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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Science

Mexico got rid of daylight saving time. Should the U.S. end it, too?

“Most Americans on Sunday will “spring forward,” the annual ritual of advancing our clocks by an hour in a bid to capture more sunlight — while dealing with the inevitable grogginess and health risks that result.

But most Mexicans won’t adjust their clocks this spring after their country ended daylight saving time and stopped springing forward last year, a policy that local experts and officials say has led to better sleep and other benefits…”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/03/08/daylight-saving-time-debate-mexico-end/

How many Mexican gray wolves call New Mexico home?

“…“Each year, the free-roaming Mexican wolf population numbers increase and the areas they occupy expands. Genetic management using pups from captivity is also showing results. In total, 99 pups carefully selected for their genetic value have been placed in 40 wild dens since 2016, and some of these fosters have produced litters of their own. While recovery is in the future, examining the last decade of data certainly provides optimism that recovery will be achieved.”…”

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/experts-weigh-in-on-new-numbers-for-mexican-gray-wolves—-how-many/article_b5f77984-db2e-11ee-9fb3-bf07a4ea13af.html

Researchers develop molecules for a new class of antibiotics that can overcome drug resistant bacteria

“About a decade ago, researchers in UC Santa Barbara chemistry professor Guillermo Bazan’s lab began to observe a recurring challenge in their research: Some of the compounds they were developing to harness energy from bacteria were instead killing the microbes. Not good if the objective of the project was to harness the metabolism of living bacteria to produce electricity…”

https://news.ucsb.edu/2024/021365/researchers-develop-molecules-new-class-antibiotics-can-overcome-drug-resistant?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Researchers%20develop%20molecules%20for%20a%20new%20class%20of%20antibiotics%20that%20can%20overcome%20drug%20resistant%20bacteria&utm_campaign=February%2022%2C%202024

Cesar Millan Net Worth

“Cesar Millan, the renowned Mexican-American dog trainer, author, and TV personality, has amassed a net worth of $20 million through his groundbreaking work in the world of canine behavior and training. Best known for his hit television series “Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan,” he has revolutionized the way people understand and interact with their furry companions…”

https://kahawatungu.com/cesar-millan-net-worth/

Experts Warn of High Sargassum Seaweed Levels in Mexico, Caribbean and Florida

“…The sargassum mass is “nearly five times larger” than the mass discovered last year and could arrive by February and last through October.

A research group, Sargassum Monitoring, said the seaweed mass could reach the northern Antilles in around three weeks before landing on beaches in the Dominican Republic in March…”

https://www.travelpulse.ca/news/impacting-travel/experts-warn-of-high-sargassum-seaweed-levels-in-mexico-caribbean-and-florida

 

Thunderbird at ASU announces regional Center of Excellence in Mexico

“November 29, 2023

In a move that signaled a significant step forward in its commitment to fostering innovation and global, digital leadership in Latin America, the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, in partnership with Cintana Education and the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara (UAG), has announced a new regional Center of Excellence in Mexico…”

https://news.asu.edu/20231128-thunderbird-asu-announces-regional-center-excellence-mexico-advancing-access-education

t News to Share? Send 2 FREE Releases ↓ NATIVE AMERICAN/HISPANIC STUDENTS & PROFESSIONALS SHINE-SACNAS 2023 NATIONAL DIVERSITY IN STEM CONFERENCE #2023NDiSTEM

“Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science holds nation’s first, all-Native American/Indigenous session focused on mathematics.

We’re investing in the current and future workforce. We want to help lead change at the highest level.”

— Juan Amador, FASAE, CAE, SACNAS Executive Director

PORTLAND, OR, USA, October 28, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ — SACNAS (Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science) will continue its National Diversity in STEM (NDiSTEM) Conference at Oregon’s Portland Convention Center on Saturday. Friday’s highlights included the nation’s first-ever all-Native American/Indigenous session focused on mathematics, Indigenous Perspectives in…”

https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/664710024/native-american-hispanic-students-professionals-shine-sacnas-2023-national-diversity-in-stem-conference-2023ndistem

UTRGV Mexican-American professor guides next generation of STEM professionals

“EDINBURG — Cristina Villalobos’ life is a mathematical statement: to get an answer you have to follow necessary steps, but her equation is far from over and she does it all while guiding Hispanic students in their own equations of life.

