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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San Diego’s Chicano Artists Grab Some Comic-Con Spotlight
While the San Diego Convention Center is the center of the pop-culture universe this week, a thriving arts and culture scene is developing just a few miles away in Barrio Logan.
San Diego’s Chicano artists grabbed a piece of the spotlight this week at Comic-Con, attention that some thought was long overdue.
“But at least we’re moving forward,” said cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz.
Alcaraz was one of several Chicano artists and supporters who talked about the growing Latin art scene in San Diego…
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Mobvious Expands to U.S. with Focus on Bicultural Hispanic Market
Mobvious, a European firm specializing in mobile marketing solutions is entering the U.S. with the support of HiMedia Group and Latam Digital Ventures, Located in Miami, Mobvious’ new office will be co-founded and led by Isabel Rafferty (picture). Rafferty previously worked at Adsmovil. Rafferty tells Portada that Mobvious will also have offices in Los Angeles. The firm already has offices in Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Holland, and Italy.
isabelraffertyMoviousMobvious will provide innovative and interactive formats (including video, audio and social), including programmatic, as well as an exclusive network of high-quality publishers, to develop and implement mobile campaigns for the bicultural millennial Hispanic market. “The experience, vision and relationships Isabel has built during her career are fundamental to lead Mobvious and make it a competitive player in the United States market,” stated Cyril Zimmermann, CEO of HiMedia…
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Eloy Ortiz Oakley tapped as California community colleges chancellor
Long Beach Community College District head Eloy Ortiz Oakley will take over as chancellor for California’s 2.1 million-student community college system in December, its governing board announced Monday.
Serving as superintendent-president of the district since 2007, Oakley is best known as one of the architects of the Long Beach College Promise, a partnership with the city and local schools to provide early outreach, a free year at Long Beach City College and guaranteed admission to Long Beach State for students. It has been credited with raising college attendance in the area and was a model for a similar national program proposed by President Barack Obama…
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A Latino Angel Wants To Help You Invest In Tech Startups
For the past two decades, I have been an advisor to many technology startups, and I can tell you this: raising the first million is the hardest.
Even harder: raising the first million if you are Latino/Latina founder.
Last week, DreamFunded – a San Francisco-based company that I’ve written about before — became the first SF-headquartered firm to get approval from FINRA to launch a portal that will enable many people — not just the rich — to invest in technology through crowdfunding. According to DreamFunded, it’s also the first Latino-led equity crowdfunding portal anywhere to get FINRA approval…
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CantoMundo – celebration of Latino poetry is moving to New York
For the past five years, audiences in Austin have been able to enjoy public readings of CantoMundo, a national organization of Latino poets and poetry.
But this may be the last year CantoMundo is held in Austin, where they will hold two public readings July 22 and 23. Next year, it is moving to New York, where one of the founders, Deborah Paredez, recently accepted a professorship. The retreat may be held again in Austin in the future, but that’s uncertain…
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How Hispanic culture is changing America
This article is part of an ongoing Media Life series entitled “Catching the next big wave: Hispanic media.” You can read previous stories by clicking here.
Last month, Univision Deportes Network beat every other cable sports network in primetime among the key demos of adults 18-49 and 18-34.
It finished ahead of Fox Sports 1 and NBC Sports Network, which is an accomplishment of itself.
But it also beat cable sports’ big dogs, ESPN and ESPN2.
UDN carried the Copa America Centenario in June, which explains the big ratings, while the other networks were in a rare summertime lull between major events like NASCAR and the Tour de France.
But still, a Spanish-language network beating a bunch of English-language ones in the major sports demos?
A few years ago, that would have been unthinkable. In fact, five years ago, UDN didn’t even exist…
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2 Brilliantly Written Novels From Mexico Head Up A Wave Of Literary Talent
To judge from our media coverage, you’d think that Mexico isn’t so much a country as a problem. But if you look beyond the endless talk of drug wars and The Wall, you discover that Mexico has a booming culture.
In recent years, there’s been an explosion of literary talent — from the sly provocateur Mario Bellatin to the brainy and funny Valeria Luiselli. This writing makes most American literary fiction feel pale and cannily packaged…
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UC admits 15 percent more California freshmen for fall 2016, increases diversity
The University of California today (July 6) released data that show significant gains in the number of California freshman and transfer students admitted to UC campuses for fall 2016, including those from historically underrepresented groups. The admissions data in part reflects UC’s initiative to enroll 5,000 more in-state students in 2016-17.
The university offered admission to 105,671 students out of a freshman applicant pool of 166,565, and 23,879 California community college transfer students from 33,199 applicants. The numbers represent a 15.1 percent jump in the number of California resident freshmen offered a spot at one of UC’s nine undergraduate campuses compared to fall 2015, a gain of 9,344 students.
Admission of students transferring from community colleges increased by 14.1 percent. The one-year increase in 2016-17 California resident transfers will be the largest in UC history…
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Critical Content Analysis of Children’s and Young Adult Literature
CM Martínez-Roldán – Critical Content Analysis of Children’s and Young Adult …, 2016
… Nevertheless, whether pochismos are seen as positive or negative, the language used by the
Chihuahuas in the series misrepresents pocho language and Mexican Americans’ linguistic
practices and does not correspond to the literary bilingualism used by Chicano authors to …
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Mexic-Arte’s Young Latino Artists exhibit is distinctly 21st century
The ten artists in “Amexican@” are millennials or younger, fluent in internet culture.
