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From Farmworker to Astronaut:Story of Stockton’s Jose Hernandez in Netflix Movie

• jelliclesfarm 6y ago
  [..] Hernandez came from very humble beginnings. He immigrated from Mexico and was a migrant farmworker as a kid. He picked tomatoes in a field near 8 Mile Road in Lodi. Traveling from one town to the next picking crops. One day in 1972, Hernandez's father made sure his son watched the Apollo 17 mission. To see it clearly, Hernandez was tasked with holding the antenna to get a good picture on the tv. [..] But, his father gave him a more important lesson one day in the family car after a day of hard work. He wanted his son to think about the difficulties of life in the fields versus getting an education. "He said I'm not going to force you to go to school, much less get good grades," said Hernandez. "But if you're wondering what your future is like without an education he said welcome to your future."[..] In 1997, he co-developed the first, full-field digital mammography imaging system for early detection of breast cancer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He says this is his greatest accomplishment. "I know it has saved thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of lives," Hernandez said.[..] This is the power of education. Ag robotics luddites reject automation because it would deprive jobs. They fret. “What would happen to jobs!!” “What would poor people do to support themselves?” Well. They would get an education and do higher paying jobs suitable for humans. I don’t think any farm worker who is a parent wants their child to become a farm labourer. It’s time to change Ag. And relieve people from the yoke of manual labour for minimum wage.