Weather permitting, the Discovery space shuttle will launch into space tomorrow carrying with it a crew member who formerly toiled in the sugar beet, tomato and cucumber fields of California. Astronaut, Jose Hernandez, 47, will also be the first member of the shuttle crew to be Twittering messages in both English and Spanish.
Hernandez, who considers Stockton, Calif. his hometown, did not even learn to speak English until he was 12. Yearly, he traveled back and forth between California and Mexico to pick crops. However, with encouragement from his family, he went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a Masters in Electrical and computer engineering. He credits the first Hispanic American astronaut, Franklin Chang-Diaz, who was born in Costa Rica, with motivating him to achieve a similar goal.
“A Mexican-American astronaut in space is a very cool thing indeed,” said Francisco Muntildeiz, 22, a fellow Mexican-American who works as a clerk at an ice cream and taco store in DeLeon Springs, Florida.
You can follow Hernandez’s bilingual Twitter from space here: http://www.twitter.com/astro_jose
Great post. Interesting read. One thing – I’m using Google Chrome and I had a few problems posting comments. I know Chrome isn’t hugely popular but you might want to check it out.