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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Drug Usage and Health Characteristics in Non-Institutionalized Mexican-American Elderly
Abstract:
This paper reports the results of in-depth interviews with thirty-two elderly Mexican-Americans (average age, sixty-nine) with respect to: 1) their total drug usage including prescription, over-the-counter, and social; 2) attitudes towards physicians and medicines; 3) physical health; and 4) the quality of life. The results show that minimal potential hazardous drug interactions were in evidence and, in general, their attitudes towards physicians and the prevalence of chronic illnesses reported were comparable to national Health Interview Surveys and an earlier pilot investigation of elderly Anglo-Americans. In addition, Mexican-Americans show a disinclination to utilize over-the-counter drugs to alleviate minor ailments. Key differences are identified and explained as a result of social class or ethnic variations. The paper concludes that policy makers and professionals involved in health care delivery systems for the aging should become aware of the special needs of different ethnic and socio-economic groups.
Journal of Drug Education
Issue: Volume 10, Number 4 / 1980
Pages: 343 – 353
URL: http://baywood.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=searcharticlesresults,1,1;
A. M. Vener A1, L. R. Krupka A2, J. J. Climo A1
A1 Department of Social Science, Michigan State University
A2 Department of Natural Science, Michigan State University
Physician-Assisted Suicide Attitudes of Older Mexican-American and Non-Hispanic White Adults: Does Ethnicity Make a Difference?
by David V. Espino MD, R. Lillianne Macias BA, Robert C. Wood Dr PH, Johanna Becho BA, Melissa Talamantes MS, M. Rosina Finley MD, Arthur E. Hernandez PhD, Rubén Martinez PhD
Article first published online: 1 JUN 2010
Little is known about attitudes toward physician-assisted suicide (PAS) in various ethnic groups. This study compares attitudes held by older Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic whites and examines subject characteristics that may influence their responses. A convenience sample of 100 older Mexican Americans and 108 non-Hispanic whites (n=208) aged 60 to 89 were recruited from four primary care community-based practice sites in San Antonio, Texas. Interview items measured attitudes toward PAS, cognitive status, functional status, and religiosity.
Older Mexican Americans (52.7%) reported stronger agreement than non-Hispanic whites (33.7%) with PAS. Male sex (odds ratio (OR)=2.62, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.09–6.35) predicted agreement with legalization in Mexican Americans, whereas lower religiosity scores (OR=0.84, 95% CI=0.75–0.94) were predictive of agreement in older non-Hispanic whites.
This study is the first to find positive attitudes among community-dwelling older Mexican Americans toward PAS that are higher than those of older non-Hispanic white adults. Sex and religious views were important determinants of positive attitudes toward PAS. Larger, more-generalizable studies should be conducted to confirm the attitudinal patterns that have been identified in this study.
© 2010, Copyright the Authors. Journal compilation © 2010, The American Geriatrics Society
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2010.02910.x/abstract
DEA Intelligence Aids Mexican Marines in Drug War (Matamoros)
Because it is a smaller force, the Mexican navy has also been better able to police corruption among its ranks, with a corps of professional officers who …
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3rd Annual HOWTO Super Mixer | The Austin Times
MAES (Mexican American Engineers and Scientists)- “To promote, cultivate, and honor excellence in education and leadership among Latino engineers and scientists.â€� NAHREP (National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals) – “ To …
The Austin Times – http://theaustintimes.com/
Dr Gayle Peterson has Joined Kasamba’s Team of Professional Counselors
On Monday, September 18, 2006, The 5a8 Mexican American Task Force of The Chicago Council of Global Affairs, released the Task Force’s report: A Shared Future: The Economic Engagement of Greater Chicago and its Mexican Community. …
New Statistics on Mexican American Professionals from the 2009 Community Survey
NEW STATISTICS ON MEXICAN AMERICAN OCCUPATIONS AND GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL DEGREES
By HUMBERTO (TITO) GUTIERREZ
Edited by Carol Ponzio
Graphs by Daniel Borg
The American Community Survey for 2009 has just been released by the Census Bureau.
OCCUPATIONS: Management, professional, and related occupations.
A comparison of the American Survey for the years 2008 and 2009 shows that Mexican Americans have gained .3% in Management, professional, and related occupations:
2008 Total population 34.9% vs. 15.5% for Mexican
2009 Total population 35.7% vs. 15.8% for Mexican
If you look closely, the gain in the total population is .8%. This number is higher than the gain by Mexican Americans which is .3%.
EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
The results for Educational Attainment shows the following results:
Again I am comparing the years 2008 and 2009 from the American Community Survey.
Bachelor’s degree or higher
2008 Total population 27.7% vs. 9.0% for Mexican.
2009 Total population 27.0% vs. 9.0% for Mexican.
In this case there has been a drop of .7% in the total population with Bachelor’s degrees or higher. The percentage of Mexican Americans with Bachelor’s degrees or better has stayed the same at 9.0%. I will call this a small step towards improvement in our educational attainment.
A COUPLE OF SPECIFIC INDUSTRIAL AREAS
Civilian employed population 16 years and over:
2008 Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services
Total population 10.4% vs. 9.9% for Mexican.
2009 Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services
Total population 10.6% vs. 10.1% for Mexican.
These numbers show that in Science, Mexican Americans are represented in fairly even percentages in contrast to the total population. The only explanation I can think of for this equality is that Language and Culture do not play as big a role in Science as they do in other occupations.
The percentages also show a slight gain for Mexican Americans from 9.9% to 10.1%, although not as much of a gain as the general population which went from 10.4% to 10.6%.
One last industry:
Educational services, and health care and social assistance.
2008 total population 21.7% vs. 13.7% for Mexican.
2009 total population 22.7% vs. 14.5% for Mexican.
Although Mexican Americans didn’t make the same gain as the general population, the gain they made was close to the gain in the general population.
Sources:
1. U.S. Census Selected Population Profile in the United States.
Population Group: Mexican
Data Set: 2008 American Community Survey
see data here
2. U.S. Census Selected Population Profile in the United States.
Population Group: Mexican
Data Set: 2009 American Community Survey
see data here
Letter to the editor. New York Times
To the Editor
Hispanics are traditionally ignored by most media as the largest ethnic minority
Re-In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap by Michael Luo
Nov. 30, 2009
I Goggled Hispanic joblessness and got no results to my query. This is typical of the stereotypic view of Hispanics in the United States. The Internet media and the East Coast publishing empire are provincial in thinking that Hispanics do not exist in U.S. The general media in the U.S. does not know that the largest ethnic minority in the U.S are Hispanics and not Blacks; which is not intended to ignore the need to point out racism for both Blacks and Hispanics.
What I can tell you is that according to the Current Population Survey of 2008 the total percentage of employed occupations in Management professional and related occupations was 8.3% for Black or African American and 7.1% for Hispanic or Latino. From the start Hispanics are underreprested and Mexicans fare much worse.
According The U.S Department of Labor, in 2007 job losers and persons who completed temporary job were 44.1% for Black or African American and 52.1% for Hispanic or Latinos.
Humberto Gutiérrez
COMMERCIAL INTERIOR DESIGNER WINS AWARD
Commercial interior designer earns award
Honored
David Burge / El Paso Times
Posted: 08/25/2009 12:00:00 AM MDT
Patty Holland-Branch, founder and CEO of Facilities Connection, stands inside her West Side office which showcases some of the office furniture and commercial design elements sold by her 22-year-old interior design company. (Victor Calzada / El Paso Times)
EL PASO — Patty Holland-Branch knows how to put together space, furniture, and color to make an office a nice place to work and also convey a company’s preferred image.
Those design skills have made Holland-Branch and her 22-year-old El Paso company, Facilities Connection, succeed in commercial interior design. But other skills have made the company click and grow.
“We always have to be re-creating ourselves. That’s how our business has survived,” said Holland-Branch, founder, owner, and CEO of the West Side company she started in 1987 in a West Side condo she shared with her children.
The company now has about 30 employees, including three other interior designers, and is headquartered at an acre site at 240 E. Sunset on the West Side.
Through the years, the company has diversified its services beyond traditional interior design. It now also sells, installs, and maintains furniture; provides move management, and offers information technology services. In the past few years, it also has shifted its customer base from mostly private companies, including the maquiladora industry, to a large focus on the military and other government agencies.
That shift, which required spending years learning the ins and outs of federal contracting, is responsible for the company’s revenues growing 411 percent from 2003 through last year, Holland-Branch said. She did not provide revenue numbers.
