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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Ruben Navarrette Jr.: TV’s skewed vision of Latinos
Through perseverance and hard work, Latinos have overcome a long history of discrimination and made it to the U.S. Senate, the Supreme court and the Cabinet. You’ll find them in the executive suites of Fortune 50 companies, leading championship sports teams, and heading the nation’s largest nonprofit organizations. They’ve even made it to outer space.
That was easy. Now for the last frontier: television.
Studies have been done on what some call the entertainment industry’s “brownout.” One recent examination of the problem — “The Latino Media Gap: A Report on the State of Latinos in U.S. Media,” which was released last year by Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race — found that Latinos lag far behind whites and African-Americans in landing leading roles. When Latinos have appeared on television, it’s usually in one-dimensional, stereotypical and cookie-cutter roles: the housekeeper or hoodlum, the cop or soldier, the sexpot or illegal immigrant, the gardener or gang-banger…
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Golden Globes Winners 2015: Latinos Gina Rodriguez, Alejandro González Iñárritu Take Home A Prize, Who Else Won? [FULL LIST]
Action! Award Season has officially begun this year with the Golden Globes. On Sunday, January 11, The Hollywood Foreign Press Association awarded the best of movies and television while Tina Fey and Amy Poehler brought they hilarious skits to the award show hosting it yet again. Helping the funny duo present winners with their prizes were Latin divas Salma Hayek and Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Gervais, Amy Adams, Adrien Brody, Anna Faris, Kevin Hart, Kate Hudson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Pratt, Channing Tatum, Lily Tomlin, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Our new TV obsession, Latina Gina Rodríguez went home with a little statue. The “Jane The Virgin” star was nominated for the first time and gave a heartfelt speech when she was called on the stage to pick up her prize. As she fought back her tears of excitement, she thanked her family, cast mates, the network and everyone who believed in her, and added, “This award is so much more than myself, it represents a culture that wants to see themselves as heroes.”…
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CHCI Swearing-In Ceremony Welcomes New Chair Rep. Linda Sanchez and Hispanic Members of the 114th Congress
Government Fri, January 09, 2015 12:01 PM
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In an historic night for the Hispanic community, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI), the nation’s premier Latino youth leadership development and educational organization, welcomed the Hispanic members of the 114th Congress at a ceremonial swearing-in on Tuesday, January 6, 2015, at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C. More than 400 people turned out to see seventeen Hispanic members, including newly-elected CHCI Chair Rep. Linda Sanchez, stand shoulder to shoulder and be sworn in as leaders of their communities by the Honorable Judge Terry J. Hatter, Jr., Chief Judge, Central District of California.
“My goal for CHCI is simple: empower the next generation to realize their potential and to lead,” said Sanchez. “There are so many talented Latino youth that only need a door of opportunity to open for them. CHCI opens that door. I’ve been fortunate to have had great mentors, like Judge Hatter, who taught me not to accept others’ limited expectations for what I could be or achieve. CHCI does the same thing…
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Home Entertainment Story Berkeley: Mexican-American author Michele Serros, 48, dies
BERKELEY — Michele Serros, a short story writer, essayist and poet whose wry and witty observations on growing up Mexican-American in Southern California became required reading in many ethnic studies courses, has died at age 48.
Serros died Sunday at her home in Berkeley after a 20-month battle with a rare form of oral cancer, said her husband, Antonio Magana.
Serros was a community college student when she burst on the literary scene in 1994 with the publication of “Chicana Falsa and Other Stories of Death, Identity and Oxnard,” a collection of stories and poems inspired by her family life and childhood in a majority Hispanic coastal community. A fourth-generation Californian who did not learn to speak Spanish well until she was an adult, she gave voice to the struggle for belonging girls like her faced while straddling cultures…
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Cooper medical tries to buck the trend of Latinos absent from medical workforce
It’s no secret that doctors nationwide lack a Latino presence, but a recent study revealed just how dire the situation has become: A new report by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) shows that only 4 percent of Latinos and African-Americans are in the physician workforce.
So the message being sent nationally to medical schools is simple – create a more diverse physician workforce.
