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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2017 annual report on Mexican American Professionals
Despite some gains, Mexican Americans continue to lag behind the general population in college enrollment, degrees and professional occupations. This has been the primary focus on my web site [https://mexican-american-proarchive.com/] and my annual reports. Herein lies the reason for my taking the time to write them.
As a Mexican American Professional (retired educator), when I first looked at the dismal numbers which compares Educational Attainment between Mexican Americans and the total populations, I was dismayed at the disparity.
The annual Community Survey published by the Census Bureau shows the following results for this year and the prior year.
The American Community census reports on college enrollment:
It is simple to observe that the total population college enrollment has decreased by .3% from years 2016 to 2017 but compared to Mexican American enrollment for 2016 the total population is 8.4% higher than the Mexican American college enrollment. On the positive side, college enrollment has gone up for Mexicans American from 19.3% to 19.6%. We will take that.
NAFTA renegotiation signals little change for HE so far
“…In his United States presidential campaign in 2016, Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and to potentially withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a trilateral agreement between Canada, Mexico and the US which has been in effect since 1994.
Trump kept his promise to end the US’ participation in the TPP and in January 2017 signed an executive order to withdraw from the agreement.
However, in the commercial interests of the major economic industries of the US, he agreed to begin the renegotiation of NAFTA. Talks took place between August 2017 and September 2018. The new agreement, which is to be revised and ratified by the three countries, includes important changes regarding rules of origin, wages, the review or renewal mechanisms, agriculture and e-commerce…”
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Verses and Flows: Migrant Lives and the Sounds of Crossing
“…Dr. Alex E. Chávez (Anthropology, Notre Dame) will present a talk titled “Verses and Flows: Migrant Lives and the Sounds of Crossing” on Wednesday, November 7, 2018 from 3:30-4:45 pm in Music Room 1145. Dr. Chávez will cover his new ethnography of Huapango music and US-Mexico border migration, Sounds of Crossing: Music, Migration, and the Aural Poetics of Huapango Arribeño (Duke 2017). Co-sponsored by the Department of Music’s Ethnomu’sicology and Musicology/Theory forums, the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Music (CISM), and the Department of Anthropology…”
Editorial: Kevin De León for U.S. Senate
“…The confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The passage of a self-serving, $1.5 trillion tax cut for the well-off. Numerous attempts to politically ax a now-cornerstone of the American health care system.
Californians have a lot of reasons to look indignantly at the United States Senate. Compromise is a thing of the past, values continue to be undercut and representatives grow more disconnected from those they represent.
And yes, that includes Democrats. Key among them: incumbent senator Dianne Feinstein.
The fourth-term senator has held the senate seat longer than many UCLA undergraduates have been alive. In her 26-year tenure, she’s spearheaded notable legislation, including a 10-year assault weapons banned passed in 1994. She voted in support of gay marriage against the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and stands as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee…”
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Mariachi de Uclatán performance to celebrate life and honor dead
“…The majority of UCLA is gearing up for the night of Oct. 31 with jack-o’-lanterns and cobwebs, but members of Mariachi de Uclatán will spend the evening making music and decorating altars with flowers and photographs.
For its upcoming Día de los Muertos performance Wednesday night, the student mariachi band ensemble will play a number of songs dedicated to remembering late musicians, as well as loved ones who have passed away. Its show at UCLA’s Fowler Museum, an installment of the Fowler Out Loud concert series, will feature musicians and dancers in traditional face paint resembling skeletons and altars that are constructed as a gateway to the afterlife. Even though students will pay homage to the dead, the spirit of the show is that of joyful remembrance rather than sorrowful mourning, said Elisa Quiñonez, a fourth-year history student and a co-musical director of Mariachi de Uclatán…”
Posted in Arts & Entertainment, Education, Front Page Items, News and Information
Starting From the Bottom: Why Mexicans are the Most Successful Immigrants in America
Who’s more successful: The child of Chinese immigrants who is now a prominent attorney, or a second-generation Mexican who completed high school and now holds a stable, blue collar job?
The answer depends on how you define success.
