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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RCC Spotlight: Amber Lovatos, the Latina RDH
“…As a first-generation Mexican-American growing up in a low-income home, there was no access to dental care. Amber struggled to speak English and barely graduated from high school. As a teen mom, she suffered from depression. She worked as a dental assistant, but after leaving an abusive marriage, she realized that dental assisting wasn’t enough to provide for her and her two young sons. Amber realized that she needed to get ahead in life, and when her friend Maxine Cordova suggested they both become dental hygienists, it seemed like a path to success..”
https://www.rdhmag.com/career-profession/article/14233012/rcc-spotlight-amber-lovatos-the-latina-rdh
Fight Song Civil rights lawyer Jose Padilla champions the people of rural California.
‘Jose Padilla’s 40-plus years of “lawyering against power” began with a win before a skeptical judge—his father. After graduating from law school at UC Berkeley in 1978, Padilla, ’74, was poised to fulfill a promise he had made to the community leader who wrote him a recommendation for Stanford: He was coming home to the Imperial Valley, an expanse of sun-scorched scrubland snugged between San Diego and the Arizona border and transformed into prime farm country by the waters of the All-American Canal and the sweat of workers like Padilla’s grandparents…”
The Quad: Chilean president-elect reflects political power of young progressives
“On March 11, 36-year-old Gabriel Boric will be sworn into office as the youngest president in Chile’s history. A member of the millennial generation, Boric has garnered media attention with his young age and activist past.
His win signifies what some political scientists have referred to as the “marea rosa” – or pink tide – a trend toward left-wing governments and away from neoliberal economic policies in democratic nations across Latin America..”
‘Aqux’ explores representations of home, connects identities of Latinx community
“Aqux,” a group exhibition which opened Feb. 19 at The Mistake Room, features 23 Latinx artists and their interpretations of what home means to them. Through the featured works curated by TMR’s executive and artistic director and alumnus César García-Alvarez, the group exhibition explores the connection between the artists’ Latin American roots and the places they call home. Pronounced “aquí” like the Spanish word for “here,” “Aqux’s” spelling represents the debate surrounding the term Latinx, García-Alvarez said.
“Our identity is never static – it is always situational,” García-Alvarez said. “Thinking about home in that way became an interesting mechanism to organize the exhibition, and what you see in this show are various contradicting representations of home. You don’t get a full, solid, agreed-upon perspective on how home should be defined or experienced.”
‘Theater for Social Change’
“At UC Santa Barbara, as at many universities, the early 1970s are remembered as a period of conflict and strife. But something remarkable emerged from that tumultuous time: A new theater company created by Hispanic artists, for Hispanic audiences.
It was called El Teatro de la Esperanza — the Theater of Hope — and for more than a quarter-century, it promoted justice and inclusion through storytelling and music.,,”
Mexican President accuses US of acting in bad faith
“Mexico, Feb 23 (Prensa Latina) President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Wednesday that United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken is misinformed about the assassinations of journalists in Mexico or is acting in bad faith…”
https://www.plenglish.com/news/2022/02/23/mexican-president-accuses-us-of-acting-in-bad-faith/
The Town That Inspired John Steinbeck Has A New Literary Star
“…Steinbeck might not be the No. 1 literary pride of Watsonville for long. Enter Jaime Cortez, whose debut short story collection, Gordo, is set in and around the Pajaro Valley town. Cortez’s book is an unforgettable portrait of the working-class Mexican Americans who lived there in the 1970s — including the charming misfit title character, who narrates most of the stories…”
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/16/1027521278/review-gordo-jaime-cortez
Q&A l “I Wanted to Create the School I Would Have Liked to Attend” – Christian Patiño, Coderhouse
“Latin American talent is becoming quite appealing. Increasingly more companies are looking to hire Argentinian, Colombian or Mexican professionals. This is partly because regional unicorns are in need of qualified talent, and partly because tech hubs like the U.S. are facing a talent shortage that LatAm workers are willing and able to fill…”
Can Mexico turbocharge pandemic nearshoring by US firms?
“…Encourage more US firms to move businesses they have offshored to China and Southeast Asia closer to home.“Some of our members have been successfully nearshoring to Mexico for several years,” Aburto told Al Jazeera. “About 5 percent of our members had taken up nearshoring prior to the pandemic.”
