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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History

Mexican American Youth Organization: Avant-guarde of the Chicano movement in Texas

A Navarro – 2014 – books.google.com
… Although other sectors were involved (eg, campesinos, workers, professionals, etc.), it was the youths who became the most … To understand the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO),then, itis important to understand the relationships among the divergent movements …
Link to book

The United States and Mexico: Forging a Special Relationship

Should the United States and Mexico establish a “special relationship,” similar to those the US maintains with Great Britain and Israel? For Samir Tata, an increasingly self-confident and politically active Mexican – American population means that the historical, geographical, demographic and economic case has never been more compelling…
Link to article

Wells Fargo Foundation donates $50,000 to improve El Soldado Mexican American Veterans Memorial

SACRAMENTO – Among tall trees and nestled on a pillar stands El Soldado or as it has more recently been called, the Mexican American Veterans Memorial.
This monument to the gallant and patriotic military service of Latino/Hispanic veterans is well on its way to receiving a much needed facelift thanks to the commitment from individuals and organizations alike.
The Wells Fargo Foundation is the latest such organization to demonstrate its commitment, not just to veterans and their families, but also to the monuments that showcase their patriotic service.
“On behalf of all veterans, but especially Latino/Hispanic veterans, we are proud to accept this $50,000 donation from the Wells Fargo Foundation,” said Peter J. Gravett, CalVet secretary. “This donation allows us to take a giant step forward in our quest to beautify and enhance El Soldado.”
California is home to approximately 1.8 million veterans of which nearly 272,000 are Hispanic/Latino. El Soldado/the Mexican American Veterans Memorial serves as a testament to the service and contributions of these Hispanic/Latino veterans…
Link to article

Manhattan College History Professor Julie Leininger Pycior Publishes Book on Mexican-American Activism

Historian Julie Leininger Pycior, Ph.D., professor of history at Manhattan College, recently published her newest book, “Democratic Renewal and the Mutual Aid Legacy of US Mexicans.” Pycior’s latest book traces the historic mutual aid organizing of Mexican-Americans, from its early origins after the Mexican-American War to its present day impact on important policy issues such as immigration…
Link to press release

In Defense of My People: Alonso S. Perales and the Development of Mexican-American Public Intellectuals ed. by Michael A. Olivas (review)

JR Buriel – Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 2014
… Perales’s professional work on behalf of Mexican Americans entailed legal practice on social
justice cases involving equality in employment … Mario T. García calls in Mexican Americans:
Leadership, Ideol- ogy, and Identity, 1930–1960, “The Mexican-American Generation” (1989 …
Link to abstract

Hispanics Are Forgotten in Civil Rights History

Whenever civil rights has been covered in history class, or when I’ve seen a documentary or read an article concerning such, I have always been very aware of what is missing, and it is something that I am interested in and looking for. As an American of Hispanic descent, I never see any information related to my ethnicity’s cause for civil rights. Where is the plight of Hispanics represented in the civil rights discussion and history of the United States…
Link to article

Ruben Salazar questioned his own Chicano identity

By Zita Arocha

During a television interview shortly before newsman Ruben Salazar was killed by cops during a 1970 Chicano Anti-War march in Los Angeles, the now legendary Mexican-American journalist asked: “Why do I always have to apologize to Americans for Mexicans and to Mexicans for Americans?”
Link to article

Ulysses S. Grant: Birth to the Mexican-American War

PK Sanfilippo – A Companion to the Reconstruction Presidents …, 2014 – books.google.com

Hundreds of books, articles, and manuscripts about Ulysses S. Grant have been written and
published since his rise to fame during America’s Civil War. In fact, a 2005 bibliography of
Grant-related publications compiled by Marie Kelsey includes over 4,000 items in its 475 …
Link to preview

Ian Heney López on the Dog Whistle Politics of Race: Interview with Bill Boyers

February 28, 2014

What do Cadillac-driving “welfare queens,” a “food stamp president” and the “lazy, dependent and entitled” 47 percent tell us about post-racial America? They’re all examples of a type of coded racism that this week’s guest, Ian Haney López, writes about in his new book, Dog Whistle Politics.
Link to interview

Reduction of Non-adherent Behaviour in a Mexican-American Adolescent with Type 2 Diabetes

E Piven, R Duran – Occupational Therapy International, 2014
… In addition, fatalismo (a Mexican-American fatalistic belief about God’s control over oneself) may
pose challenges to the development of an … Seeking help from a professional has been viewed
as an outward demonstration of weakness that challenged machismo and…
Link to abstract

From Coveralls To Zoot Suits: The Lives of Mexican American Women on the World War II Home Front

N Molina – Southern California Quarterly, 2014
… The final essay in Regionalists on the Left—and the closest thing to a conclusion the book
offers—is Steiner’s treatment of the personal, professional, and political … FROM COVERALLS TO
ZOOT SUITS: The Lives of Mexican American Women on the World War II Home Front. …

Link to preview

The Woman in the Zoot Suit: Gender, Nationalism, and the Cultural Politics of Memory

DIVThe Mexican American woman zoot suiter, or pachuca, often wore a V-neck sweater or a long, broad-shouldered coat, a knee-length pleated skirt, fishnet stockings or bobby socks, platform heels or saddle shoes, dark lipstick, and a bouffant. Or she donned the same style of zoot suit that her male counterparts wore. With their striking attire, pachucos and pachucas represented a new generation of Mexican American youth, which arrived on the public scene in the 1940s. Yet while pachucos have often been the subject of literature, visual art, and scholarship, The Woman in the Zoot Suit is the first book focused on pachucas.
Link to reviews

Demographic Shift In The Big Apple: First Mexican-American Elected Official

Just a generation ago, Mexicans were a rarity in the Big Apple.

But now they are New York City’s fastest-growing Hispanic group, numbering well over 300,000 and comprising more than 12 percent of the city’s Latino population. It’s part of a demographic shift that, on the other end, has witnessed the city’s “Old Guard” – Puerto Ricans and Dominicans – seeing their numbers decline over the years.

Link to article

Two legacies: how blacks and Mexican-Americans helped shape University of Texas history

This article was written by Susan Smith and publised in “Diverse Issues in Higher Education

Before Heman Sweatt, an African-American from Houston, won his lawsuit to attend the University of Texas School of Law, Carlos Cadena, a Mexican-American from San Antonio, was among its brightest students. Cadena graduated summa cum laude from the law school in 1940, a decade before Sweatt’s lawsuit forced UT to open its graduate and professional programs to Blacks

Link to article


  

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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