The success caught the attention of the Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers
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of Commerce, which earlier this month named Holland-Branch, 65, a native of Chihuahua City, Mexico, as Texas Hispanic Business Woman of the Year.
Cindy Ramos-Davidson, CEO of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said the local chamber nominated Holland-Branch for the award because of her company’s longevity, and growth, but also because she figured out how to “re-engineer” the company to find new opportunities with the federal government. She also is focused on knowing her clients and how best to meet their needs, Ramos-Davidson said.
“There’s a difference between those who service their customers and those who really care about their customers,” as Holland-Branch does, Ramos-Davidson said.
Holland-Branch said her husband, Dave Branch, 62, president of the company, gets credit for helping the company move into the federal contracting arena.
Dave Branch said he focuses on much of the business management side of the company while his wife focuses more on the creative, and client-services side.
Holland-Branch, who said she’s always had a creative streak, said designing some homes and a restaurant years ago convinced here that interior design was her forte. She received a degree in interior design technology from El Paso Community College, and worked for an El Paso interior design company for three years before going into business for herself in 1987.
Cindy Bilbe, president of Stewart Title, which hired Facilities Connection to design and furnish the interior of its 12,000 square-foot Downtown office and three branches, said Holland-Branch has “an extremely good eye for space planning and color selection,” and also delivers what she promises. Holland-Branch was involved in all aspects of the Stewart Title project, including talking to the Downtown office’s 20 employees to find out their space and desk needs so the interior and furniture worked for them, Bilbe said.
The design featuring Southwest colors has increased employee morale, and has received great customer reviews, Bilbe said.
Facilities Management also recently designed and furnished the interior of the new JDW Insurance offices on the seventh and eighth floors of the Chase Bank Building. That design features more muted tones to convey a more “classic” executive style, Holland-Branch said.
“You see a lot of designers where everything looks like them (their tastes). For Patty, everything looks like the customer,” Dave Branch said. “She can take the personality of a person and turn it into a work space where everything works.”
Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; 546-6421.
Personal file
# Name: Patty Holland-Branch
# Job: Founder, owner and CEO of Facilities Connection Inc., a 22-year-old commercial interior design company, which also sells, installs, and maintains office furniture; does move management; and provides information technology services.
# Background: Born in Chihuahua City, Mexico. Moved to El Paso at age 6 when her father, an engineer for Asarco, was transferred here.
# Family: Married 21 years to her second husband, Dave Branch, 62, Facilities Connection president. Five children and nine grandchildren.
# Education: Austin High School graduate. Associate’s degree in interior design technology from El Paso Community College.
# Quote: “I love creating things. I also like solving problems. I have a passion to work with my customers.”
Award winners
TheTexas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce gave these awards to El Paso area business people at its recent state convention:
# Texas Hispanic Business Woman of the Year: Patty Holland-Branch, CEO and founder of Facilities Connection.
# Texas Hispanic Business Man of the Year: Ray Hernando, owner of RHO Logistics.
# Texas Corporate Hispanic Business Advocate of the Year: Maria Mendez, vice chair of corporate relations, Aetna insurance.
# Large Hispanic Chamber of the Year: El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
Source: El”Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
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Mexican American Professionals: Clarification
The previous two articles I wrote regarding Mexican American Professionals were based on a broad definition of professionals. I used our population with college degrees or higher as the bases for my articles. Since then I have obtained new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to broaden my definition of Mexican American Professionals to include most individual who are employed as doctors, teachers, lawyers, etc. (see the list of professions on the next page to the article)
In 2007 the total white employment for age 16 years and over was 146,047,000.
The total employed persons of Mexican ancestry was 12,908,000, or about ten percent of the white employed population. The total Non-Hispanic white population in 2007 was 199.1 million and for Mexican Americans it was 29.1 million.
If you compare the percentage of Mexican Americans vs. White Professional workers:
Mexican vs White Professional Workers by Percentage 2007
The chart shows what minuscule portion of employed professionals Mexican Americans occupy. Mexican Americans were only 3.63% of Professionals in 2008 as compared to the total Mexican American vs. white worker population which is about 8.84%. The Healthcare field shows only a 6.69% showing among this professional group.
The following chart is a detailed comparison of the percentage of Mexican Americans vs. White Professional workers. It is significant to note that among professionals Mexican Americans represent only 2.13% of employed professionals as compared to White workers in computer and mathematical occupations while in service occupations such as farming, fishing and forestry they weigh in at 27.3%.
