indigenous Purépecha roots

My dad is indigenous Purepecha and grew up in a village in Mexico 20 miles away from La Piedad.

This does not surprise me. Few people know that right before Cortes showed up, the Purepecha were in the process of kicking Aztec butt.
Mefi post on the Purepecha.
posted by vacapinta at 12:05 PM on September 24, 2009

Cool set of links. I hadn't heard about this fellow before but it is an interesting story. Like JoanArkham I just need some new bioengineered inner ears and I'm all set for going to space!
posted by Slothrop at 12:22 PM on September 24, 2009

Space is where you can do anything first.
posted by smackfu at 12:33 PM on September 24, 2009

It's stories like these that show us why America works. In other countries, he wouldn't have gotten these opportunities coming from the background he did.
posted by reenum at 1:00 PM on September 24, 2009

You can smell La Piedad from 20 miles away. If I'd been born there, I'd try to go to space too.

Anti indian (what is the PC term nowadays?) racism is one of the worst parts of Mexican culture. 'Indio' is used to mean stupid, ignorant, uncultured and other similar words. I am very happy to see this, I hope it will change some attitudes.

What we need is a Wixárika astronaut, hikuri is good for motion sickness and must be awesome for looking at earth from space.
posted by dirty lies at 1:08 PM on September 24, 2009

OP's link, Franklin Chang-Diaz is designing a plasma-powered rocket, featured on NOVA Science Now, July 2009
posted by TWinbrook8 at 1:22 PM on September 24, 2009

In other countries, he wouldn't have gotten these opportunities coming from the background he did.

Hell, in most other countries he wouldn't have gotten these opportunities coming from any sort of background.
posted by aldurtregi at 1:29 PM on September 24, 2009

He is the first astronaut to Twitter in Spanish from space on shuttle mission STS-128.

This is a really weird thing to point out.
posted by Jairus at 7:17 PM on September 24, 2009

Uh oh, Lou Dobbs. There are brown people to the South, East and West and now straight up. You got nowhere to run to but North or down...TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH.

And his descendants will be known as Morlocks.
posted by homunculus at 8:27 PM on September 24, 2009

Uh oh, Lou Dobbs.

Does anyone else desperately wish that an immigrant would take his job?
posted by louche mustachio at 8:32 PM on September 24, 2009