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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California top draw for fewer foreign students
“…California remains the top U.S. destination for foreign students, who primarily come from China and India, with enrollment dipping slightly in the 2018-19 school year for the first time in at least a decade, according to a survey released Monday.
Nationally, new enrollments of international students declined for the third year in a row although overall numbers are at a record high of nearly 1.1 million, according to a survey of 2,800 U.S. colleges and universities released by the Institute of International Education and the U.S. State Department…”
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Jenny S. Martinez
“Jenny S. Martinez is the Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and Dean of Stanford Law School and the law school’s 14th dean. Professor Martinez is a leading expert on international law and constitutional law, including comparative constitutional law. She is the author of The Slave Trade and the Origins of International Human Rights Law (Oxford University Press, 2012) and numerous articles in leading academic journals. She teaches courses on constitutional law, civil procedure, international law, and international business transactions. She is a Senior Fellow (by courtesy) of Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a faculty affiliate of Stanford’s Center on International Security and Cooperation and Stanford’s Center on Democracy Development and the Rule of Law…”
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Student reaches for stars while supporting family with personal business
“The stars aligned when Mariella Solano first got the idea of owning an astrology-themed jewelry business.
The second-year political science student launched her jewelry business, Soluna Jewelry Co., on Instagram last month to help pay for her college expenses and has already garnered over 100 sales. Although Solano loves jewelry, she said she mainly sees her business as a way to help her family.
“My parents are both undocumented. It’s hard for them to get jobs,” Solano said. “That leads into why I tried to become self-reliant, so they don’t have to worry about providing for me too.” ‘
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Regina Romero winner in Tucson mayoral race
“…Romero will be Tucson’s first female and first Latina mayor.
The Democrat won 55.7 percent of the vote in initial results, handily beating independent candidate Ed Ackerley with 39.69 percent and Green Party candidate Mike Cease with 3.9 percent…”
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France A. Córdova
“…The Honorable France A. Córdova is an astrophysicist and the 14th director of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Córdova was nominated to this position by the President of the United States in 2013 and subsequently confirmed by the U.S. Senate. NSF is a $8.1B independent federal agency; it is the only government agency charged with advancing all fields of scientific discovery, technological innovation, and STEM education…”
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Postelection survey headed by UCLA professors receives $1 million grant
“…Edward Vargas, another co-principal investigator and assistant professor in the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University, overlooks the Latin American population data in the CMPS. Vargas said he hopes to make academia more inclusive to first-generation scholars and scholars of color with the CMPS.
“I want to be a support and I want to help propel and uplift other folks who are coming, and to bring folks along to make academia more inclusive,” Vargas said…”
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Latino Californians have more trouble making ends meet
“…For three years, Kimberly Esquivel and her family lived in a studio apartment in Oakland, with Kimberly and her sister sleeping in the main room and her parents and two brothers in the hallway.
Esquivel’s father is legally blind and has a kidney condition that prevents him from working. Her mother sells jewelry, but it hasn’t provided enough money to improve their living situation. They can’t afford a car and food bills add up. Kimberly, 18, and her 20-year-old sister want to go to college, but they can’t do it until the family’s finances become more secure.
The Esquivels’ precarious situation is not unique. In California, more than 50 percent of Latino households are hard-pressed to make it financially, despite the state’s booming economy and strong labor market, according to a new report from Oakland’s Insight Center for Community Development…”
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Mexico’s bid to detain El Chapo son ‘a failure of everything’
“…It was a huge embarrassment for the government. They had captured one of the most wanted men in Mexico and, outgunned and overwhelmed by the cartel, they simply turned him back over to his men.
By the following morning, both state and federal government were on damage control.
“This was a failed operation,” Mr Durazo admitted, “a rushed operation.” The police had acted without orders from above and the decision to release Guzmán was only taken to prevent further violence to the civilian population, he argued.
