On
Thursday, Oct. 17, award-winning author and poet Tim. Z Hernandez will visit
Grand Junction and Colorado Mesa University (CMU).
Hernandez is the author of “All They Will Call You,” a book written from his research of an American song written by Woody Guthrie, titled, “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos).”
Published on Jan. 28, 2017, the book is a historical nonfiction take of a plane crash that occurred on Jan. 28, 1948. 28 Mexican citizens were being deported from Oakland, California to the Mexico border, when the government chartered plane crashed and killed everyone aboard, including the crew and immigration officer.
Media
at the time only mentioned the names of the American crew, and the names and
memories of the Mexican passengers were lost to an unmarked grave in Fresno,
California.
Hernandez has spent years finding and interviewing descendants and family members of the passengers and has since published a list of names of those who perished in the crash. A new memorial headstone was erected for them on Sept. 2, 2013, in Fresno, California, after Hernandez and people from all over the world donated to the cause.
Courtesy of Tim Hernandez
His visit to CMU will feature numerous presentations. On Oct. 17 at 8 a.m. in Dominguez Hall 104, Hernandez will talk about the influences that drove him to write “All They Will Call You” in a presentation titled “Turning Research Into Writing.”
Later
that same day, at 9:30 a.m. in Wubben Science 141, he will focus on the
historical side of “All They Will Call You,” in a presentation titled “The
Documentary Novel, Why and What it Means.”
His final presentation will take place at 7 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom, in a performance titled “Hispanic Heritage Live! Finding Woody Gutherie’s Deportees,” a presentation meant to shed light on the lives behind those in his book. The program will also include live music and a Q&A session.
Hernandez
will also have a presentation on Oct. 16, at 5 p.m., at Grand Junction’s Dual
Immersion Academy, with a program titled “The Importance of Names and Telling
Family Stories.”