Latino Leaders Luncheon Series
You are invited to the first Latino Leaders Luncheon Series event of the year, honoring astronaut Jose Hernandez, on Monday, March 1st at the Capital Hilton Hotel, Washington, D.C. from 11:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m. The program includes Los Angeles Councilmember Tony Cardenas and Gus West, Board Chair of The Hispanic Institute. Thanks to Anheuser-Busch, Inc and Exxon Mobil for making this event possible. Participation is by invitation only.
José Moreno Hernández was born in French Camp, California and considers Stockton, California his hometown. Mr. Hernández’s family is originally from La Piedad, Michoacán, México and came to the United States as a migrant worker family, travelling back and forth between California and Mexico throughout the year. As a child, Mr. Hernández worked alongside his family harvesting crops in the California fields and was actually in the fields hoeing sugar beets the moment he decided to become an astronaut.
Despite the odds against him, on August 28, 2009, Mr. Hernández became the ninth Latino astronaut in space, and the fourth astronaut of Mexican ancestry, as part of the crew of Space Shuttle mission STS-128, where he filled the post of Mission Specialist. He joined the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas in 2001 (where he worked as chief of the materials and Processes branch) and was accepted to the NASA astronaut corps in 2004.