In fact, according to a study by University of California, Irvine, Sociology Professor Jennifer Lee and UCLA Sociology Professor Min Zhou, contrary to stereotypes, Mexican-Americans are the most successful second-generation group in the country. The reason is simple: The study considered not just where people finished, but from where they started.
The report serves as counter-point to arguments raised by Amy Chua, a Yale Law School professor better known as the Tiger Mom. In a new book, The Triple Package, Chua and her husband, Jed Rubenfeld, argue that some groups—namely Chinese, Jews, Cubans, and Nigerians—are more successful than others because they possess certain cultural traits that enable them to be…”
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As Democrats Court Latinos, Indifference Is a Powerful Foe
“…By Jose A. Del Real and Jonathan Martin
Oct. 21, 2018
LAS VEGAS — Children ripped from their parents’ arms and held in sweltering tent cities. Immigration raids outside hospitals, schools and courthouses. An onslaught of ads and speeches delivering insults and racist remarks.
With the hard-fought midterm elections less than three weeks away, Democratic Party strategists hope Latino voters who are angered by the Trump administration’s policies and divisive language will help deliver resounding victories in many of the races that will decide political control in Washington. If ever there were a time to cast protest ballots, they reason, it would be with President Trump in the White House…”
Founders of tortilla company hope to eventually sell food to UCLA Dining
“…Ronald Alcazar spent years honing his family’s tortilla recipe with his mother for he and his brother’s new tortilla company. Today, the two UCLA alumni have their own tortilla factory and hope to sell their tortillas to UCLA Dining Services.
Anthony and Ronald Alcazar, who graduated from UCLA in 2006 and 2012 respectively, started their own flour tortilla company, Mr. Tortilla, in 2012. Anthony Alcazar said he urged his brother to start the company during Ronald Alcazar’s senior year of college because they wanted to share their family’s tortilla recipe.
Developing the tortilla recipe was a family endeavor, Ronald Acazar said. He spent over a year creating the formula with his mother and father. He said he prides Mr. Tortilla tortillas on being non-GMO and preservative-free…”
Taylor Swift makes AMA history, while Cardi B and Camila Cabello win big
Shawn Mendes won Favorite Artist Adult Contemporary for the second consecutive year. Camila Cabello – who was nominated in five categories – won four, including Favorite Music Video, for the Latin-infused “Havana.”
Cabello was crowned New Artist of the Year, beating out Cardi B and her chart-topping numbers, “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves),” “Girls Like You” and “I Like It.” Cardi B, however, earned awards for Favorite Artist Rap/Hip Hop and Favorite Song Rap/Hip Hop, and shared Favorite Song Soul/R&B – an impressive clapback toward rap rival Nicki Minaj, who earned no nominations. Cardi B was No. 1 on the nominee leaderboard, tied with Drake for eight..”
Alumna’s poetry, film pieces give voice to underrepresented communities
“Unbroken, / Almost forgotten— / Yet, stronger than ever.”
Alyssa Griego’s lyrics are a part of her newest project that combines poetry and film to comment on social issues associated with her identity as a queer Chicana woman. The alumna will release her latest self-directed video “Almost Forgotten” in early October, accompanying an original poem under the same title. The video makes use of symbolisms and colors that represent resilience to convey an ultimately hopeful message of strength in the face of adversity, she said.
“You can read (the poem) – it’s good and it sounds pretty,” Griego said. “But it’s a whole different story to hear it being performed, spoken, felt, and that’s what this video is going to convey.”..”
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CSU to overhaul remedial education, replace no-credit with credit-bearing classes
FERMIN LEAL/EDSOURCE TODAY
Students at Cal State Long Beach could be affected by changes in the Master Plan.
The California State University system plans to overhaul its remedial education system by 2018, scrapping no-credit courses in English and math and replacing them with credit classes that include extra tutoring and built-in study sessions.
Too many students are placed by testing or high school grades into noncredit classes that aim to prepare them for college-level work. But that strategy often backfires by making them feel unwelcome on campus and that they are wasting time and tuition money, officials told a Long Beach meeting of the CSU trustees Tuesday. A switch to specially-designed credit courses will create a sense of progress toward graduation, reduce attrition and expose students right away to a higher level of academic work, administrators behind the plan explained…”
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Survey finds 85% of underserved students have access to only one digital device
“…New research on students who took the ACT test, conducted by the ACT Center for Equity in Learning, found that 85% of underserved (meaning low income, minority, or first generation in college) students had access to only one device at home, most often a smartphone.