Activists push for Mexico’s GM corn ban to include imports
Citigroup’s Mexico exit sparks fears over fate of art collection
Avocado toast? US suspends imports from key region in Mexico
US-Mexico avocado spat is already causing shortages
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/2/18/an-mexico-turbocharge-pandemic-nearshoring-by-us-firms
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/
UCLA course allows students to apply Spanish language skills in real-world setting
“Books in a classroom are often not enough as Latino community members have much to share with Spanish language students, said Carla Suhr, a Spanish linguistics professor and director of the Community Engagement Program. Spanish M165XP: “Taking It to Street: Spanish in Community” takes students out of the classroom, guiding them to apply language skills under real-life circumstances.
One of three classes focusing on the Latino community in the Spanish and Portuguese department’s Community Engagement Program, Spanish M165XP gives students the opportunity to apply cultural and linguistic knowledge from class to the real world by working with Los Angeles communities. The course encourages students to learn by using Spanish in a more realistic context, Suhr said…”
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,…”
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
California nominates its first Latina judge to state Supreme Court
“Patricia Guerrero, a justice for the California 4th District Court of Appeal, has been nominated to serve as an associate justice of the California Supreme Court, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday.
If confirmed, Guerrero would be the first Latina to serve on the California Supreme Court…”
Here’s why agricultural experts think an avocado shortage — and price surge — may be looming
“Over 80% of the avocados found in the United States — whether that be in supermarket produce sections or on the line at your local Chipotle — are imported from Michoacán, Mexico. However, over the weekend, the United States Department of Agriculture (the USDA) suspended avocado imports from the Mexican state after an American inspector was allegedly verbally threatened on his official cellphone.
According to the USDA, the agency is working with Customs and Border Protection to funnel avocados that were certified for export on or before Feb. 11 into the United States. However, avocados certified for export after that date will not be allowed to enter the United States “as long as necessary to ensure the appropriate actions are taken, to secure the safety of APHIS personnel working in Mexico.” …”
UCSB MCC Race Matters Series – SHAPING THE WAY AMERICA’S CHILDREN ARE EDUCATED: LATINA TEACHERS IN MAJORITY-MINORITY SCHOOLS
“Today, Latina women make up the fastest growing non-white group entering the teaching profession at a time when it is estimated that 20% of all students nationwide now identify as Latina/o and are more likely to attend majority-minority schools. Through ethnographic and participant observation in two underperforming majority-minority schools in Los Angeles, as well as interviews with teachers, parents and staff, Flores examines the complexities stemming from a growing workforce of Latina teachers who work in schools where the majority of parents and children are Latinx, Black and Asian…”
Radiography of journalism in Mexico: an incessant trickle of murdered professionals
“A total of 134 journalists were murdered in Mexico from 1992 to 2021, according to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), making it one of the most dangerous countries to work in. the profession being the deadliest in the world for these professionals…”
Mexican skater is a rare Latin American at Winter Olympics
“BEIJING (AP) — They said he should play soccer. They said figure skating was for girls. They said winter sports made no sense in temperate Guadalajara.
But none of those naysayers deterred Mexican figure skater Donovan Carrillo, the rare Latin American athlete at the Winter Games, who has now become an even more rare Beijing Olympics success story – however relative – from that part of the globe.
Carrillo had a career-best performance in the marquee sport of the Winter Games on Tuesday at Capital Indoor Stadium, featuring a well-executed quad toe loop and difficult triple axel.”
https://www.fourstateshomepage.com/news/mexican-skater-is-a-rare-latin-american-at-winter-olympics/
Austin: Design Team for City’s Mexican American Cultural Center Provides Update
“…Austin (Travis County) — The Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) recently held a meeting, in which they detailed the expansion that will nearly double the footprint for Phase II of the city’s Emma S. Barrientos-MACC improvement project…
…Juan Miro said that they envision extending the semicircular cultural center with more classrooms for children and adults, a new gallery and performance space, along with other improvements…”
Center for Mexican Studies seeks to merge academic scholarship, community action
“…Rivera-Salgado is currently helping to lead an initiative that forges a partnership between UCLA and three Mexican universities – the Autonomous University of Querétaro, the Metropolitan Autonomous University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
The initiative, which began in May 2021, works to ensure labor rights are observed in the wake of the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which strengthened protections for workers. Through support from this partnership, each Mexican university plans to develop centers dedicated to the study of labor rights, similar to UCLA’s own Labor Center…”