Mexican vs White professional workers detailed breakdown 2007
The following charts show the distribution of Mexican Americans and White workers by sector.
Mexican American occupation by sector 2007
White American occupation by sector 2007
These charts show the distribution of occupations and it is clear to see the disparities in management and professional occupations. 15% of Mexican Americans are involved in management and related fields where 35% of Whites are professionals. Roughly 24% of Mexican American workers are employed at service occupations whereas less than 17% of White workers are doing those jobs.
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One final note
It is interesting to note that in 2008 there are (0) averages for Mexican Americans involved in the following professions:
-
Funeral directors
-
Financial examiners
-
Mathematicians
-
Actuaries
-
Agricultural Engineers
-
Biomedical Engineers
-
Mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers
-
Nuclear engineers
-
Conservation scientists and foresters
-
Physical scientists
-
Sociologists
-
Urban and regional planners
-
Nuclear technicians
-
Directors, religious activities and education
-
Archivists, curators, and museum technicians
-
Media and communication equipment workers
-
Podiatrists
-
Audiologists
-
Health diagnosing and treating practitioners
-
Fish and game wardens
-
Ship and boat captains and operators
Conclusions and Prospects
If you examine the trend for the years from 2007 to 2008 it’s not an optimistic one. In the chart Management and professional occupations the numbers are not moving up from year to year and in some cases the number have gone down.
I have not read any studies that nail down why these numbers are not showing improvement, but there are some writers who do offer some explanations.
Mitchell A. Kaplan in an article for the Hispanic Outlook on March 3, 2009 states that Hispanics face five major social and economic barriers to educational opportunity. They are:
-
Lack of supportive social and economic resources….
-
The immigrant and socioeconomic status of their parents.
-
The lack of parental knowledge of the internal workings of the American educational system.
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Inadequate school resources to help compensate for educational disparities.
-
Weak relationships that Hispanics form with their teachers that tend to undermine their success.
Once again, please note that the above statements refer to Hispanic and not specifically to Mexican Americans.
It is my hope that some of these negative trends turn around. They are a reminder that great disparities in professional employment still exist between the white community and the Mexican American community.
Sources:
1. “Labor Force Characteristics by Race and Ethnicity”, 2007. U.S Department of Labor. Report 1005. P. 4, 9
2. Household Data: Annual Averages. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employed Hispanic or Latino workers by sex, occupation, class of worker, full-or part-time status, and detailed ethnic group.
Mexican American Professionals Finally Have An Online Home
Mexican American Pro Archives website, mexican-american-proarchive.com, is dedicated to sharing articles and pertinent information on “the silent minority.”
SAN FRANCISCO, May 3, 2009 – Lack of centralized information on “the silent minority” inspired, Humberto Gutierrez, to establish mexican-american-proarchive.com as a resource dedicated to tracking the progress of Mexican American Professionals in the U.S.
The website includes original content from Mr. Gutierrez, a Mexican American writer and educator, but also encourages readers to post information relevant to the topic. Gutierrez “hopes the site will become an archive and resource of information to facilitate the distribution of information which impacts Mexican American Professionals.”
Gutierrez stresses that there is a significant lack of serious research on the Mexican American Professional demographic. He came to this realization about fives years ago after an unsuccessful attempt to find reliable information on the topic.
Gutierrez’s quest for information prompted “The Silent Minority: Mexican American Professionals. An Odyssey in Search of Elusive data.” The article, published in Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education Magazine on July 28 2003, discusses the lack of reliable data on Mexican American Professionals.
Since publishing the article, Gutierrez has acquired updated information. Latest numbers from the Census Bureau’s 2007 American Community Survey show that Mexican American college graduates are greatly underrepresented when compared to other Hispanics.
Mexican Americans have and are still relegated to tired stereotypes of drug traffickers, lovers and service workers. The Mexican American community numbers close to 30 million, roughly 10% of our total population. The Mexican American Community is represented by a wide variety of persons including professionals. As a group, Mexican American professionals have been largely ignored by the news media. Recent numbers show that Mexican American College graduates represent only 6.2 % of their total population. This compares with 29.4% for Non-Hispanic graduates.
