"As a 2021 American Composers Forum McKnight Visiting Composer, he is currently in the process of creating 80-Ton Forgings: Equalizing Immigrant Workers’ Voices Through Music, an oratorio incorporating interviews held with migrant railroad laborers in Minnesota. Hernández sought out the form and tradition of the oratorio because 'the entire point [of an oratorio] is to engage deeply with a spiritual essence and then stay in that space.'” Yaz Lancaster spoke with J.E. Hernández about his works that illuminate the experiences of migrant workers in the United States. Read more on our story-telling pod, I CARE IF YOU LISTEN! *link in bio* PC: Claire McAdams