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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Little-known history of Hispanics must be found
Hispanics, mostly Mexicans, came into the Platte Valley throughout the early 1900s.
The essay titled “Latinos Along the Platte: The Hispanic Experience in Central Nebraska,” by Roger Davis of the University of Nebraska at Kearney, gives a glimpse of the impact the Hispanic immigrants brought to our area.
I have a direct connection to the first-known Hispanics who came into Nebraska, although it would be many years before there would be a more permanent settling of Hispanics in the state…
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Graduate students interpret “Romeo and Juliet” with modern, inclusive twist
Romeo leaped over a fence and climbed onto a balcony to reunite with his Julio in a new short film adaptation of the classic play.
In “Romeo and Julio,” Oscar Emmanuel Fabela and two fellow graduate students directed and filmed adaptations of several scenes from Shakespeare’s original play “Romeo and Juliet” to tell an inclusive story featuring the love between a white man, Romeo, and a Latino man, Julio. The short will screen at a yet-to-be-announced date this quarter…
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LOS CAMBALACHE – Constelacion de Sonidos. Songs and Stories of Love, Migration, Displacement and Resistance.
Cambalache, meaning exchange, is a chicanx/jarochx ensemble based in LA. We will be playing traditional son jarocho music, while bringing our Chicanx experiences and soundscape through verse and dance. In the spirit of the fandango, a traditional celebration of music and dance, Cambalache engages its audience through participatory performances. Cambalache is active in the dialogue between Chicanos in the U.S. and Jarochos in Veracruz, thus strengthening decades of social and cultural exchange of the Chicano-Jarocho network…
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CSUF’s Latino Communications Institute connects students to media careers
When Cal State Fullerton alum Shaira Arias was a student in a school program formerly known as the Latino Communications Initiative (LCI), she met the executive producer of the Spanish-language television network she would someday work for.
“When I saw other students introducing themselves to her at an LCI event, I thought ‘I can do that too,’ because LCI is very encouraging in that way,” Arias said of the program, which aims to build bridges between students and Spanish-bilingual media organizations.
John Leguizamo Says He’s Willing to Give Up Acting to Run for Office
John Leguizamo, creator of the Broadway show Latin History for Morons, has never shied away from using his immense platform to voice his opinions, especially to criticize the polices and actions of President Donald Trump. Now, the actor reveals his willingness to sacrifice his life’s passions — acting and writing — to stand up for his beliefs by launching a political campaign.
Although the 53-year-old continues to add more projects to his plate, the Latino actor admitted that he would give up his decades-long career to thwart the advancement of the new political today: “You know, I love what I do. I would hate to give it up,” Leguizamo told DailyBeast.com. “But if I could I would run for office in Texas. I would run someplace heinous to make a difference.”…
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‘We believe in you;’ How one Oregon high school guides Latino students to graduation
Oregon Education
‘We believe in you;’ How one Oregon high school guides Latino students to graduation
Posted January 28, 2018 at 07:13 AM | Updated January 28, 2018 at 02:05 PM
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Rich Pena Vania Torres.JPG
Beth Nakamura | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Putnam High security guard Rich Peña catches up with former student Vania Torres, now a college student studying to become a nurse. Peña, a Spanish speaking immigrant, is an important part of a schoolwide culture that works hard to say ‘I notice you,’ ‘I’m on your side’ and ‘I know you can do it.’…
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Many state flagship universities leave black and Latino students behind
any of the nation’s best public universities are enrolling disproportionately few African-American and Latino students.
Flagship universities are the jewels in the crown of public higher education systems — they have sought-after faculty, preeminent research facilities, the most resources and often the highest graduation rates, for all races. They also stand as beacons of affordable excellence for the students of their states. But when it comes to equitably serving the state’s residents, whose taxes fund these top-flight universities, many fall far short of their stated missions. Often there are big differences — defined by race — between who’s graduating from a state’s public high schools and who’s getting into its flagship universities…
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There Are Literally No Asians Or Latinos Nominated For Acting Oscars This Year
Headlines touted the nominations as “diverse,” as several black actors received well-deserved recognition. However, no Asian or Latino actors snagged any nods for their acting this year.
Many actors of color and social media users, including Gina Rodriguez and Constance Wu, were not pleased, and called the Academy out on its lack of representation.
This will be the sixth consecutive year that no Latino actors have been nominated for an acting Academy Award. Last year, Dev Patel was the sole actor of Asian descent who received a nod..
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To attract more blacks and Hispanics to STEM, universities must address racial issues on campus
ROY, N.Y. — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was not Tiana Young’s first choice for college, even though Young wants to dual major in aeronautical and mechanical engineering, and the private university is one the top schools in the country for science, technology, math and engineering.
The school had one big drawback: Rensselaer’s student body is more than two-thirds white and Asian, according to federal data. For Young, who is black and whose high school in Spring Valley, New York was almost entirely African-American and Hispanic, “the lack of diversity was a very big concern,” says the freshman…
Colleges Scramble to Help Undocumented Students as Hopes for a DACA Deal Fade
On Wednesday afternoon, after House Democrats met with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, the spirit in Washington was one of stalemate. There was little progress toward a bipartisan deal to protect the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which prevents the deportation of undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, in exchange for Democrats’ votes to prevent a government shutdown by January 19.
