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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These Philadelphia-area Latinos had significant achievements in 2020
“In 2020, we experienced the first pandemic in the last century. We saw a new social justice movement ignited. We heard loud calls for structural reform to achieve real equality.
In the Philadelphia region, Latinos, who make up 15 percent of the population, have suffered many losses: their jobs, economic stability, and their health and wellness…”
https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-camden-latino-achievements-goals-2020-20201230.html
Mexico is severely — and maybe purposely — undercounting its coronavirus deaths
“By some estimates, Mexico’s coronavirus cases are 17 times higher than officially reported….
“The numbers do not appear to reflect the death toll for certain,” Donna Patterson, an expert on Mexico’s health care system at Delaware State University, told me. “At the federal level, the numbers aren’t being reported accurately.”
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/13/21255012/coronavirus-covid-19-mexico-death-count-cases
Biden Picks Connecticut Schools Chief Miguel Cardona As Education Secretary
“…Much of Cardona’s recent tenure has focused on reopening the state’s schools during the pandemic. According to The Connecticut Mirror, a local newspaper, about one-third of the state’s public school students currently are able to attend school in person full time. Like many state and district leaders across the country, Cardona has been balancing demands from teachers unions and parents amid budget constraints…”
Covid: Mexico passes 100,000 coronavirus deaths
“Mexico has recorded more than 100,000 deaths from Covid-19 – the fourth country to pass the sombre milestone.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the country has suffered 100,104 deaths since the pandemic began.
The news comes just days after the world’s largest Spanish-speaking country reported more than one million infections.
Government officials have acknowledged that the true toll from the pandemic is likely higher.
Only the US, Brazil and India have recorded more deaths than Mexico, which has a population of roughly 125 million. Its mortality rate of 9.8% is one of the highest in the world, according to Johns Hopkins data…”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-55011840
President-elect Biden picked this Bay Area doctor to serve on his COVID task force
“We are optimistic. We plan to start turning this thing around in January,” said Dr. Robert Rodriguez, a professor in UCSF’s department of emergency medicine and an emergency physician at San Francisco General Hospital…”
Mortality Analyses Share: COVID-19 world wide comparison
“For the twenty countries currently most affected by COVID-19 worldwide, the bars in the chart below show the number of deaths either per 100 confirmed cases (observed case-fatality ratio) or per 100,000 population (this represents a country’s general population, with both confirmed cases and healthy people). Countries at the top of this figure have the most deaths proportionally to their COVID-19 cases or population, not necessarily the most deaths overall…”
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality
Corona virus Economic Downturn Has Hit Latinos Especially Hard
“The coronavirus outbreak has significantly harmed the finances of U.S. Hispanics. As the nation’s economy contracted at a record rate in recent months, the group’s unemployment rate rose sharply, particularly among Hispanic women, and remains higher among Hispanic workers than U.S. workers overall. With Hispanic households absorbing lost jobs and wages, many have said they may not be able to pay their bills. Yet even before the outbreak, Hispanics were concerned about their economic situation despite near record low levels of unemployment through the end of 2019…”
EXPO PRODUCCIÓN® Announces New 2021 Dates
“MEXICO CITY — September 17, 2020 — Tarsus México and Exposition Development Company, Inc. (ExpoDevCo) announce new dates for the sixth edition of EXPO PRODUCCIÓN. The show will now take place June 15 – 17, 2021 instead of the originally scheduled March 2021 dates at Centro Citibanamex, Mexico City.
The organizers are committed to providing a safe, sanitary and professional event while maintaining the quality that defines EXPO PRODUCCIÓN. The new dates will allow the organizers, all participants, and the industry more time to plan and prepare due to the global pandemic situation.
The power of being face-to-face is essential for developing successful and strategic business relationships and the organizers are prioritizing the well-being of all participants that will attend the event…”
https://www.textileworld.com/textile-world/2020/09/expo-produccion-announces-new-2021-dates/
Mexican ambassador to US discusses immigration, trade in Wednesday event
“Martha Bárcena Coqui, Mexican ambassador to the United States since December 2018 and the first woman to hold the position, spoke to Duke students Wednesday in a virtual event.Topics focused on United States-Mexico relations, increasing tensions due to immigration, the replacement of the North American Free Trade Agreement by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and the impact of COVID-19 on an already-complex diplomatic relationship. “Be proud of your culture and what you represent,” Bárcena urged students as she reflected on the parallel trends of increasing opportunities for Mexican Americans and increased hostility toward immigrants.In the past 30 years, she argued, the United States and Mexico have gone from being almost distant neighbors to being essential trade partners, thanks to agreements such as NAFTA. Supply chains between the two—as well as Canada—have become completely integrated in areas ranging from pharmaceutical supplies to automotive parts. The free trade area encompassing Mexico and the United States is now valued at over $1.3 trillion, which, as Bárcena points out, is greater than the gross domestic products of some nations in the Group of 20…”
What’s changed at the U.S.-Mexico border because of COVID-19?
“Hundreds of thousands of people cross back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico every day for a number of reasons: maybe they have a job on one side and live on the other, maybe they have family that needs attention. You don’t think of a border crossing as a mass gathering, but it essentially is….”
https://www.marketplace.org/2020/03/12/covid-19-us-mexico-border/
Pandemic presents a chance to address continued disparities in health care
“…The COVID-19 pandemic and national demonstrations against the deaths of Black Americans have shed light on the brutal manifestations of systemic racism. Across humanity’s collective history, stories have elevated marginalized voices and breathed life into once broken structures. Through “In My Words,” community members and Daily Bruin staffers share their own experiences with racial identities and perspectives on the current state of race at UCLA and across the nation…”
Force for Good
“…The still surging COVID-19 crisis has disproportionately affected marginalized communities nearly anywhere you look. That disparity is marked in northern Santa Barbara County, where a vast majority of positive cases have been recorded among its populations of Indigenous migrants and undocumented residents.
