José Hernández: In His Own Words
Watch this 2011 interview, in which José Hernández explains to Maria Hinojosa how one particular astronaut influenced him to make a life-changing decision: to become an astronaut himself. As you watch, note the three similarities that José Hernández discovered that he shared with his role model, Dr. Franklin Chang Díaz.
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
Take Notes
For young José Hernández, the son of migrant farmer workers, seeing a Latino astronaut shattered a boundary in his mind and propelled him to realize his own dream of becoming an astronaut.
What personal characteristics helped Hernández reach his dream? Describe a person or an event that inspired you to want to do something you felt someone like you couldn’t do.