The at sign in the title of this year’s Mexic-Arte Museum “Young Latino Artists” exhibit is not just a typographical affectation.
The ten artists and one collective in “Amexican@” are millennials or younger, born in the 1980s and 1990s.
Fluent in internet culture, millennials have come of age with ain/nrr5L/the “@” sign no less readable to them than any letter of the alphabet…
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Traditionally black colleges seeing rise in Hispanic and Asian applicants, report says
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) – After years of declining enrollment, many of Louisiana’s historically black colleges and universities are seeing a modest rise.
Tougher admission standardsingent requirements for student loans caused the losses. Higher education experts tell The Times that there may be a couple of reasons for the increase. One is that more Hispanic and Asian students are entering the historically black schools. Another is that recent racial conflicts at predominantly white institutions may have minority students seeing the historically black schools as safer…
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Clinton’s Latina political director Amanda Renteria is key to getting the Hispanic community on board with her
WASHINGTON — For Amanda Renteria, 2016 has made the political even more personal.
When she took the job as Hillary Clinton’s political director, making her the highest-ranking Hispanic staffer on the campaign, Renteria knew she’d play a key role in trying to awaken the sleeping giant of the Hispanic vote. She never imagined she’d do it while squaring off against Donald Trump and his anti-Latino xenophobia…
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Neto’s Tucson: Photographer captured decades of Hispanic life in Tucson
On June 17, longtime Tucson photographer Frank Martinez passed away. He was 92. The ubiquitous figure on Tucson’s west and south sides had a small studio next to the old Sky Villa lounge on South 12th Avenue. Here’s a column I wrote in December 2000 about Martinez and his contributions as a documentarian of Tucson’s Mexican-American/Chicano families:
Through his camera lens, photographer Frank Martinez has seen Tucson’s social changes…
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Number of Hispanic farm operators continues to grow
WENATCHEE, Wash. — From humble beginnings in Mexico, Jesus Limon has spent a lifetime working hard for his slice of the American dream.
As a young man, he picked celery and oranges in California and tree fruit in Washington state. Twenty years ago he became one of the few Hispanic orchard owners in the Wenatchee area.
He and his wife of 40 years, Maria Luisa Limon, helped put their four sons through college and today see retirement in their not-too-distant future.
They now own 150 acres of apple trees and lease 35 acres of cherry and apple trees…
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DPS is hiring more Hispanic state troopers, and Texas’ border surge is a big reason why
AUSTIN — The face of Texas’ border surge is undergoing a makeover, as the security push has helped the state Department of Public Safety hire more Hispanic officers recently.
Over the past 18 months, more than 40 percent of the 450 participants in DPS’ grueling six-month trooper academies identified themselves as Hispanic. A Dallas Morning News analysis shows that it’s the highest such percentage DPS has seen over the last decade — and maybe ever…
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Michael Zajur, President of the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
HOW HE HAS SHAPED THE REGION: Zajur, as head of the chamber, has provided a voice for the Hispanic business community during a period in which the Hispanic population in Virginia essentially doubled.
In 2000, the year Zajur founded the chamber, about 4.7 percent of the state’s population was Hispanic or Latino. In 2014, that percentage was up to 9 percent…
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FHSU hopes to open doors with Hispanic College Institute
HAYS — They are thankful for the doors that Fort Hays State University opened for them, and they are excited about giving back to fellow Hispanics.
FHSU graduates Hector Villanueva, of Garden City, and Alma Hidalgo, of Perryton, Texas, were right in the thick of things Wednesday morning as high school students from across Kansas, Colorado and Missouri climbed off buses to participate in Fort Hays State’s first Hispanic College Institute…
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College’s Hispanic Student Dental Association Chapter Named National Chapter of the Year
June, 21 2016
The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Dentistry’s Hispanic Student Dental Association (HSDA) Chapter was named the Hispanic Dental Association’s (HDA) 2016 National Student Chapter of the Year at the HDA’s recent Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. This award recognizes the chapter for outstanding efforts to provide service, education, advocacy and leadership in Hispanic oral health.
Selected by a committee consisting of HDA National Office staff members and invited jurors, the chapter stood out among affiliate dental student chapters across the nation…
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Possible Selves Mapping With a Mexican American Prospective First-Generation College Student
RE Michel – ACA Postmodern Career Counseling: A Handbook of …, 2016 – books.google.com
A high school diploma is no longer enough for most people to secure the career or lifestyle
they imagine. The value of a postsecondary education is well accepted, and significant
efforts have been made to support students who further their training past high school. For …
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Voto Latino Power Summit Kicks Off To Mobilize Young Latinos
With Hillary Clinton now virtually assured to be the Democratic nominee for President, the Voto Latino Power Summit being held this weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada holds particular significance for the growing power of Latino millennials, who make up 44 percent of all Latinos according to recent analysis from Pew Research.
An estimated 3.2 million Latinos will be able to cast their votes for the first time in the upcoming presidential election, and will likely pit Republican frontrunner Donald Trump against Clinton. With Donald Trump poised to get the lowest vote ever among Latinos for a Republican presidential nominee, organizations like Voto Latino will be an important venue for using the attention of the election to connect young Latinos with each other in networking opportunities and getting them motivated to become active citizens…
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