American Indian/Alaskan, Hispanic/Latino, and African American students had the least access. White and Asian students had the most.
Nearly a quarter of students who reported that family income was less that $36,000 a year had access to only a single device at home, a 19% gap compared to students whose family income was more than $100,000…”
Americans have mixed views of Mexico, ‘warmer’ feelings toward Canada
“…Views of Mexico are mixed: While 39% say they feel “warmly” toward Mexico, 34% feel “coldly,” and 26% are neutral, according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted July 30 to Aug. 12 among 4,581 adults.
The feelings are expressed on a 0-100 “feeling…”
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The American middle class is stable in size, but losing ground financially to upper-income families
“..Financially, middle-class households in the U.S. were better off in 2016 than in 2010. The median income of middle-class households increased from $74,015 in 2010 to $78,442 in 2016, by 6%. Upper-income households (where 19% of American adults live) fared better than the middle class, as their median income increased from $172,152 to $187,872, a gain of 9% over this period. Lower-income households (29% of …”
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Colleges support DACA students with scholarships
“…Some colleges are offering scholarships to students who were brought to the U.S. as children and are protected under the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, The Washington Post reported.
The financial support intends to make college possible for qualifying DACA students as they are not eligible for federal aid and cannot receive state financial aid in 42 states and in-state tuition in 30 states. Critics argue that using scholarship funds for DACA recipients is unfair to U.S. citizens who also need financial support…”
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Hispanic Scholarship Fund
“…HSF empowers families with the knowledge and resources to successfully complete a higher education, while providing scholarships and support services to as many exceptional students as possible…”
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Mennonites and Mormons in Mexican Culture
“…Liminal Sovereignty examines the lives of two religious minority communities in Mexico, Mennonites and Mormons, as seen through Mexican culture. Mennonites emigrated from Canada to Mexico from the 1920s to the 1940s, and Mormons emigrated from the United States in the 1880s, left in 1912, and returned in the 1920s. Rebecca Janzen focuses on representations of these groups in film, television, online comics, photography, and legal documents. Janzen argues that perceptions of Mennonites and Mormons—groups on the margins and borders of Mexican society—illustrate broader trends in Mexican history. The government granted both communities significant exceptions to national laws to encourage them to immigrate; she argues that these foreshadow what is today called the Mexican state of exception. The groups’ inclusion into the Mexican nation shows that post-Revolutionary Mexico was flexible with its central tenets of land reform and building a mestizo race. Janzen uses minority communities at the periphery to give us a new understanding of the Mexican nation…”
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Against Trump’s wishes, Mexican professionals keep visas in new trade deal
By Anita Kumar And Franco Ordoñez
August 28, 2018 04:35 PM
Updated August 28, 2018 11:12 PM
WASHINGTON
Tens of thousands of Mexican professionals who come to work in the United States will be able to keep their visas as part of the new U.S.-Mexico trade agreement, the Mexican government says, delivering a political loss to the Trump administration who sought to slash the number of visas as part of NAFTA re-negotiations.
The Mexican Economy Ministry told McClatchy that…”
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Dr. Ellen Ochoa, first Hispanic woman in space, to keynote 2018 SACNAS – The National Diversity in STEM Conference
“…Ellen Ochoa
SACNAS is excited to announce that trailblazer Dr. Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman ever to go to space will keynote 2018 SACNAS – The National Diversity in STEM Conference. Dr. Ochoa is also only the second female Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center—where she led the human space flight enterprise for the nation from 2013 to 2018…”
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Facts on US Latinos in 2015
“…Educational Attainment and Enrollment (highest degree completed, ages 25 and older)
1980 1990 2000 2010 2015
High school graduate or less 78.4% 71.7% 69.6% 64.1% 61.4%
Two-year degree/Some college 13.9% 19.2% 19.9% 22.8% 23.6%
Bachelor’s degree or more 7.7% 9.1% 10.5% 13.1% 15.0%…”
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