Interviewer: Laura Ek

Affiliation: University of Arizona

I met Gary Hernandez at a KRVS local public radio fundraiser with Lillian Miller one evening. After being introduced to and interviewing his sister, Claire Hernandez, Gary and I had an interview together at his home in Carencro just outside Lafayette.

Gary Hernandez was born February 12, 1951 in Lafayette, Louisiana. His family is from Carencro and he and his sister, brother, and mother still live on the land their family purchased back in 1848. (He describes himself as French on one side and Spanish on the other.) Mr. Hernandez is currently an artist, a carpenter, and cares for his elderly mother. His employment history is very diverse. He went to work for a pipe laying company, testing miles of pipelines. He was let go from that job and went to work for Tubascope for 4-5 months doing a job he describes as “difficult,” testing for radioactive dust. He worked for Kelly Brown and Root running anchors for seven months, worked for Water Marine for a while assisting divers checking gaslines, and as a welder for a short time on Gooseneck trailers and making sculptures. In 1975 or 1976, he worked on a crewboat as his last oilfield related employment. He left the University of Southern Louisiana in 1975. He then went to work as a printer for a reading research foundation for 7-8 months. From there he went on to testing childhood learning and early development. He moved away but came back to the area. He was part of the Beau Soleil band from 1977-1978. In 1978, he moved to France where he met his wife and they had a daughter. He moved back to Carencro in 1983, but returned to France again in 1987 where he lived until about 2000.

Mr. Hernandez and his wife opened a French immersion school in the Lafayette area just before the industry went bust and describes the challenges they faced. He discusses in-depth the oil industry and its negative impacts on Cajun culture, especially in relation to the various jobs and the strenuous day-to-day affects of that work on young men and family men in the industry. He also mentions the racism and sexism that existed in the industry when he worked.