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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Political Science

UCLA alumnus’ friends, family urge release from wrongful detainment in Venezuela

“…Eyvin Hernandez, a double alumnus and a Los Angeles County public defender, went missing in late March 2022 following a vacation in Colombia after he accompanied a friend to the Venezuelan border, according to the LA Times. Martinez said Hernandez had no intentions of entering the country, but in April, he was confirmed to be arrested, charged with criminal association and conspiracy, and detained in Venezuela, according to NBC…”

https://dailybruin.com/2023/02/05/ucla-alumnus-friends-family-urge-release-from-wrongful-detainment-in-venezuela

 

Monthly encounters with migrants at U.S.-Mexico border remain near record highs

“The number of monthly migrant encounters had fallen to 16,182 – the second-lowest total in more than 20 years – in April 2020, shortly after the coronavirus outbreak forced the closure of the southwestern border and slowed migration across much of the world.

But encounters with migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border have soared since then, with 206,239 reported in November 2022, according to the latest available monthly data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the federal agency that encompasses the Border Patrol. Recent monthly totals far exceed the peak reached during the last major wave of migration at the U.S.-Mexico border in May 2019 and are roughly on par with the previous peak reached in March 2000…”

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2023/01/13/monthly-encounters-with-migrants-at-u-s–mexico-border-remain-near-record-highs/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=78d45753a2-Weekly_2023_01_14&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-78d45753a2-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

Mexico City, “fragile sanctuary” for South American journalists threatened with death

“On the fourth floor of a discreet building in southern Mexico, a door opens: “My life depends on your silence”warns Ezequiel Flores Contreras, inviting The world to enter this apartment without stamp. The tense smile, this reporter for the investigative weekly Process firmly holds the collar of a large, short-haired St. Hubert who serves as her guard dog. Like him, dozens of journalists threatened with death across Mexico took refuge in the capital. The gigantism of this megalopolis of more than 22 million inhabitants offers, at first sight, a form of protective anonymity in the deadliest country in the world for media professionals…”

https://globeecho.com/news/north-america/mexico-city-fragile-sanctuary-for-south-american-journalists-threatened-with-death/

What’s behind the Mexican wave of optimism?

“Mexico’s economy was relatively robust in 2022, while its equity market comfortably outperformed the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

In many ways the backdrop for 2023 looks considerably less favourable, yet there is optimism regarding Mexico’s outlook. Amid increased geopolitical concerns and a fundamental shift in global supply chains, Mexico stands to be a potential winner…”

https://www.schroders.com/en/us/professional-investor/insights/equities/whats-behind-the-mexican-wave-of-optimism/

As ‘Three Amigos’ meet in Mexico, experts call on leaders for North American vision

“With Canadian and Mexican manufacturers added in the 11th hour to Biden’s plan to encourage the sale of climate-friendly electric vehicles, there will be room to talk about more familiar irritants like trade disputes and U.S. protectionism…

…As a country that’s not immune to the influences of irregular migration and the flow of fentanyl at the U.S.-Mexico border, Canada will need to be part of that conversation as well, one that’s widely expected to dominate the agenda…”

https://www.sootoday.com/national-news/as-three-amigos-meet-in-mexico-experts-call-on-leaders-for-north-american-vision-6349468

 

First look: Latino consultants launch bipartisan news aggregation site

“A pair of Latino consultants — one Democrat and one Republican — is launching a new website focused specifically on curating news about Latino voters.

The big picture: Latino.vote aims to be a RealClearPolitics or Drudge Report-like aggregation source for any news about Hispanic voters, a growing bloc whose political power is being closely tracked amid recent shifts in voting behavior.

Mexican professionals provide health care in tragedy in Cuba

‘ “As part of the aid provided by the Mexican Government to deal with the damage caused by the fire at the Supertanker Base, 10 medical professionals from Mexico’s National Defense Secretariat arrived in Matanzas on Sunday,” Cuban Public Health Minister Jose Angel Portal said.

“Upon receiving them in Matanzas, we updated them on the situation in the province, exchanged experiences for the care of this type of injuries and explained the organization of the National Health System,” Portal wrote on his Twitter account…”

https://www.plenglish.com/news/2022/08/08/mexican-professionals-provide-health-care-in-tragedy-in-cuba/

 

Mexican American superhero saves Ukrainian civilians in comic book issue

“For the better part of a decade, the Mexican American superhero created by Héctor Rodríguez has helped immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border fight Mexican cartels, corrupt officials and human traffickers.

Now Mexico’s refusal to criticize Russia or support Ukraine has prompted the comic book creator to send “El Peso Hero” to war-torn Ukraine…”

https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/1091199402/mexican-american-superhero-saves-ukrainian-civilians-in-comic-book-issue

Fight Song Civil rights lawyer Jose Padilla champions the people of rural California.

‘Jose Padilla’s 40-plus years of “lawyering against power” began with a win before a skeptical judge—his father. After graduating from law school at UC Berkeley in 1978, Padilla, ’74, was poised to fulfill a promise he had made to the community leader who wrote him a recommendation for Stanford: He was coming home to the Imperial Valley, an expanse of sun-scorched scrubland snugged between San Diego and the Arizona border and transformed into prime farm country by the waters of the All-American Canal and the sweat of workers like Padilla’s grandparents…”

https://stanfordmag.org/contents/fight-song

The Quad: Chilean president-elect reflects political power of young progressives

“On March 11, 36-year-old Gabriel Boric will be sworn into office as the youngest president in Chile’s history. A member of the millennial generation, Boric has garnered media attention with his young age and activist past.

His win signifies what some political scientists have referred to as the “marea rosa” – or pink tide – a trend toward left-wing governments and away from neoliberal economic policies in democratic nations across Latin America..”

https://dailybruin.com/2022/03/09/the-quad-chilean-president-elect-reflects-political-power-of-young-progressives.

