2024 grand marshals
NASA engineer José M. Hernández wanted to fly in space ever since he heard that the first Hispanic-American had been chosen to travel into space. "I was hoeing a row of sugar beets in a field near Stockton, Calif., and I heard on my transistor radio that Franklin Chang-Diaz had been selected for the Astronaut Corps," says Hernandez, who was a senior in high school at the time. "I was already interested in science and engineering," Hernandez remembers, "but that was the moment I said, 'I want to fly in space.' And that's something I've been striving for each day since then." That hard work paid off when was selected to begin training as a mission specialist as part of the 2004 astronaut candidate class.
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​One of four children in a migrant farming family from Mexico, Hernandez -- who didn't learn English until he was 12 years old -- spent much of his childhood on what he calls "the California circuit," traveling with his family from Mexico to southern California each March, then working northward to the Stockton area by November, picking strawberries and cucumbers at farms along the route. They would then return to Mexico for Christmas and start the cycle all over again in the spring.
​"Some kids might think it would be fun to travel like that," Hernandez laughs, "but we had to work. It wasn't a vacation."
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After graduating high school, Hernandez enrolled at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering and was awarded a full scholarship to the graduate program at the University of California in Santa Barbara, where he continued his engineering studies. In 1987, he accepted a full-time job with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where he had worked as a co-op in college.
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While at Lawrence Livermore, Hernandez worked on signal and image processing applications in radar imaging, computed tomography, and acoustic imaging. Later in his career, Hernandez worked on developing quantitative x-ray film imaging analysis techniques for the x-ray laser program. Hernandez applied these techniques in the medical physics arena and co-developed the first full-field digital mammography imaging system. This system has proven useful for detecting breast cancer at an earlier stage than present film/screen mammography techniques. Hernandez has won recognition awards for his work on this project. He has also worked in the international arena where he represented Lawrence Livermore and the U.S. Department of Energy on Russian nuclear non-proliferation issues.
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In 2001, Hernández joined the Johnson Space Center and soon became Chief of the Materials and Processes Branch. During the astronaut application process, Hernández had to meet with a review board. That's where he came face-to-face with his original inspiration: Franklin Chang-Diaz.
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"It was a strange place to find myself, being evaluated by the person who gave me the motivation to get there in the first place," Hernández says. "But I found that we actually had common experiences -- a similar upbringing, the same language issues. That built up my confidence. Any barriers that existed, he had already hurdled them."
Hernández smiles. "Now it's my turn!"
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Hernández was selected as part of the 19th class of astronauts in 2004. In 2006, José completed Astronaut Candidate Training and in 2009, he was a mission specialist on the STS-128 mission on board the Space Shuttle, Discovery.
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Since leaving NASA, he served as the Executive Director of Strategic Operations at MEI Technologies in Texas. In 2012, he ran for the US House of Representatives in the 10th California Congressional District.
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Hernández received the 2016 National Hispanic Hero Award presented by the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute.
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CEO of Tierra Luna Engineering, LLC, José Hernández continues his long history in the field of engineering and space.
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2006 Honorary Doctorate- University of the Pacific
2004 NASA Astronaut- Space Shuttle Program
1986 U.C. Santa Barbara Graduate, Masters Electrical Engineering
1984 University of the Pacific Graduate, Bachelor of Science- Engineering
1980 Franklin High School Graduate
Martín Dorado is a 5th grade elementary school teacher at Madison Elementary, currently in his 9th year teaching in the Pasadena Unified School District. An important school to the Pasadena Community, Madison Elementary serves perhaps the largest number of latino bilingual learners in Pasadena. And as a public educator for Madison, Dorado has shown his commitment to the school by persistently encouraging, teaching, and coaching his students to be the individuals they wish to become. Understanding the significance of culture and identity in the classroom, he has championed the expression of our students’ diverse cultural heritages. As a Mexican-American himself, he is proud of his Zacatecano cultural roots.
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Dorado has been a member of the Pasadena Community his entire life. Perhaps the street he grew up on, Manzanita Avenue, would foreshadow his career as a public educator. As a student, Dorado attended Pasadena public schools, beginning with Allendale Elementary, Wilson Middle School, and Blair High School. He would then go on to study at Pasadena Community College, and ultimately transfer to CAL State LA. Throughout his time in higher education, Dorado also worked as an instructional assistant at Altadena Elementary where he realized a career in public education was a way to encourage and uplift young multicultural scholars much like himself.
Currently, Dorado is continuing his work in higher education, as he is enrolled in a Master’s Program in Education for Social Change with an option in Critical Bilingualism and Biliteracy. Dorado wishes to set a good example for his students, showing them that being a learner does not stop in adulthood, and that each one of them, through a voracious appetite for learning, is capable of reaching their own goals.
2023 grand marshals
Angelica Salas
Grand Marshal
Angelica Salas is the Executive Director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), and is widely regarded as one of the most gifted activist/organizers in the country today.
Since becoming CHIRLA’s director in 1999, Salas has spearheaded and won several ambitious campaigns. She helped win in-state tuition and access to financial aid for undocumented immigrant students, driver’s licenses, legal services and healthcare for the undocumented community in California. Salas is also a leading national spokesperson and organizer on federal immigration policy.
She is a prominent figure in ethnic and mainstream press and is often quoted on all issues related to immigrant well-being. Under Salas’ leadership, CHIRLA and its national partners have built the foundation for the upsurge in immigrant rights activism. She is a leader in national coalitions of organizations that have successfully mobilized millions of immigrants to demand just and humane immigration reform with a path to citizenship, family reunification, and protection of civil and labor rights. One of her greatest accomplishments at CHIRLA has been the transformation of a social service provision coalition into a statewide mass membership organization that empowers immigrants to engage in advocacy on their own behalf.
Today CHIRLA weaves together organizing, electoral civic engagement, community education, policy advocacy, and legal services to engage and empower immigrant families fully.
Angelica comes by her understanding of the immigrant experience firsthand. As a five-year-old, she came to the U.S. from Mexico to rejoin her undocumented parents, who had come to the U.S. to provide for their family. Pasadena, California has been home since she arrived in the U.S. She is a graduate of Pasadena High School and graduated from Occidental College with a B.A in History and B.A. in Sociology. She received an Honorary from her Alma Mater in 2007. Angelica Salas is married to Mayron Payes, an immigrant from El Salvador, and has two adult children, Maya and Ruben Payes.
Yuny Parada
Community Grand Marshal
Yuny Parada came to the United States from El Salvador at the age of 18. She settled in Pasadena shortly thereafter and has called it her home since 1979.
Since then, Parada has worked tirelessly for the empowerment of Latinos in her community while using education as the backbone for her cause. She began her passion for service with her role as a Human Relations Commissioner for the City of Pasadena, which she held for many years. Parada has also served on the board for the League of Women Voters of Pasadena where she worked towards her vision of equity and inclusion for the Latino Community in Pasadena. She championed interethnic relations through her involvement in the Leadership in Inter-Ethnic Relations (LDIR) program and translated those lessons into participation in the inaugural class of Leadership Pasadena. Parada has had a wide array of community involvement, currently serving as a board member of the Pasadena Chapter of the ACLU and the President’s Latino Advisory Committee of Pasadena City College.
Parada proudly raised her 3 children in Pasadena and serves now in one of her most demanding positions yet —grandmother to 6 children.