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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Mexican American Proarchive: Annual Report on Mexican American Professionals

News from the census American Community Survey is generally good for the 2015 year. Mexican American college enrollment was up from 18.7% to 18.9% in the 2014 and 2015 years. Graduate or professional degree attainment was also up from 2.9% to 3.0%. The number of bachelor’s degrees granted to Mexican American students rose from 7.6% in 2014 to 7.8% in 2015.

  2012-15 COLLEGE ENROLLMENT
  2012 2013 2014 2015
  Total Population Mexican Americans Total Population Mexican Americans Total Population Mexican Americans Total Population Mexican Americans
College Enrollment 28.80% 18.20% 28.30% 18.10% 28.00% 18.70% 27.80% 18.90%

 

  2012-15 EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
  2012 2013 2014 2015
  Total Population Mexican Americans Total Population Mexican Americans Total Population Mexican Americans Total Population Mexican Americans
Graduate or Professional Degree 10.90% 2.90% 11.20% 2.80% 11.40% 2.90% 11.60% 3.00%
Bachelor’s Degree 18.20% 7.00% 18.40% 7.30% 18.70% 7.60% 19.00% 7.80%
Associate’s Degree 29.20% 21.90% 29.20% 21.80% 29.10% 22.20% 29.00% 22.10%

In spite of these gains, Mexican Americans still remain at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to earning a bachelor’s degree. Even after broadening the group to Latinos or Hispanics, this group still lags behind. According to the Pew Hispanic Center: “As of 2014, among Hispanics ages 25 to 29, just 15% of Hispanics have a bachelor’s degree or higher. By comparison, among the same age group, about 41% of whites have a bachelor’s degree or higher (as do 22% of blacks and 63% of Asians).” Pew reports that the main reasons for this low graduation rate is that Hispanics are less likely “to enroll in a four-year college, attend an academically selective college and enroll full-time.”

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Also in the good news column, the University of California will continue to push for a greater number of underrepresented minorities; namely, Chicano/Latino students whose resident freshmen numbers rose from 2.7% to 32.3% of admitted California freshmen. In other good news, the proportion of Chicano/Latino students transferring from community colleges increased to 29.3% from 26.8% for 2015.

  UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
  Prior to 2015 2015
Chicano/Latino of admitted California Freshmen 2.70% 32.30%
Chicano/Latino transferring from Community Colleges 26.80% 29.30%

Occupations, including those in management, business, science, and art, fared better for Mexican Americans. The number of Mexican Americans filling these occupations rose from 17.4% in 2014 to 17.5% in 2015.

  2012-15 OCCUPATIONS
  2012 2013 2014 2015
  Total Population Mexican Americans Total Population Mexican Americans Total Population Mexican Americans Total Population Mexican Americans
Management, Business, Science, & Art Occupations 36.10% 16.60% 36.30% 16.70% 36.90% 17.40% 37.10% 17.50%

The total number of Hispanics filling these occupations was 16.1% in 2015, a bit lower than Mexican Americans specifically.

Percentage of industry employment that is of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, 2014 annual averages

Industry sector Percent
Construction 27.3%
Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting 23.1
Leisure and hospitality 22.3
Other services 19.0
Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction 18.6
Transportation and utilities 17.2
Wholesale and retail trade 16.4
Total, all industries 16.1
Professional and business services 16.0
Manufacturing 15.8
Education and health services 11.5
Public administration 11.4
Financial activities 11.3

Information
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
The report shows that industrial employment for Mexican Americans remained the same for 2014 and 2015 at 10.2%.

  2012-15 INDUSTRY
  2012 2013 2014 2015
  Total Population Mexican Americans Total Population Mexican Americans Total Population Mexican Americans Total Population Mexican Americans
Professional, Scientific, Management, Administrative, & Waste Management Services, Occupations 10.90% 10.20% 11.10% 10.20% 11.40% 10.20% 11.30% 10.20%

The figures for Hispanic or Latino employment for 2015 and 2016 show a healthy increase.

According to the Pew Hispanic center, “Construction, professional and business services, health services, financial services and food services…showed healthy gains.” Most of the jobs gained by native-born Hispanic workers were in manufacturing, mostly durable goods (82,000 Hispanic workers in this industry), followed by wholesale and retail trade (79,000), publishing, broadcasting, communication and information services (55,000), and construction (54,000).

Foreign-born Hispanics had the most job gains in construction (417,000), followed by business and professional services (179,000). Together, those two industries accounted for almost three-quarters (74%) of all jobs gained by foreign-born Latinos between 2005 and 2006.

The business and professional services sector, which ranges from management and technical services to janitorial, landscaping, and waste management services, is also a key employer for non-Hispanic workers. Of the total increase in employment in 2005-06, non-Hispanic workers accounted for 410,000 employees in the industry, native-born workers 327,000, and foreign-born workers 83,000.

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Sources

Census Bureau, Selected Population Profile in the United States 2015

Pew Research Center

University of California

Bureau of Labor Statistics


  

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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