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“Astronaut Goes From Migrant Fields To Outer Space”
a film by David Moolten
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In the U.S.
immigration is both proud and tragic legacy. Except for the original
people from whom a continent was stolen,
we are all immigrants or
descendants of immigrants. Yet each new wave that arrives with few
possessions
and many dreams find they survive, not because of, but in
spite of, what they find: the least rewarding
and most dangerous work,
and the contempt of those already here.
As a child,
Jose M. Hernandez trekked from Mexico to the fields of California where
he picked strawberries
with his family under the tense and squalid
conditions migrant laborers still experience.
In the summer of 2009, he
traveled into space as an astronaut on the Discovery space shuttle.
His story honors both the desperate struggle of immigrants and the greatness of which they are capable.
"As a
filmmaker, I feel I must contribute in some way to the
search for justice. Because
as an issue immigration is so contentious
and sensitive, I have also been striving
to find a perspective that
rises above the standard arguments,
that is positive as well
as
principled, in the hopes that I might reach those on all sides.
In
making a film about
the astronaut Jose Hernandez, I believe I have
found this point of view.”
David Moolten is an award winning poet.
His most recent book, Primitive Mood, won the T.S. Eliot Prize
from Truman State University Press and was published in the fall of 2009.
He can be contacted by email at dmoolten@gmail.com
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