Villalobos is a Myles and Slyvia Aaronson endowed professor in the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and the founding director of the Center of Excellence in STEM…”

https://myrgv.com/local-news/2023/09/15/utrgv-mexican-american-professor-guides-next-generation-of-stem-professionals/

 

Editorial: Mexico decriminalizes abortion while U.S. states want to criminalize it

“The Mexican Supreme Court of Justice decision decriminalizing abortion last week is a landmark ruling in a country that has historically outlawed the procedure with harsh penalties for the women who sought it and the healthcare professionals who provided it.

The ruling, which governs federal law in a nation of states, makes abortion legal in federal health institutions and requires the public health service to offer it. The decision does not automatically make abortion legal in all of Mexico (the way that the Roe vs. Wade decision had made abortion legal in all of the United States). But it could speed up a movement by Mexican states to legalize the procedure. Currently, 12 out of 32 states have decriminalized abortion…”

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-09-10/editorial-mexico-decriminalizes-abortion-while-u-s-states-want-to-criminalize-it

Mexican doctor wins 2023 Carlos Slim Health Award

“…Dr. José Alejandro Madrigal Fernández is a physician at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Thereafter, he studied the specialty and the doctorate at the universities of Harvard, London and Stanford. His research focuses on immunotherapy and stem cell transplantation

Dr. Madrigal’s leadership led him to pioneer the establishment of donor registries and umbilical cord banks around the world. He was the founder and scientific director of the Anthony Nolan Cellular Therapy Center. His leadership led him to chair the European Transplant Society. Besides. He was Vice-Chancellor for Latin America at University College London.

His research has resulted in the publication of over 500 articles in the world’s most prestigious journals, including Nature, Nature Genetics and The Lancet. He is currently conducting research on cell therapy against different types of cancer…”

https://worldnationnews.com/mexican-doctor-wins-2023-carlos-slim-health-award/

Latin America Roundup: Mexico, Colombia and Cuba press for Pan-American regulatory body

“A frequent post-pandemic theme among Latin American agencies has been coordination and harmonization among regional regulators.
Earlier this year the Mexican government formally backed the creation of a Latin American Medicines Agency, a pan-Latin America body modeled after the European Medicines Agency, that would “lead to health self-sufficiency and guarantee access to quality, safe and effective medicines for the region.” Mexico Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard cited the pandemic as a rationale for the effort, noting that “we do not want to forget the lessons of the pandemic … we risk facing something similar again at any moment.”
The push toward a regional super-agency is being spearheaded by Mexico’s Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (COFEPRIS), with strong support from Colombia’s National Institute of Food and Drug Monitoring (INVIMA), and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC)…”

https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2023/3/latin-america-roundup-mexico-colombia-and-cuba-pre

 

UCLA Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion grants awards to student leaders

“…Award recipient Norma Sandoval said that her own experiences as a first-generation student in the sciences led her to support younger students in the field as well.

Sandoval, a molecular, cellular, and integrative physiology doctoral student, was nominated for the EDI Student Leadership Award by her mentor Stephanie Correa, an assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology at UCLA.

She said it was meaningful to work with people such as Correa, who understands her values and supports the work she’s done, adding that she hopes to fulfill a similar role for other students looking into the field of science…”

https://dailybruin.com/2023/03/05/ucla-office-of-equity-diversity-and-inclusion-grants-awards-to-student-leaders

 

UCLA appoints Miguel García-Garibay as senior dean of UCLA College

“UCLA appointed current dean of physical sciences Miguel García-Garibay as senior dean of UCLA College on Tuesday.

