By Dave Acosta / Special to El Paso Matters
Tim Z. Hernandez is a seeker of stories, chasing down the fragments of history and memory that connect people. Along the way, Hernandez said, he’s found that sometimes the stories seek him.
In his new memoir, “They Call You Back,” Hernandez continues his journey of uncovering hidden narratives. It began with his acclaimed work, “All They Will Call You,” which explored the 1948 plane crash at Los Gatos Canyon that killed 32 people – most of them Mexican citizens who worked the California crop fields and were being deported.
This new book takes readers deeper into both Hernandez’s quest to restore dignity to the lost histories of the forgotten crash victims and the personal motivations behind his obsession.
“I’m still processing it, but I have started to suspect that the search has something to do with me, personally,” Hernandez said. “I can’t deny all the ways that this story is tied to me, there have been a lot of synchronicities and I didn’t grasp what it meant until about 2017 when I started to own the journey. I’ve been searching for the story but about half of it found me.”
In “They Call You Back,” Hernandez moves beyond the crash itself, turning the lens inward to explore the traumas and experiences that shaped his need to pursue such stories. As he traces his lineage and confronts his generational wounds, he suggests that our triumphs and traumas may be passed down through our very DNA.
The book evolved into a memoir as Hernandez delved deeper into his own past, blurring the lines between his search for others and his search for himself. It serves as both a prequel and a sequel to “All They Will Call You.”
Author Tim Z. Hernandez, whose writing blends poetry, investigative journalism, and creative non-fiction, tells the story of 28 Mexican deportees who died in a 1948 plane crash in California in his book “All They Will Call You.” (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
“I write everything,” Hernandez said. “If I encounter a family member, that transcription becomes one text. Documents become another text. I also write about my own journey and the things I’m going through. I gather four or five versions of text and information and I start to put it together like a puzzle. In the previous book, I didn’t want to inject myself into the story, so I didn’t include what I wrote about my own experience.”
Hernandez’s narrative approach balances fact with storytelling, creating an accessible work that engages readers on an emotional level.
“I wanted to make sure that everyday readers, not just scholars, could access these stories,” he said, explaining how he blends historical research with novel-like elements. This careful balance between truth and narrative allows him to illuminate overlooked moments in history that continue to shape the present.
Throughout the memoir, Hernandez reflects on his deep connection to New Mexico, where his family’s roots lie. Although raised in California, his parents’ stories and frequent visits to New Mexico and West Texas ingrained in him a sense of belonging.
“I started realizing how deep our family’s roots were in New Mexico,” he said, recounting the sense of home and history he found in the land. This personal history adds a layer of intimacy to his work, particularly in the way he ties his family’s narrative to broader historical and political contexts.
Despite the political undertones of the memoir, Hernandez insists that the work transcends mere politics.
“The book is political in the sense that everything is political; it affects all of us,” he noted. His intention, however, is to use his narrative as a bridge for collective healing. By exposing the lingering impacts of past injustices, he urges readers to acknowledge shared histories and the need for personal and political reconciliation.
“They Call You Back” is not just a memoir but also a journey of self-realization. Hernandez reflects on how his quest to find the plane crash victims ultimately became a search for himself. Writing the book was both an act of liberation and a means to address the “haunting” he felt throughout his search.
“I think it was Pablo Picasso who said ‘Every portrait is a self-portrait,’” Hernandez said. “This book is a product of 14 years of writing that I didn’t realize would become a memoir. I’m utilizing 14 years of my life with this obsession and history of the plane crash. I had to grapple with that, especially as a single parent who is using precious time to pursue this thing. Why is it worth doing? If it wasn’t in some way bettering the world for them, what good is it?”
In giving readers a look inside his own journey while continuing to reveal the history of the Los Gatos plane crash, Hernandez offers a pathway to the collective healing of generational wounds.“The book is in some ways, a love letter to the frontera,” Hernandez said. “That’s the reason for the name of the book. The first year I moved to El Paso, I was thinking, ‘What have I done?’ But the longer I stay it makes more sense. This is where my people are from. California was a pitstop. My eyes are open. This is home.”
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