SEE ALSO: Shortage of Hispanic doctors increases health risks for all
One school not only taking the directive to heart but actually leading the way is Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU) . The relatively new institution, which serves the stressed Camden, New Jersey area, is already showing positive results that should in time help diversify doctors in the region…
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First Chicano film is added to the National Film Registry Entertainment FIlm & TV by Jonathan Muñoz – Jan 5, 2015
Along with classics such as “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Saving Private Ryan,” a Chicano film has found its way the National Film Registry, making it the first one in U.S. history.
Through the National Film Preservation Act, the Librarian of Congress names twenty-five films deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant to the National Film Registry every year. The goal preserve them so that future generations will be able to see these as well. It’s what makes “Please Don’t Burry Me Alive!” so special, now that’s it forms a part of the registry…
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In With the New: Meet Congress’ Latino Newcomers
The total number of Latinos in Congress rose by one, to 29, after the midterm elections, a new high, according to tallies kept by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. Here are the newcomers who will be sworn in after the 114th Congress convenes Jan. 7…
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‘Sciences,’ ‘Girl,’ ‘Gueros’ up for Palm Springs Fest’s Cine Latino Award
MADRID – Argentina’s “Natural Sciences,” Mexico’s “Gueros” and Spain’s “Magical Girl” and are among a record 27 titles — including “Wild Tales” and “Libertador,” both shortlisted for a foreign-language film Oscar nomination — that compete for the Cine Latino Award at the 26th Palm Springs Intl. Film Festival.
Prize goes to the best movie from Latin America, Spain or Portugal at the fest, which kicks off today. Sponsored by Mexico’s Guadalajara Festival, its biggest film event, and the University of Guadalajara Foundation in USA, the Cine Latino Award is now in its third year.
The Cine Latino Award’s cash prize has been raised to $10,000, Raul Padilla, president of the University of Guadalajara Foundation in USA, announced Friday. This recognizes and strengthens the fast-building bridges between the U.S. and Mexican film communities, seen in the number of companies operating out of both the U.S. and Mexico and the burgeoning number of U.S.-Mexico co-productions, in which Mexico brings increasingly significant coin to the table…
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Mexican American Studies students show academic gains, report says
As Los Angeles schools add ethnic studies courses, researchers report students who participate in Mexican American Studies increased their chances of graduating and passing state tests.
More than 100 Los Angeles Unified high schools will soon offer ethnic studies courses, such as Asian Literature, Mexican American History and African American Literature.
By 2019, every LAUSD student will have to take a one-semester ethnic studies course to graduate.
The University of Arizona study, published in the American Educational Research Journal’s December issue, found students’ chances of earning a cap and gown increased by nearly 10 percent when they took Mexican American Studies.
Struggling students showed an increased probability of passing the state reading test by about 9 percent after the course…
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The Election of Pete Chacón: Latino Hope, Pride and a New Belief in the System
By Maria E. Garcia
Peter “Pete” Chacón
The general public knew Peter Chacón as a California State Assemblyman who served from 1970-1992. Very few know or understand what Pete’s election meant to the Latino community.
From the time I was a small child I remember my parents going inside a building to vote. They would take turns voting as we sat in the car. One parent would go inside to vote while the other parent would care for us. Then the reverse would occur. Voting was always a special activity and in many ways a mystery…
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CONFESSIONS OF A MEXPATRIATE to Play Teatro Paraguas, 2/6-8
Teatro Paraguas presents Confessions of a Mexpatriate, an original one-man performance. …Mexpatriate depicts the misadventures of a man who embarks on a journey across Mexico in search of his life’s meaning, and in a discovery of what it truly means to be Mexican-American.
Mexpatriate takes the audience on the adventure of one heavily-American-media-saturated man, embarking on a passage across Mexico, in which he comes to embrace the beauty of the culture and what Mexico means to Mexican-Americans. A memory and a fantasy, scary and welcoming … these are just a few of the aspects of this comedic look at a soul-searching experience. Mexpatriate is portrayed by actor Mical Trejo and is directed by Ken Webster. Both Trejo and Webster are award-winning theater artists…
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George I. Sánchez : the long fight for Mexican American integration
“George I. Sánchez was a reformer, activist, and intellectual, and one of the most influential members of the ‘Mexican American Generation’ (1930-1960). A professor of education at the University of Texas from the beginning of World War II until the early 1970s, Sánchez was an outspoken proponent of integration and assimilation. He spent his life combating racial prejudice while working with such organizations as Read more..
