My Nephew - Jose Hernandez - First Mexican in Space

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2009/08/celebrating-first-mexican-astronaut-out-of-this-world.html

This week’s planned launch of the space shuttle Discovery is getting special attention in Mexico. The seven-member crew includes astronaut Jose Hernandez, the California-born son of Mexican immigrants and suddenly a national hero here, as well.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon considers Hernandez a paisano -- the president and the astronaut’s parents come from the same Mexican state of Michoacan. Calderon telephoned Hernandez over the weekend and in a televised exchange wished him “an enormous congratulation, with all our admiration, all our affection and all our pride.”

Calderon invited Hernandez down to the presidential palace for a chat and a meal, once he’s returned from outer space. He thanked Hernandez for taking the name of Mexico to new heights.

Hernandez’s parents, Salvador and Julia, migrated to northern California in the 1950s in search of work. They eventually became U.S. citizens and raised four children, all of whom, young Jose included, helped toil in the fields, picking cucumbers and tomatoes. As a kid, Hernandez continued to visit his parents’ Michoacan homeland, where cousins and aunts and uncles were being interviewed this week by the Mexican press.