The Latinx and Indigenous Migrant COVID-19 Response Task Force —conceived by Dr. Van Do-Reynoso, director of the Santa Barbara County Department of Public Health, and helmed by physician Melissa Smith, director of health equity initiatives at UC Santa Barbara — is working to help these individuals by focusing on their experiences, health education and equitable treatment in the face of the pandemic…”
Stephen Miller Not Saying Americans In Mexico Can’t Come Home … Yet
“Time for some more security theater from the Trump administration. They don’t have a plan to deal with COVID-19, but they’re queuing up some more empty gestures, so get ready to please clap.
The New York Times was first to report that Trump’s helpful minions are debating a plan to fight the virus by excluding American citizens and legal US residents from entering the country if border agents believe they may have been exposed to the virus. Never mind that we’re arguably the worst hotspot on earth, with endemic community spread. Forget about the big, beautiful wall around the country since no one else will let us in anymore. Ignore the fact that the president is now scream-tweeting a demand that college football players risk their longterm health for our amusement…”
https://www.wonkette.com/stephen-miller-not-saying-americans-in-mexico-cant-come-home-yet
Latino businesses have been hit hard by the pandemic. But owners won’t give up hope
“Maria Palacio had made it.
She grew up on a coffee farm in Colombia. She knew how little money coffee farms and their workers made. When she came to the U.S. in 2010, she wanted to change that, so she founded Progeny Coffee in Palo Alto to help bring growers out of poverty.
Soon, she began supplying Google, Facebook, Microsoft and LinkedIn, providing coffee for the tech companies’ huge campuses, which allowed her to bring awareness to the coffee farmers she started all of this for.
Then tech companies began sending workers home, closing their campuses in Silicon Valley and their towers in San Francisco in the weeks before the coronavirus was officially declared a pandemic. Sales at the company, now based in Berkeley, dropped by 97% after shelter-in-place hit, Palacio said…”
Mexico City’s Open for Atlanta Tourists, but Are They Bold Enough to Travel?
“…While U.S. citizens barred from most of Europe in what would be prime travel season as COVID-19 cases here continue to grow by the tens of thousands, Mexico has flung open its doors, making it one of the few foreign destinations to which cooped up American tourists can fly for some R&R.
To be clear, Mexico hasn’t conquered the pandemic within its own borders. The country added more than 12,000 confirmed cases and 829 deaths Wednesday to bring its totals to nearly 450,000 and almost 50,000, respectively. Some experts fear the numbers could be much higher, as the country has only conducted about 1 million tests…”
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change appointed as Executive Secretary Patricia Espinoza Appointed for Second Term
“…Members of the COP Bureau unanimously agreed with the re-appointment, highlighting the Executive Secretary’s excellent leadership and commitment to the climate change agenda and her dedication to ensuring the continuous guidance and support of the UNFCCC Secretariat to Parties and the UNFCCC process in general.
Ambassador of Mexico to Germany from 2001 to 2002 and from 2012 to 2016, Ms. Espinosa was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico from 2006 to 2012, bringing more than 30 years of experience at highest levels in international relations, specialized in climate change, global governance, sustainable development, gender equality and protection of human rights…”
https://unfccc.int/news/unfccc-executive-secretary-patricia-espinosa-appointed-for-second-term
Hispanics demonstrate wide variation in trust of health information sources
“..Lack of knowledge about cancer services, exacerbated by relatively limited access to those services, is considered a major contributor to those disparities,” said the study’s lead author, Marlene Camacho-Rivera, MS, MPH, ScD, assistant professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, New York. “In this study, we aimed to assess trust in health information across various sources and evaluate how that trust may vary by gender, age, ethnic background, and socioeconomic background…”
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-07-hispanics-wide-variation-health-sources.html
Better coordination is key to reenergizing US-Mexico trade
“Mexico and the United States are striving to reopen their integrated supply chains while grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic. Mexico is the United States’s biggest trading partner and the U.S. buys about 80 percent of Mexico’s imports.
The two countries, along with Canada, also plan to launch the new North American trade agreement — USMCA — on July 1. That could help the continent’s economies rebound from the pandemic. To maximize the impact on jobs and prosperity, however, USMCA’s launch and reopening supply chains need to be managed well. ..”
Pristine Cancun greets excited tourists as the rest of Mexico desperately waits to reopen
“…An irony of the coronavirus pandemic is that the idyllic Mexico beach vacation seen in the brochures really does exist now: The white sand beaches are sparkling clean and empty on the Caribbean coast, the water is clear on the Pacific Coast and the waters around the resort of Los Cabos are teeming with fish after 10 weeks with no boats going out. There are two-for-one deals and very eager staff.
It’s all only an airline flight – and a taxi ride and a reception desk – away, and that’s the problem…”
Mexican-American Author Highlights in Comics The Heroism of Frontline Workers Amid Pandemic
“A comic book called El Pesos Hero by Héctor González Rodríguez III is about a superhero who defends people from various evil forces such as corrupt individuals. Furthermore, the literary masterpiece focuses on a superhero saving people from drug cartels. Also, the comic book tells the story of a superhero who also combats human traffickers, according to an article. Many of his heroic acts involve the US-Mexican border which for many years had played a significant role in the history of Mexico and the immigrants who crossed the borders to live in the United States…”
