BOISE, Idaho — It's been nearly five months since staff members in the Middleton School District were photographed in what some say were racially insensitive costumes mocking Hispanic culture and the border wall during a "team building exercise".
The pictures went viral quickly on social media and sparked outrage around the country.
In the following days, NASA astronaut José Hernández offered on Twitter to visit the school and tell his own story of achieving the American dream.
Hernández arrived in Idaho on Monday and spoke to the Idaho Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and KTVB ahead of his Middleton visit on Tuesday.
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"It's going to be a message of empowerment," Hernández said. "It's going to be a message of letting them see someone who perhaps looks like them, maybe talks like them, and perhaps has a similar story that they may have."
Hernández comes from a migrant farm working family that traveled where work was available.
"I would have three kindergarten teachers in one school year, three sets of friends, and for that reason, I think that's why, even though I was born here in the United States, I didn't learn the English language fluently until I was about 10 or 11 years old," he said.
A teacher convinced Hernández' parents that they needed to settle in one place in order for their children to get a proper education.
That place was central California.
After his family settled down, Hernández knew he wanted to be an astronaut at ten years old.
"I was old enough at that time to remember and see the very last Apollo mission, Apollo 17 in 1972," he said.
It wouldn't be an easy road to accomplish his childhood dreams though.
"NASA rejected me not once, not twice, but 11 times," Hernández said. "It wasn't until the twelfth time I got selected."
Once he eventually made it to space, he says looking out the window of the International Space Station was an experience that changed his entire perspective on life.
"You can see Canada, the U.S., and Mexico but what struck me in awe was you can’t see where Canada ended and the U.S. began, where the U.S. ended and Mexico began," Hernández said. "That's when it struck me, and I said wow, borders are human-made concepts designed to separate us and how sad because from my perspective of looking down there we're just one."
It's this perspective he wants to share with students Tuesday and inspire them no matter where they come from, they too can achieve anything with hard work.
"I think my focus is showing them role models and empowering them to be anything that they want," Hernández said. "The sky is not the limit, the stars are and I'm living proof of that."