Autopsy of an Engine

And Other Stories from the Cadillac Plant

Full of magic and soul, these 12 stories bring to life the spirits that populated Detroit’s Clark Street Cadillac factory until its last smokestack was airlifted out in 1994. Each story is a tribute to the grit, passion and bravado that transformed Detroit into the Motor City and the Cadillac into America’s premier luxury car. They are also a heartbreaking testament to the decline of the auto industry and the loss of jobs that turned Motown inside out, creating a haunted landscape of abandoned factories and decaying boulevards.

Told from the diverse perspective of unionized assembly line workers and management, janitors and engineers, payroll clerks and retirees, these stories capture the raw and vibrant hum of humanity that found its way into every piston, spark plug and belt, even as the last Fleetwood rolled off the line, its engine purring into the Detroit night. They are about family, friendship, resilience, loyalty, and letting go, but mostly they are about the dreams and magic created in the strangest city of all—Detroit’s last Cadillac factory. In Hernandez’s stories, you will meet America—full of love, loss, pride, sweat, dreams, music, comfort food and engine oil—and, in them, you will recognize yourself.