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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SWJ El Centro Book Review – Frontera: a journey across the US-Mexico Border

“The borderlands between Mexico and the US are among the most studied border regions in the world. The border represents an intersection of several studies on security, culture, environment, and economics. This book can encompass and touch on a myriad of complex issues affecting the Mexican-American border by taking a deep dive into both sides of the border. The authors use a variety of perspectives and experts to thread together an intricate picture of the current and future state of the border. Sergio Chapa and Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera are the authors of this book. Sergio Chapa is an oil and natural gas industry expert and journalist in Houston, Texas. Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera is a professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. Sergio Chapa and Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera’s book explores the natural and ethnographic landscapes of both sides of the US-Mexico borderlands. The authors provide insight into the region’s cultural life, political context, and security situation…”

https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/swj-el-centro-book-review-frontera-journey-across-us-mexico-border


  

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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