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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Activists’ network in Mexico helps U.S. women get abortions
“CHIHUAHUA, Mexico (AP) — Marcela Castro’s office in Chihuahua is more than 100 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, yet the distance doesn’t prevent her from assisting women in the United States in circumventing recently imposed bans on abortion.
From the headquarters of Marea Verde Chihuahua, an organization that has supported reproductive rights in northern Mexico since 2018, Castro and her colleagues provide virtual guidance, as well as shipments of abortion pills for women who want to terminate a pregnancy on their own…”
https://www.metro.us/activists-network-in-mexico-helps-u-s-women-get-abortions/
Chicano/a studies chair Aída Hurtado named a fellow of American Education Research Association
“…Hurtado is among 24 individuals named to the 2023 AERA Fellows Program which honors scholars for their exceptional contributions to education research. Her work has focused on intersectional feminisms, particularly the effects of gender on educational success. In a novel way, she has looked at educational achievement with a focus on Latinas and Chicanas, ultimately disproving the idea that traditional Latino families just want their children to get married and have more children…”
Student Jasmine Gomez sells designed Slayed Sets to accessorize nails
“Jasmine Gomez’s Slayed Sets is nailing what it means to be a small business.
In August 2021, the fourth-year Chicana and Chicano studies and education and social transformation student launched Slayed Sets, which sells custom ready-to-wear press-on nails. Gomez said she started doing her own nails during her freshman year of college and came up with the idea of Slayed Sets after diving deeper into nail art at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic…”
Sunday Morning Eva Longoria: “You don’t have to be a politician to be political”
“When Eva Longoria invited “Sunday Morning” over to her Beverly Hills home for lunch, we assumed it was just that, lunch. But she also served up a tasty morsel of culinary history, too. “People think Mexico’s just about tacos and tequila,” she said. “Mexican cuisine is the only cuisine in its entirety protected by UNESCO as a World Heritage treasure – corns, beans, chili, chocolate, vanilla, avocado…”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eva-longoria-searching-for-mexico-desperate-housewives/
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…”
This Mexican Activist Is Helping Americans Defy Abortion Bans, Time Magazine Woman of the Year
“For Verónica Cruz Sánchez, the past year has felt like traveling back in time. Since 2000, Cruz’s feminist activist network, Las Libres, has transformed the experience of getting an abortion in Guanajuato, a deeply conservative Mexican state that had criminalized abortion in almost all circumstances. Cruz and her colleagues have worked to distribute misoprostol, a WHO-approved abortion pill, across Guanajuato, helping women feel confident in its safety, and inspiring similar networks in other Mexican states. But north of the border, the mood is more tense. “In the U.S., the women we see are terrified,” Cruz says. “They have very little knowledge about the pills.”…”
Bárbara Hernández Huerta
“Bárbara Hernández Huerta completed the 20 Bridges Swim around Manhattan Island in 7 hours 59 minutes to achieve the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming and an unprecedented 7.5 km high-altitude swim across Chungará Lake in the Andes Mountains in 10°C water in 2 hours 11 minutes at 4,517 meters in altitude, and a new 9.5 km course across the Beagle Channel in 1 hour 55 minutes in 7.8°C water, and won the 30-39 age group on the International Winter Swimming Association World Cup…”
https://www.openwaterswimming.com/contestants/barbara-hernandez-huerta/
First Latina and woman sworn in as Alameda County sheriff
“OAKLAND, Calif. – It was a historic moment Tuesday as Yesenia Sanchez was sworn in as Alameda County sheriff. Sanchez, a 25-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, is the first woman and Latina to fill the role…”
https://www.ktvu.com/news/first-latina-and-woman-sworn-in-as-alameda-county-sheriff
Recording Latinx Dance Histories
“…Originally from the El Paso/Juárez border between Texas and the Mexican state of Chihuahua, it was Avelar’s time and work in New York City that crystalized her identity as a fronteriza (borderlands) artist. Early on, she knew her goal was to research and create accessible, inclusive dance practices anchored in Chicanx and Latinx feminism and border theory…”
Becky G Boyfriend: Who Is Sebastian Lletget?
