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Lolita Hernandez’ collection of short stories won a national book award.

Life on Line

Book recalls worker’s days at Cadillac plant

Lolita Hernandez felt such attachment to her co-workers and experiences at General Motors’ Cadillac assembly plant in Detroit that when word came the factory would be closing, she began writing fictional short stories based on her experiences there.

The plant closed in 1994 and those reflections turned into “Autopsy of an Engine and Other Stories from the Cadillac Plant,” a collection of 12 short stories which earned Hernandez a national book award and praise for what reviewers say is a passionate and moving account about life, love, sweat and tears on the assembly line.

Hernandez worked at the Cadillac plant from 1973 to 1994. Today she is a member of UAW Local 160 and assigned to the UAW-GM Center for Human Resources.

“When I first wrote the book, I didn’t think anybody would be interested about the life and times of factory workers, and the heartbreak its subsequent demise brought to life,” said Hernandez.

She couldn’t have been more wrong.

In 2004 Coffee House Press published her collection. In 2005 the book earned Hernandez a PEN/Beyond Margins Award, which celebrates outstanding book-length works by authors of color published in the United States.

Since then, book readings and appearances have taken her from Miami to Minneapolis and Detroit to New York.

In the book, Hernandez creates memorable characters who deal with issues such as sexual harassment, layoffs, death on the job, and watching 5,000 people line up outside the plant for jobs they mistakenly believe will be available.

Author Ruth Reichl sums up the book this way: “In this sensational debut collection, you will meet America – full of love, loss, pride, sweat, dreams, music, comfort, food and engine oil – and in them you will recognize yourself.”

Hernandez said the stories give dimension to the lives of people behind the headlines whether they are stories about plant closings or the effects of a changing auto industry.

“I’m really proud to be a UAW member,” she said. “People tend to think that if you work in a plant that you don’t know much or that you are one-dimensional. When they meet me, they come to understand we are no different from anyone else. We read. We write. We are touched by the same things that move everyone else.”

Sandra Davis

UAW Local 212 member John Cunningham contributed to this story.