SHREVEPORT – Mexican-American astronaut Jose Hernandez came from a family of migrant agricultural labors whose geographic location at any given time was determined by the harvest season.
Hernandez didn’t learn English until age 12 and didn’t get accepted into NASA astronaut training until his 12th attempt, but he became the first person to use the Spanish language in space while tweeting on Space Shuttle mission STS-128 in 2009.
The movie “A Million Miles Away” details Hernandez’s ascent into the stars and will be screened as a drive-in film on the LSUS campus as a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month in collaboration with the Hispanic Heritage Association of Northwest Louisiana.
The Saturday screening will take place in the LSUS Pioneer Heritage Center parking lot near the East Kings entrance to campus.
Admission is free, and movie-goers will have the opportunity to buy food from a pair of Mexican food trucks as well as popcorn, boba tea, and similar items.
Gates open at 6 p.m. with the movie starting at dusk.
“The movie highlights persistence, and when you have a dream, you have to be persistent,” said Kenna Franklin, assistant vice provost for community engagement at LSUS. “You don’t have to start off knowing everything, but there are all sorts of resources around and people dedicated to helping your dream come true.
“I like to think that’s what LSUS does. We take people who have an idea of what they want to do, and we pilot those dreams. This movie speaks to that, so I hope any student who sees it walks away with a lesson on persistence.”
The entire Shreveport-Bossier community is invited to attend what will be the fourth drive-in movie screened on the LSUS campus.
Franklin said the drive-in movie is becoming a community event that is making its way onto attendees’ annual calendars.
The movie series is just part of LSUS’s effort to engage with a rapidly growing Hispanic community, which expanded to more than four percent of the Shreveport-Bossier metro area’s population.
LSUS took part Monday in a seminar titled “Tapping and Seizing the Latino Market,” which offered valuable insight and the opportunity to connect with the local Hispanic community.
LSUS psychology faculty member Michael Becerra was one of a host of speakers to discuss the Hispanic community’s growth.
“It’s imperative that if LSUS wants to stay relevant to the community that it serves, that it connects with this growing Hispanic community,” Franklin said. “We’re thrilled that this relationship has grown over the past few years, and we look forward to it growing stronger each year.”
