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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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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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…”
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The Demands for Diversity Hiring Requires a “Pipeline” August 21, 2018 : by Armando Bengochea
“…As the summer closes and college campuses across the country come roaring back to life, the demands for an academy that better reflects the full diversity of the student body and their own experiences will no doubt come center stage once again. Atop the list of pressing demands are calls for a more racially and ethnically diverse faculty. In the current political climate, where battles over identity and American culture have taken deep root, these demands cannot be easily dismissed and student impatience on the matter is only growing. Students, and the allies they have developed both on and off campus, do not intend to let allow administrative and academic leaders off the hook. The demands for a diverse faculty are growing and will further create division between the student body and university administration if they are not addressed in a more urgent manner…”
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The Making of a Mexican American Mayor: Raymond L. Telles of El Paso and the Origins of Latino Political Power
MT García – 2018 – books.google.com
Raymond L. Telles was the first Mexican American mayor of a major US city. Elected mayor
of El Paso in 1957 and serving for two terms, he went on to become the first Mexican
American ambassador in US history, heading the US delegation to Costa Rica. Historian …
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Young Texas Latinos are an untapped voting goldmine
“…Nearly half of Texans under 18 are Latino and 95 percent of them are U.S. citizens — meaning they will be eligible to vote once they turn 18. Will they?…”
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A journalist’s journey, guided by curiosity for her father’s illness
“…Now the story of a daughter who grew up on the border between the United States and Mexico. She searches for herself, while also coming to grips with her father’s mental illness.
Amna Nawaz has the latest selection from the “NewsHour” Bookshelf…”
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Incoming student rises above personal adversity in debut song “Broken Wings”
“…Izzy Escobar flies with broken wings every day.
The incoming first-year musical theater student released her debut song “Broken Wings” on June 25, stemming from her experience of abuse from a stepparent, which she turned into inspiration for her music at a young age. The four-minute pop song, accompanied by an original music video, celebrates overcoming difficult situations in life and ultimately learning to let go and grow from them, Escobar said…”
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How to best serve Latino students
“…The University of California has received criticism for not adequately serving Latinos, the state’s largest ethnic group, since affirmative action measures were banned from use in admissions decisions in California’s public institutions in 1996, The New York Times reports.
The university system’s newest campus, UC Merced, most closely resembles the diversity of California with an undergraduate Latino population of 53%. UCLA and UC Berkeley, the system’s flagship campuses, serve Latino populations of 21% and 13%, respectively…”
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