“We are not going to convert Mexico into a greater cemetery than it already is.”…”
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Chucho Valdés and Band: Jazz Batá
“…A protean performer who has been a singular force in music for more than half a century, Chucho Valdés’ unprecedented synthesis of folkloric Afro-Cuban rhythms, rock, funk and jazz opened up vast new musical frontiers. His most recent project, Jazz Batá, revisits an exceptional early experiment pairing a piano jazz trio with batá drums, sacred instruments used in Santeria rituals. The influential Cuban pianist, composer and arranger revamps that formative project, leading his youthful, powerhouse band of bass, congas and batá in this upbeat night with the “founder of the definitive contemporary Cuban jazz” (Billboard)…”
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SF State celebrates 50th anniversary of the College of Ethnic Studies
“…When student strikers began protesting at San Francisco State University in the late 1960s, they had a long list of demands. But their grievances could be summed up by one of their two-word mottos: “Relevant education!” They wanted a university that was more diverse, less Eurocentric and ready to prove that it valued people of color and their perspectives.
Fast forward to today, San Francisco State is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its College of Ethnic Studies (CoES), which was founded to provide the relevant education strikers demanded. To mark the occasion, the University will host the College of Ethnic Studies 50th Anniversary Commemoration Week, a series of events on campus from Oct. 7 through 12 honoring CoES and its legacy as the first college of its kind in the U.S.
Co-hosted by CoES, the Office of the President and the Office of the Provost, the events that week will include panel discussions with veterans from the strike, presentations from community leaders, exhibits, film screenings, performances and opportunities for intergenerational dialogue with the founders of the college. Most events are free, with tickets to a few evening festivities available for purchase…”
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Six myths about Latino Republicans are challenged in University of Houston study
“…Latinos tend to be Democrats? Latinos who are Republican must be moderates and not feel welcome within the party?
A new University of Houston study seeks to debunk these common misconceptions about Latino voters.
The growing community in Texas will play a key role in the 2020 election, said Brandon Rottinghaus, lead author of the study and a political science professor at the university.
The latinx vote will be the decisive part of the 2020 election,” Rottinghaus said, using a gender-neutral term for the demographic group. “Republicans have long counted on a base of support from the Latinx community. If they don’t hold that support in 2020, Texas will turn blue.”
Here are some of the myths Rottinghaus and co-author Rudy Fonseca, field director for the Harris County Republican Party, examined…”
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Trump’s policies, as well as anti-immigrant violence, disturbed these Latinos. Now they’re taking action
“…Adrian Rios was closing in on his dream job as a U.S. diplomat when the unexpected happened: Donald Trump entered the White House.
Throughout his campaign, Trump had labeled migrants from Mexico as rapists, criminals and drug traffickers. That rhetoric set the stage for Trump’s first months in office, as he took measures to crack down on both legal and illegal immigration, much of it flowing from Mexico and Central America.
“I couldn’t represent the country under his administration,” Rios said.
Instead, the 26-year-old Mexican American readjusted his plans: attend law school at UCLA, practice corporate law to pull his family out of poverty and provide free legal services to disadvantaged Latinos…”
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Op-ed: Underrepresented students could benefit from improved approach to mentor programs
“…Everything changed when a developmental psychology doctoral student took me under her wing. I will never forget the day at UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, where I described my interests in being a therapist but also understanding the role of Latinx culture in youth mental health treatment. She remarked that a clinical psychology Ph.D. seemed like a good match and sensing my confusion, she differentiated it from medical school. In a 10-minute conversation, she helped me realize that medicine was not my passion. She pointed me to a career path that both fit my interests and fulfilled my mother’s hope for me to be a doctor – just not a medical one. This is my first memory of receiving meaningful, personalized mentorship…”
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Trace Elements
“…That’s where and when Ruth Hellier-Tinoco first saw a performance by the experimental theater company La Máquina de Teatro. She still remembers the work, part one of the group’s “Trilogía Mexicana,” in great detail: from the staging, set design and lighting to the actors’ movement and speech.
“The piece combined so many threads, traces and layers of history, crossing and combining stories from the 15th century through to the present day, and explored questions of power, ecology, belonging, identity and memory,” Hellier-Tinoco, a scholar of performance and theater, recalls now. “It was emotionally powerful, deeply moving and humorous, and highly subversive and complicated. I was totally captivated…”
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USA Hall of Famer to work as a scout for Mexico national team
“…The Mexican federation (FMF) is winning the script to the United States Soccer Federation, this time by hiring former US youth coach, Hugo Perez as a USA based scout. The former USMNT player and US National Hall of Famer will seek to give Mexican-American youth more possibilities to grow as professionals.