Executive vice chancellor and provost Darnell Hunt announced the two-year term appointment of García-Garibay, which began Nov. 1. García-Garibay will also continue in his role as dean of physical sciences…”

https://dailybruin.com/2022/11/04/ucla-appoints-miguel-garca-garibay-as-senior-dean-of-ucla-college

 

National Hispanic Heritage Month: Making STEM Work for Everyone

“…Diana Trujillo’s Instagram handle is @fromcalitomar. That’s not Cali for California. It’s Cali, Colombia, her hometown, and she made it to Mars. The Colombia native was NASA’s flight director for the Mars 2020 mission.

Trujillo is just one name among many Hispanics making strides in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Yet today, Hispanic high school students in STEM courses are less likely to have internet access at home or feel school is preparing them for digital citizenship…”

https://www.yahoo.com/now/national-hispanic-heritage-month-making-131500709.html

 

Discover the Story of Ynés Mexía, the First Mexican-American Botanist and Environmentalist

“Although climate change has been a heated topic in recent years, the environmental movement has been a long-standing fight. One of the first people involved in the preservation of the Redwood trees in California was Ynés Mexía, a botanist who found her love for environmentalism in her 50s and is one of the most highly-renowned collectors of plant specimens in the U.S.

Ynés Mexía was born in Washington D.C in 1870 and, because of her father’s job as a diplomat, she moved quite a bit in her life, having lived in Philadelphia and Ciudad de México before moving to San Francisco in 1908. She struggled with many mental health challenges and experienced many hardships like her father’s death, the death of her first husband, and a brutal divorce from her second husband.,,”

https://belatina.com/ynes-mexia-first-mexican-american-botanist/

With Lack of Opportunities for Mexican Doctors, Should They Join the Export Revolution?

“The outlook is pretty dim for doctors working in Mexico. The job market offers limited opportunities for health professionals in the country, who believe that only through policy support from the federal government, things will then turn positive.

Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador got grilled in early May after announcing the hiring of 500 Cuban health professionals to be enrolled into the ranks of the country’s public health system. López Obrador claimed it as a necessary measure to combat Mexico’s deficit of health specialists, but doctors and universities argued otherwise, pointing to the long lines of unemployed nationals who wait for a shot at working in one of the country’s several public health institutions..”

https://nearshoreamericas.com/with-lack-of-opportunities-for-mexican-doctors-should-they-join-the-export-revolution/.

‘Calculating Brilliance’ Book reveals new insights into astronomy and politics of the Maya Terminal Classic period

How to Fix Big Tech’s Diversity Problem

“After years of big promises and little change, Silicon Valley experienced a tiny breakthrough in raising diversity among its workforce, where women, Black, and Hispanic workers have long been underrepresented. On Jan. 12, Twitter said that it had boosted the proportion of Black employees at its U.S. locations to 9.4 percent from 6.9 percent in only one year and the share of Hispanic workers to 8.0 percent from 5.5 percent. Even if the company hasn’t revealed the seniority levels and functional areas where the hiring took place, the numbers attest to substantial changes, especially considering the lack of progress on diversity at other tech companies. How did it pull it off? Can others do the same? And can Twitter do even better? The answer is yes to all…”

https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/01/30/big-tech-diversity-recruiting-silicon-valley/

Filtering Out the Noise

“It’s a familiar situation: You’re talking to a friend at a restaurant, and despite the background din, you still hear each other clearly. Obviously, our brains are capable of filtering out noise, but scientists are still learning how.

Using fruit flies as a model, Luis Franco(link is external), a postdoctoral fellow at UC Santa Barbara, set out to investigate the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. He and his colleague, Emre Yaski at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, in Norway,…”

https://www.news.ucsb.edu/2022/020546/filtering-out-noise?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Filtering%20Out%20the%20Noise&utm_campaign=February%2017%2C%202022

Alvaro Sahagun Awarded the Parrish Law Firm Academic Scholarship

“…Their hard work (and his own) has paid off. A former student of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Sahagun is now pursuing a doctoral degree in electrical engineering at the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). There, he focuses his studies on “solid-state devices and nanotechnology,” he told Parrish Law Firm representatives…”

https://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/alvaro-sahagun-awarded-the-parrish-law-firm-academic-scholarship

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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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