“Gomez was born to Mexican-American parents, Francisco Gomez and Alejandra Gomez. She shares the same parents with her three siblings; two brothers, Alex Gomez and Frankie Gomez and her younger sister, Stephanie Gomez
Gomez was up in Moreno Valley, where at the age of nine her family had to move out of their home owing to financial difficulties and into the converted garage of her grandparents’ home. Gomez started performing voiceover and commercial work as a part-time profession to support her family…”
https://www.ghgossip.com/becky-g-boyfriend-who-is-sebastian-lletget/
‘Emma Tenayuca Memorial Way’ first step in new effort to honor Mexican-American legacy in San Antonio
“…Tenayuca led the 1938 pecan-shellers’ strike of nearly 12,000 mostly Mexican-American workers. The strike protested unjust wages and horrible working conditions, and it is still the biggest in San Antonio’s history. Her niece and nephew, Sharyll Teneyuca — who spells her last name differently — and Dennis Campa, were present at the announcement and spoke about who Tenayuca was…”
Mexican-American Judge Teresa Sarmina immortalized at Philly City Hall
“In the storied walls of Philadelphia City Hall now hangs a portrait of Honorable Teresa Sarmina, a Mexican-American judge who served in the city’s judicial system for decades and whose name now resides among the Hispanic legal caliber in Pennsylvania…”
https://aldianews.com/en/politics/elected-officials/judge-sarminas-portrait
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
Librarian of Congress Names Ada Limón the Nation’s 24th U.S. Poet Laureate
“…Ada Limón was born in Sonoma, California, in 1976 and is of Mexican ancestry. She is the author of six poetry collections, including “The Carrying” (Milkweed Editions, 2018), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry; “Bright Dead Things” (2015), a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Books Critics Circle Award; “Sharks in the Rivers” (2010); “Lucky Wreck” (Autumn House, 2006); and “This Big Fake World” (Pearl Editions, 2006). She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University and is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, and the Kentucky Foundation for Women…”
Pasadena Mexican American History Association Honors “Rosie” and South Pasadena Police Detective
“Commemorating more than 25 years of service to Pasadena, the Pasadena Mexican American History Association Sunday celebrated two “local heroes,” as they honored 99-year-old Herlinda Ruiz, the oldest supporter member of the organization, and South Pasadena Police Detective Lieutenant Shannon Robledo, during a luncheon event at Mijares Restaurant, itself a long time supporter of the non-profit organization…”
HACR Partnership Helps Medtronic Develop Hispanic Talent
“Cultural aspects of leadership can be very different,” Vargas said. “I wouldn’t speak up as much as others or call attention to myself.”
Her role with Medtronic was her first American corporate job, coming after an eight-year career at a company in Switzerland. That shift made the Mexican-born professional unsure about how to navigate the corporate world. “The shift to working with people who didn’t understand me, my culture,” she said. “It was the first time I realized that I was different.”…
https://www.yahoo.com/now/hacr-partnership-helps-medtronic-develop-121500788.html
70+ Latino-owned businesses to support in 2022 and beyond
“Ellen Bennett was at her company’s factory in Vernon, California, in March 2020 when she found out Los Angeles County was going into lockdown because of Covid-19.
For her company, Hedley & Bennett, which makes kitchen gear like aprons for professional chefs, the future was suddenly in doubt — the lockdown effectively meant customers could no longer dine in restaurants or go to bars. But with the same colorful fabric her company used to make aprons, Bennett was able to pivot…”
https://www.nbcnews.com/select/shopping/latino-owned-businesses-shop-ncna1281477
Mexican & American Actress Salma Hayek Celebrated her 56th birthday in a Hot Red Bikini
“…On Friday, September 2nd, the beautiful iconic actress posted a video on her Instagram platform – in the video Salma showcased her ageless figure as she danced around on a boat to Stevie Wonder’s 1981 hit “Happy Birthday” in her two-piece red bikini. Hayek completed her vacay vibe with green holographic sunglasses and wore her hair loose, with her long, signature curls blowing in the wind…”
Latina Professionals Of Chattanooga Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month With Several Events Featuring Latin American Music, Food And Special Guests
‘Latina Professionals of Chattanooga will mark the start of Hispanic/Latinx Heritage month on Sept. 15 with its first annual Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month events celebrating the Hispanic/Latinx culture and contributions to the local community and nation.
Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated nationally in recognition of the contribution and influence Hispanic Americans bring to the history, culture and achievement of the United States. Originally adopted in 1988 by the United States Congress, the resolution was designated Sept…”
https://www.chattanoogan.com/2022/9/1/455114/Latina-Professionals-Of-Chattanooga.aspx
Mexico, US collaboration pave way for 2026 World Cup
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Forward Daniela Solis is the personification of an ever-growing connection between soccer in the United States and Mexico — one that’s only going to intensify as the 2026 World Cup looms.
Major League Soccer’s All-Star Game against Liga MX counterparts, an expanded Leagues Cup competition next year and a series of women’s exhibition matches this summer all aim to bridge the border…”
