Year Released: 2023
Directed by: Alejandro Marquez
Starring: Michael Peña, Rosa Salazar, Julio Cesar Cedillo
(121 min.)
Genre: Drama, Inspired by a True Story

“ The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves that we are underlings.” – William Shakespeare
(Julius Caesar, Act I, sc. 2)

More please, Amazon. Movies that blast off fueled by the human spirit alone, discarding nihilism like booster rockets ejected into space. While shedding victimhood like the small planet it leaves behind.

Inspired by the real-life story of NASA flight engineer José Hernández, A Million Miles Away follows him on a decades-long journey, from a rural village in Michoacán, Mexico, to more than 200 miles above the Earth in the International Space Station. With the support of his family, José’s drive & determination culminates in the opportunity to achieve his seemingly impossible goal.

This film is glorious in every respect, so at first it is hard to figure which parts are the best. Several days after watching it, those scenes now shine down on me like the moon and the sun.

First and foremost is José’s (Michael Pena) father Salvador (Julio Cesar Cedillo), who is instrumental in setting him on the right course – and keeping him on it when he loses faith. Little migrant worker Jose is at his lowest when he falls down exhausted after tripping in the mud and grapes as he tries to carry them. Covered in mud and smashed grapes, he cannot or will not go on. José wonders how his parents can work so hard.

Equally exhausted, Salvador is having none of it. Then he tells his son his secret recipe for success:

Ingredient 1- Find Your Goal
Ingredient 2- Know How Far You Are
Ingredient 3- Draw A Roadmap
Ingredient 4- If You Don’t Know How, Learn
Ingredient 5- When You Think You’ve Made It, You Probably Have to Work Harder

This recipe reminds me so much of my husband Gary, who grew up relatively poor on the Southside of Chicago after his father died when he was only 7 years old. He hitched-hiked to school, started working as a busboy at age 14, and then worked three jobs at a time to get him through undergrad and graduate school. His recipe was almost identical to Salvador’s.

Purpose
Focus
Persistence

That little boy from Chicago did not go into space, but he did ultimately become a college professor, writing 21 books, 73 papers, and consulting in 22 countries. How I admire and love this man. So please excuse my bragging, but as we say in Texas, “It’s not bragging if it’s true.”

Jose might have been poorer, but he was rich in having such a wonderful father. Oh, how other young men would profit from such a role model.

Another of Salvador’s stories resonates, as well, especially now as we see the Monarch butteries begin their migration south. Salvador’s home state in Mexico, Michoacán, is their winter destination, as it is with Jose’s migrant family. Then Salvador makes the story even better, recalling a fact that I did not know, and perhaps you did not either.

The Monarch butterflies that leave Canada are not the same ones that arrive in Michoacán. Each butterfly lays eggs along the way, letting the next generation go further than they could.

That is ultimately what makes Salvador heed the advice of another important figure, José’s teacher, Miss Young.

Can you ask your father what would happen if he had a tree, planted it, watered it, cared for it, and then dug it up and replanted it every year again and again. How would that tree grow?

Salvador knows that the tree, like his traveling children, would live, but it would never thrive. It would be neither tall nor strong, and it would probably bear no fruit. That is when he looks over at his fellow migrant workers, bending and sweating in the fields and tells Jose.

“In fact, you are very lucky. You can have a look at your future. See over there? That is your future.”

And who can forget Jose’s wonderful wife Adela (Rosa Salazar). Yes, she does laugh when first tells her he wants to be an astronaut, but when she realizes that is his real dream, not a pipe dream, she is as big a booster as a jettisoned rocket.

Together they discard the “all the astronauts are white” excuse and see other aspects they have that he does not, such as success in high-performance hobbies like running swimming, competing in a triathlon, deep sea diving, or even speaking Russian.

José’ then sets about remedying those deficits. And he doesn’t let little things stop him, such as the secretary at the engineering firm who mistakes him for the new janitor. Or his fellow engineer who is jealous of Jose’s innovative brain and tries to keep him busy xeroxing thousands of pages.

And finally, we have Kalpana Chawla, the head trainer for potential astronauts, who encourages him, too. She paints a picture of what it is like looking down on the earth and how all the hard work prepping for it is worthwhile once you are up there. And the need for teamwork.

Everything looks so pretty from up there. It's as though the whole place is sacred. The atmosphere looks like ribbons of different colors hugging the Earth. And it looks so fragile. Such a small planet with so much going on. We think we control everything. Our lives, our dreams. We get exhausted. We make sacrifices. We think it's about wanting it hard enough. But life is mysterious, you know? Here's the thing, though. Once that ignition sequence starts, we only have each other. –Kalpana Chawla

If you need to recharge your batteries, if you need some inspiration in your life, if you have given up on current films that seem superficial and cynical, you must watch A Million Miles Away.

You will soar right along with José, the first migrant farmworker in space, who still picks grapes with his father today, albeit in his own vineyard: Tierra Luna Cellars in Lodi, California.

–Kathy Borich
🥁 🥁 🥁 🥁 🥁

Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

I have chosen a regional recipe for our film. It is from the Mexican state of Michoacán, where both José’ and Adela are from. Adela has her dream, too, by the way, which is to open her own restaurant, not serving the same burritos and other typicla Mexican food, but the different and authentic recipes from her region. You will have to watch the film to see is she ever fulfills her dream, but in the meantime you can feast on one of the delicious recipes from that region. Don’t be fooled by the name, though. It is called Gaspacho, but is nothing like the Spanish cold soup we usually associate with that shares the same name. I will let Fiona Ryan take it from here:

You may be thinking that Gaspachos Morelianos is a hot or cold soup but it’s actually a souped up fruit salad.

Chopped mango, pineapple, jicama and orange juice form the basis for this unique fruit salad. From there, things take a decidedly exotic turn with the addition of chopped onion, lime juice and spicy Chamoy sauce, as the layers are built. The salad is topped with salty queso cheese and dried chilli flakes. The refreshing cup of savoury spicy sweet fruit salad, along with a spoon, is popped into a plastic bag ‘“o go. “

So what does it taste like? Utterly delicious. The combination of sweet/salty/spicy is refreshing and has you going back for another spoonful. –Fiona Ryan

Michoacán Souped Up Fruit Salad

Ingredients

1 pineapple

3 mangoes

1 jicama, peeled

pinches salt

1/4 cups lime juice, strained

2 cups orange juice, strained

Cotija cheese, crumbled

chile powder

hot sauce

Directions

On a chopping board and using a knife, peel pineapple. Cut in half and then cut into medium-sized cubes. Set aside. Repeat with mangoes and jicama.

In a bowl, mix chopped fruit. Add salt and lime juice and mix. Fill a cup with previous mixture up to half capacity. Add crumbled Cotija cheese and chile powder.

Fill the cup with more fruit mixture and pour in orange juice.

Top Morelia-style gazpacho with more Cotija cheese, chile powder, and hot sauce.

Kiwilimon.com