Mexican President accuses US of acting in bad faith

“Mexico, Feb 23 (Prensa Latina) President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday that United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken is misinformed about the assassinations of journalists in Mexico or is acting in bad faith…”

https://www.plenglish.com/news/2022/02/23/mexican-president-accuses-us-of-acting-in-bad-faith/

 

Can Mexico turbocharge pandemic nearshoring by US firms?

“…Encourage more US firms to move businesses they have offshored to China and Southeast Asia closer to home.“Some of our members have been successfully nearshoring to Mexico for several years,” Aburto told Al Jazeera. “About 5 percent of our members had taken up nearshoring prior to the pandemic.”

California nominates its first Latina judge to state Supreme Court

“Patricia Guerrero, a justice for the California 4th District Court of Appeal, has been nominated to serve as an associate justice of the California Supreme Court, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday.

If confirmed, Guerrero would be the first Latina to serve on the California Supreme Court…”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/california-nominates-first-latina-judge-state-supreme-court-rcna16367

 

Center for Mexican Studies seeks to merge academic scholarship, community action

“…Rivera-Salgado is currently helping to lead an initiative that forges a partnership between UCLA and three Mexican universities – the Autonomous University of Querétaro, the Metropolitan Autonomous University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The initiative, which began in May 2021, works to ensure labor rights are observed in the wake of the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which strengthened protections for workers. Through support from this partnership, each Mexican university plans to develop centers dedicated to the study of labor rights, similar to UCLA’s own Labor Center…”

https://dailybruin.com/2022/01/29/center-for-mexican-studies-seeks-to-merge-academic-scholarship-community-action

How Effectively Is Mexico Fighting the Covid Pandemic?

“… Like other populist regimes, Mexico’s federal government has refused to face reality and has instead downplayed the magnitude of the crisis while accusing adversaries of exaggerating it for political purposes. This bodes ill both for overcoming the pandemic and for Mexican democracy, as the attempt to generate an alternative narrative perpetuates Mexico’s poor management of Covid-19—now irrefutably one of the most deficient in the world, with a death rate of 252.7 per 100,000 inhabitants. The federal government’s release of the corrected pandemic figures, however, is good news. The revised data is consistent with the death toll for Mexico City, published a few months ago by different groups of experts, who sounded the alarm on the underreporting of deaths from Covid-19. It is encouraging that decades of investments in independent information systems financed by Mexican taxpayers, such as those of INEGI and the National Council for the…”

https://www.thedialogue.org/analysis/how-effectively-is-mexico-fighting-the-covid-pandemic/

 

In the Midst of Radicalism: Mexican American Moderates during the Chicano Movement, 1960–1978 (Volume 3) (New Directions in Tejano History)

“…The Chicano Movement of the 1960s and ’70s, like so much of the period’s politics, is best known for its radicalism: militancy, distrust of mainstream institutions, demands for rapid change. Less understood, yet no less significant in its aims, actions, and impact, was the movement’s moderate elements. In the Midst of Radicalism presents the first full account of these more mainstream liberal activists—those who rejected the politics of protest and worked within the system to promote social change for the Mexican American community…”

https://www.amazon.com/Midst-Radicalism-Moderates-1960-1978-Directions/dp/0806176563/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=in+the+midst+of+radicalism&qid=1639460522&s=books&sr=1-1

Latino coalition sues Texas government over ‘discriminatory district maps’

“95% of all new growth in the census came from either Latinos or other communities of color,” said Daniel Diaz, the director of organizing, LUPE.

Diaz said Latinos specifically have been packed into smaller districts.

“They’re being packed into one district so they don’t have enough representation in another district,” said Diaz.

Despite the growth in Latino populations, no new congressional districts reflect that, according to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF)…”

https://www.valleycentral.com/news/local-news/latino-coalition-sues-texas-government-over-discriminatory-district-maps/

Texas now more demographically diverse, 2020 Census count shows

“A majority of the Texas population is now made up of people identifying as racial and ethnic groups other than white, according to information released Aug. 12 by the U.S. Census Bureau. The information is based on the 2020 Census count and will be used by state legislators to draw up new political districts this fall.

A 15.9 percent increase in population netted Texas two additional members in Congress. The areas they will represent will be determined during a fall special session of the Texas Legislature.

The total population in Texas is now 29,145,505. According to the 2020 Census, the population is split into the follow percentages among racial and ethnic groups:

The new Latino landscape The swift growth of U.S. Latinos is reshaping big states and small towns. Meet the faces of a new era.

‘In New Hampshire, a Roman Catholic church where Irish and French Canadian immigrants used to worship now has the state’s largest Latino congregation. In the Deep South, a county in Georgia is one of the nation’s top 10 in diversity. Hispanics accounted for over half of the nation’s population growth in the last decade. This is not just reflected in larger cities, but in mountain towns, Southern neighborhoods and Midwestern prairies. “The Latino population has been dispersing across the United States for years — a reflection of where the nation’s population is moving and where opportunities are located,” said Mark Hugo Lopez, director of race and ethnicity research at the Pew Research Center…”

https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/new-latino-landscape/

Latin American leaders divided on OAS at regional meeting

“…Lopez Obrador has suggested the OAS is interventionist and a tool of the United States. But he did not formally propose leaving the organization. Rather, he opposed any kind of sanctions and said questions of human rights and democracy should only be considered if a country accused of violations requests that…(?)

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/nation-world/story/2021-09-18/latin-american-leaders-divided-on-oas-at-regional-meeting?fbclid=IwAR1bM2CV8PtUJa9AZgF-oflGKR6PBN6JFgvO4KhHw-_e_g0mcIael4x00l4


  

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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