But across the country in Sacramento, at a press conference held by University of California system president Janet Napolitano, the mood was one of urgency. Flanked by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and two other UC system officials, she urged the system’s 4,000 undocumented students to hurry to take advantage of the recent court ruling that reinstated DACA renewals after the Trump administration ended them last fall—a ruling the Trump administration has already asked the Supreme Court to review. The University of California is waging its own court battle to protect DACA: In September, Napolitano—who carried out the initial implementation of DACA as President Barack Obama’s homeland security secretary—filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration after the administration announced the program’s repeal…
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New Latino Caucus launches in Virginia
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — There’s a new group in the General Assembly. The Latino Caucus held its first meeting Thursday.
The group was formed by Del. Alfonso Lopez (D-Arlington).
It’s been a goal of his since he started serving in 2012.
“My dream when I first came to the House of Delegates was, just like the Black Caucus, just like Latino caucuses in other states, we would have a Latino Caucus here in Virginia,” he said.
Lopez said some of the topics the caucus will cover are drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants, health care and the Dream Act.
Since nearly one in every 10 Virginians is Latino, Lopez said representation matters…
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Latino Artists Are Taking Over the Stage at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards
Mark your calendars everyone! Latino celebrities are taking over the stage this year at the Grammys which include performances from Cardi B, Bruno Mars, Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and more.
On Wednesday, the Grammys list announced the list of artists and Latino were found everywhere. Looks like music’s biggest night will have some extra flavor this year with tunes like Cardi’s Bodak Yellow, Fonsi summer hit Despacito, along with the funky R&B vibes of 24K Magic…
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Among U.S. Latinos, the internet now rivals television as a source for news
On a typical weekday, three-quarters of U.S. Latinos get their news from internet sources, nearly equal to the share who do so from television, according to a 2016 survey of Latino adults by Pew Research Center…
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Report examines Latino student success rates
The author of a new report that analyzes success rates of Latino students stresses that there is no “magic bullet” for colleges and universities to use to improve their own metrics, and what works at one school may not be applicable for all. However, institutions that prioritize equity and make efforts to measure their progress usually yield positive results…
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Arm Your Mind With 2017’s Best Latino/Latin American History Books
Every year, university presses across the United States publish dozens of books documenting the Chicano-Latino experience through history, culture, music, immigration, biography, race, and so much more. Unfortunately, most of them – while tackling important and fascinating subjects – get next-to-no mainstream attention because they’re written for an academic audience, which means high prices, a bunch of egghead gobbledygook, and stilted writing that makes reading them a chore few people bother to undertake…
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Starting From the Bottom: Why Mexicans are the Most Successful Immigrants in America
“…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…”
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Identity and Race: Millions of Latinos No Longer Think Of Themselves As Latinos, Study Finds
There are some 43 million people in the United States with Hispanic ancestry. Almost 90 percent of them identify as Latino or Hispanic, making it the nation’s second-largest racial or ethnic group.
But according to an analysis of two national surveys by the Pew Research Center, around 11 percent of all people with Hispanic ancestry—5 million people—don’t identify as either…
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Reality Mini-Series Chronicling the Lives of Blended Mexican-American Millionaire Family Debuts on YouTube
NEW YORK, Dec. 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Meet Los Henrys, a blended Mexican-American family from San Antonio, Texas. Their mini-series reality show, “Hangin with Los Henrys” debuted on YouTube on December 13, 2017. The show centers around Thomas “Tom” and Azteca Henry and their two children, Thomas Jr. and model/actress Maya Henry. Also featured is “Abuelita,” Teresa Crawford, who lives with the family in their San Antonio mansion…
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Mexican American Proarchive : Annual Report on Mexican American Professionals
It is of utmost importance to discuss why Mexican Americans have trailed most minority groups in educational achievement. The Atlantic recently published a Feb. 8, 2017 article titled “The Myth of Immigrants’ Educational Attainment,” in which new research from sociologist Cynthia Feliciano, a professor at the University of California at Irvine, “found that the reason immigrant families appear so successful is not upward mobility, but the ability to work their way into the same class they occupied in their native country.”
This is an interesting new theory that shines the light on groups such as Cubans that excel far beyond all other Hispanic groups in educational attainment.
The good news is that in spite of many explanations to the inequality between the educational attainment of Mexican Americans and the larger population in the United Sates, numbers in this educational achievement gap keep rising.
News from the American Community Census is better than last year’s. Mexican American college enrollment in the US rose from 18.9% in 2015 to 19.3% in 2016, in spite of the total college enrollment falling from 27.8% in 2015 to 27.7% in 2016.
Mexico, Music And Family Take Center Stage In ‘Coco’
Pixar’s newest animated movie, Coco, is meant to be a love letter to Mexico. The movie has a Latino cast. It’s full of Mexican music, culture and folklore — including some of the traditions around the Day of the Dead. And it premiered in Mexico, where it’s gone on to become the No. 1 film of all time. Now, audiences in the U.S. can see it…
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