Every Day is Magic: Ada Limón

In her 2015 collection, Bright Dead Things, a National Book Award finalist for poetry, Ada Limón writes of moving to Kentucky: “Confession: I did not want to live here.” It’s perhaps not a surprising sentiment coming from a coastally oriented person who was raised in Northern California, attended college in Seattle, and then spent over a decade in New York City.

 

But Limón and her husband, Lucas, have been in Lexington for seven years now and the effects of settling into this place are noticeable in her new book, The Carrying (Milkweed, Aug.). It’s a phenomenally lively and attentive collection replete with the trappings of living a little closer to nature. While Bright Dead Things is marked by a preponderance of light, such as images of fireflies and neon signs, The Carrying features numerous appearances by various trees, birds, and beetles. Limón also demonstrates a greater willingness to be explicit in naming colors, particularly green. “It’s crazy green, the whole book,” she says. “Lexington is the greenest place I’ve ever lived.” Similarly, where in Bright Dead Things, Limón tells a lot of stories and anecdotes, in The Carrying she is very present in her thoughts and experiences.

As it turns out, these shifts in focus have another, altogether unexpected source. While putting Bright Dead Things together, Limón was diagnosed with chronic vestibular neuronitis, which can cause bouts of vertigo. “If I’m really having vertigo, it’s pretty intense and I really have to focus,”
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RESULTS OF THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY FOR 2011: a comparison of the results for the years 2010 and 2011 contrasting the total population of the United States and Mexican American professionals

By HUMBERTO (TITO) GUTIERREZ
Edited by Corrie Cripps

Mexican American women have been making slow but steady gains in business, science and art management jobs over the past few years, according to statistics from the 2011 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. However, Mexican American professionals continue to be underrepresented among the total U.S. professional population. This brief identifies areas of interest in the 2011 American Community Survey to Mexican American professionals.

Note: The statistics in this brief refer to the population who reported themselves as Mexican Americans on the American Community Survey.

According to the Survey, the total population of the U.S. is 311,591,919.

The Mexican American population is 33,557,922, roughly 10.8% of the total U.S. population.

College and/or Graduate School Enrollment

  • 28.3% of the total population was enrolled in college or graduate school in 2010. In 2011, this number increased to 28.7%.
  • 16.8% of the Mexican American population was enrolled in college or graduate school in 2010. In 2011, this number increased to 17.6%.

Charts: Total population enrolled in college and/or graduate school, Total U.S. population vs. Total Mexican American population

Enrollment in college and-or graduate school - U.S. Population vs. Mexican American

Educational Attainment:

  • 17.7% of the total population earned bachelor degrees in 2010. In 2011, this number increased to 17.9%.
  • 6.7% of the Mexican American population earned bachelor degrees in 2010. In 2011, this number increased to 6.9%.
  • 10.4% of the total population earned graduate and professional degrees in 2010. In 2011, this number increased to 10.6%.
  • 2.6% of the Mexican American population earned graduate and professional degrees in 2010, and this percentage remained the same in 2011.

Table: Educational attainment, bachelor degrees or higher

Note: In the following chart, each statistic stands for itself, i.e. do not add the male percentage to the female percentage to get a total.

Persons with a bachelor’s degree or higher are those who have received a bachelor’s degree from a college or university, or a master’s, professional, or doctorate degree.

  2010 2011
  Total Population Mexican American Total Population Mexican American
Graduate or professional degree 10.4% 2.6% 10.6% 2.6%
Bachelor’s degree or higher 28.3% 16.8% 28.7% 17.6%
Males with bachelor’s degree or higher 28.5% 8.4% 28.7% 8.6%
Females with bachelor’s degree or higher 27.9% 10.4% 28.3% 10.6%

 

OCCUPATIONS

Note: this data in this section includes only persons 25 years of age and older. The percentages are obtained by dividing the counts of graduates by the total number of persons 25 years old and over.

Occupations: Female employed civilians, age 25 and older:

  • 39.4% of the total population of women in 2011 were employed in management, business, science, and arts occupations. Mexican American women represent 22.1% of the Mexican Americans employed in management, business, science, and arts occupations.
  • Between 2007 and 2011, there has been a 1.7% increase (20.4% to 22.1%) in the number of Mexican American women employed in management professional and related occupations. In this area, the female general population figure has increased from 37.9% in 2007 to 39.5% in 2011, a 1.6% increase.

Occupations: Male employed civilians, age 25 and older:

  • Between 2007 and 2011, there has been a 1.7% increase in the number of Mexican-American males in management and professional occupations.

Table: Occupations, Civilian employed population, age 25 and older

  2010 2011
  Total Population Mexican American Total Population Mexican American
Management, business, science, and arts occupations 35.9% 16.2% 36.0% 16.4%
Males in management, business, science, and arts occupations 32.8% 12.4% 32.7% 12.5%
Females in management, business, science and arts occupations 39.4% 21.7% 39.5% 22.1%

Industry: Civilian employed population 16 years and older:

  • 10.6% of the general population was employed in the professional, scientific, management, administrative and waste management services in 2010. In 2011, this number only increased by .1% to 10.7%.
  • 10.1% of Mexican Americans were employed in the professional, scientific, management, administrative and waste management services in 2010. In 2011, this percentage remained the same.

Public Administration:

  • In 2010, the total population was 5.2% in public administration and 3.5% for Mexican Americans.
  • In 2011, the total population was 5.1% in public administration and 3.4% for Mexican Americans. As with the Industry statistics, there was virtually no change from 2010 to 2011 in this area.

 

SUMMARY

Comparison of the 2010 and 2011 ratios of professionals in the general population and in the Mexican American population shows little change. In general, graduate and professional degrees among the total population are more than triple when compared with Mexican Americans who have earned graduate or professional degrees. On the bright side, there is at least one area where the ratio is almost equal; women have, again, gained ground in business, science and art management.

Reference Documents from the U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey


  

Poem
“…And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while…”

T.S. Eliot
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Mexican American Proarchive Annual Report for 2022

The American Community Survey is an annual survey administered by the federal government to help local officials and community leaders and businesses understand the changes that take place in their communities. It includes percentages of our population’s graduate school attainment and the employment of Mexican Americans in various occupations.  These important factors influence the allocation of federal resources. Mexican American Proarchives uses the data provided by the American Community Survey to better understand how Mexican Americans compare to the general population.

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