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Latino Theater Company’s José Luiz Valenzuela on Creating Diverse Stage Productions
As the artistic director of the Latino Theater Company (LTC), José Luiz Valenzuela has spent the past 30 years producing work for the Los Angeles theater community. And as an immigrant himself, originally from Sinaloa, Mexico, Valenzuela is committed to telling stories that represent the new America—one that is more whole and diverse.
Operating out of the Los Angeles Theater Company since 2007, the LTC is an Equity group that employs 50–60 actors per season, with two seasons a year, and 5–7 plays within each of those seasons. And though the people in charge happen to be Latino, as Valenzuela explains, laughing, the LTC prides itself on producing work from various different cultures…
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Eyes On History: David Valdez, Only Latino White House Photographer
By Juan Castillo
GEORGETOWN, TX — When others saw history in the making on the world’s grandest stages, David Valdez saw work to do.
The personal photographer to former President George H.W. Bush and the only Latino to ever hold the position – “the privilege,” he says – Valdez’s singular focus was to document history. Time was not on his side, however. He had only split seconds to make decisions.
So when the world, for instance, marveled over a meeting between the president and Pope John Paul II, Valdez, eyes behind the lens, shut out the noise and worried about other things. Exposure. Lighting. Composition. And focus. Always focus…
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San Diego Native Tackles Immigration In New Animated Series ‘Bordertown’
A San Diego native is on the team behind a new animated comedy sitcom tackling changing demographics and immigration.
Lalo Alcaraz, creator of the first nationally syndicated and politically themed Latino daily comic strip, “La Cucaracha,” is writing and consulting on the Fox show “Bordertown.”
The show focuses on the relationship between two neighbors, a border agent and an immigrant, living in a fictional town along the U.S/Mexico border…
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Lessons to be learned from Latinos with dream jobs in tech
For millennials, jobs in the highest reaches of tech are among the most coveted. For Latino millennials, they sometimes seem unobtainable.
The numbers don’t lie. At Google, Twitter, and Facebook, Latino employees make up between 2 percent and 3 percent of their respective workforce. These abysmal numbers are standard also throughout Silicon Valley, where overall only 3 percent of workers are Latino…
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University of Chicago Gets $13 Million to Attract More Hispanic Students
HYDE PARK — The Neubauer Family Foundation is spending $13 million to get more Hispanic students on campus at the University of Chicago.
The foundation announced Monday it is committing $13 million to reach out to Hispanic high school students to get them into programs on campus, as well as for financial support if they enroll at the University of Chicago…
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Wealth inequality has widened along racial, ethnic lines since end of Great Recession
The Great Recession, fueled by the crises in the housing and financial markets, was universally hard on the net worth of American families. But even as the economic recovery has begun to mend asset prices, not all households have benefited alike, and wealth inequality has widened along racial and ethnic lines.
The wealth of white households was 13 times the median wealth of black households in 2013, compared with eight times the wealth in 2010, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. Likewise, the wealth of white households is now more than 10 times the wealth of Hispanic households, compared with nine times the wealth in 2010…
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Mexican professionals bringing ambition, startups to North Texas
Dallas Morning News
A cocktail mixer sponsored by the Association of Mexican Entrepreneurs …. “Americans respect power, and that’s what we’re striving for, economic …
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Cafecito: Guillermo del Toro On How To Thrive In Hollywood
Guillermo del Toro, one of Hollywood’s most talented and prolific directors and producers, spoke to Cafecito host Feliciano Garcia on the challenges he faced when he first arrived in Hollywood from Mexico in the 1990s.
“When I came it it was more difficult to make the community understand that Latin talent didn’t have to be ghettoized and marginalized into exclusively Latino projects,” said del Toro. He said that as years have gone by and with directors like Alfonso Cuaron and Robert Rodriguez behind the cameras and with others in front of the cameras, “I think we have earned the right to be taken seriously on every endeavor we want to take.”…
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