In an interview with SoccerAmerica held after the FMF youth visor camp in Southern California, Perez talked about his new job with the Mexican federation. “I’m doing this because I want the kids to have opportunities. I just want them to have more than one choice. If one national team doesn’t want them, maybe the other one does. For me, the most important thing is providing opportunities.”
The courting of the Mexican-American talent comes after a Mexican law modification in 1998 that allows US-born Mexican-American to obtain Mexican citizenship, increasing the scouting on the American side of the border…”
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Helping undergrads across the finish line
“…A high school senior — whom I will call Juanita Gomez — recently graduated from Mission High, in San Francisco, with a 3.5 GPA and 550s on her verbal and math SATs. She’s the first in her family to go to college and she’s eligible for a federal Pell Grant, awarded to students from low-income families.
Juanita is choosing among three schools — San Francisco City College, San Francisco State and UC Riverside. Having done her homework, she knows what courses she can take and what each will cost. However, like almost all college applicants, she doesn’t realize that her choice may determine whether she earns a B.A.
At UC Riverside, where the typical undergraduate has an academic record like Juanita’s, 73% of the students graduate in six years, but if she picks San Francisco State, only about half…”
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Arizona moves to expand trade with Mexico
“…PHOENIX, Ariz. (Border Report) — When Americans order a product online, they take it for granted it’ll get to them on time. But when Mexican residents order merchandise from a U.S. company, they traditionally face week-long waits for Mexican customs to clear the package.
That is about to change as an Arizona airport becomes the first in the United States to pre-clear items shipped to anywhere in Mexico. Under the SkyBridge Arizona project, Mexican customs inspectors will be based at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport and approve items for immediate delivery to any Mexican city, Arizona officials say.
The implications of the program go well beyond young Mexican professionals being able to receive electronic gadgets before their popularity fades, airport officials …”
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Editorial: Diversity and support for minorities deserve more attention from university
“…Outreach efforts made in attempts to diversify campuses have clearly worked to an extent – the percentage of underrepresented minorities enrolled at the UC has increased by 11% in the past two decades.
However, a systemwide increase in underrepresented minority enrollment overlooks specific population statistics at every campus. Since Proposition 209’s passage, African American enrollment at UCLA has plummeted despite increased enrollment across the UC as a whole.
It seems as though the UC’s top schools are building even higher walls for admissions of some underrepresented communities. According to a 2016 report, a student said she feels standards for UC admissions have increased exponentially, thereby alienating most of the student population…”
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Athletics Director Dan Guerrero to retire after contract extended to June 30, 2020
“…Dan Guerrero’s time in Westwood is officially ticking toward its end.
The UC Regents voted unanimously Thursday morning to extend the UCLA Athletics director’s contract from Dec. 31 to June 30, 2020, the Los Angeles Times reported. Guerrero agreed at Wednesday’s UC Regents meeting that he will end his tenure with the Bruins at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year.
UCLA Athletics released a statement Thursday claiming it would utilize a professional firm to conduct a nationwide search for Guerrero’s replacement this fall. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block requested Guerrero’s contract be extended from December to June in order to maintain continuity and ample time to conduct the search for his replacement.
Guerrero said his two reasons for retiring were to spend more time with his wife and newborn granddaughter and to take time to recover after an ultimately successful battle with cancer over the last 18 months…”
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Race, income may impact U.S. oral cancer screening rates
“…Only about 1 in 3 U.S. adults say a dentist has ever examined them for oral cancer – and most of those who remember getting such exams are non-Hispanic whites, a new study suggests.
The American Dental Association says dentists should routinely look for oral cancer. But the study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that screening rates were low overall and that racial and ethnic minorities, and people with lower income and education, were less likely to report receiving oral cancer screening during a clinic visit.
“We promise health care to all, but some sections report not getting the quality others do,” lead author Avni Gupta from the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston told Reuters Health by telephone…”
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