Mexican Americans are the lowest in educational attainment among Hispanics. Compared with other Foreign Born groups, Mexican Americans do even worse. For example, college graduates from Mexico represent 5.2% of their total population. In comparison, Indian college graduates have a 74.1% representation.
About mexican-american-proarchive.com:
Mexican American Pro Archives (https://www.mexican-american-proarchive.com) is dedicated to archiving information about Mexican American Professionals. Creator and administrator, Humberto Gutierrez, was born in Chihuahua Mexico and relocated to the United States as a teenager. Gutierrez has been an educator and writer for over 35 years. Please contact to request more information.
Contact:
Humberto Gutierrez, Administrator
Mexican American Pro Archives
Phone: 650-738-8584
betooliv@comcast.net
The Silent Minority: Mexican-American Professionals
At last, some data
Humberto (Tito) Gutierrez
Since I wrote the first article about Mexican-American Professionals, the Census Bureau has created The American Community Survey (ACS). It …”is part of the Decennial Census Program. It is a survey that is sent to a small percentage of our population on a rotating basis. This data was previously collected only in census years in conjunction with the decennial census. Since the ACS is conducted every year, rather than once every ten years, it will provide more current data…” Given this fact, statistical information about Mexican-Americans is much more current and precise.
Why should we care?
From the year 2,000 to the present, Mexicans 25 years and older had the lowest proportion of Hispanics with a bachelor’s degree or more.
Census Bureau 2000 Demographic Profile characteristics: Race, ethnic, or ancestry group.
Then and now: Have Mexican- American Professionals grown in numbers since 2004?
The answer is yes, but not by much.
- In 1985 the educational attainment of Mexican-Americans 25 years or older was 5.5%
- In 1989 it was 6.1%
- In 2,000 it was 7%
- In 2002 it was 7.6%
- During the years 2005 to 2007 it was 6.0%
- In 2007 it was 6.2%
You may ask; why did the numbers drop from 2002 to 2005?
The reason is that these are percentages of the total Mexican- American population which in:
- 2002 numbered 25.1 million
- 2005 numbered 28.1 million
- 2007 numbered 29.1 million
Between 2002 and 2005 there was an increase of 3 million Mexican-Americans, therefore the growth among Mexican-American college graduates had to increase by that proportional amount and obviously, it did not.
How do percentages of Mexican- American college graduate students compare with non-Hispanic groups? The chart below shows how the two groups compared in 2002.
Census Bureau 2005-2007 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates.
Other years we can compare the contrast between Mexican-American and Non-Hispanic groups that have attained a B.A. or more are:
In 1989 21.1 % of the non-Hispanic group had earned a B.A. or more, compared to 6.1 for Mexican-Americans.
- In 2,000 24.4% for non- Hispanics and 7% for Mexican-Americans.
- In 2,002 29% for non-Hispanics and 7.6% for Mexican Americans.
From 2005 to 2007 it was 27% for non-Hispanics and 6% for Mexican-Americans. The percentage of Non-Hispanic white is 29.4 compared with 11.1 for Hispanics and 7.6 for Mexicans.
Foreign born Mexican-American fared even worse. In 2007 Educational Attainment by Mexicans at the B.A. degree or more was only 5.2%.
Census Bureau, Foreign Born Population in the United States: 2003.
Educational Attainment by Nativity, Showing Countries of Birth of the Foreign-Born Population with 1 Million or More: 2007
What are some reasons for the great discrepancy between Mexican-American and Mexican academic achievement and Non-Hispanic populations?
One possible explanation is that Mexican-Americans are mostly employed in service, precision, production, craft and transportation jobs. This means that both Mexican groups have limited economic resources to fund their college careers. To this point, the Hispanic-Serving Institution Program found in areas which service Hispanics, funds Hispanics who want to attend college. There is a statistical chart entitled “Location of Hispanic-Serving Institutions of Higher Education in the United States by State and Percentage of Latino Undergraduates Enrolled 2003 to 2004”. This data can be found at the National Center for Education Statistics IPEDS Survey 2003 to2004.
One last comment.
It is interesting to note that the level of students in Higher Education (Instruccion Superior) in Mexico for 25 to 30 year olds is 16% of the total Mexican population.
Los Jóvenes en México, Instituto de Estadística Geográfica e Informática. PDF file, starts on P174.
In summary:
We have made some progress filling in the gap between Mexican-American professionals (6.1% in 1989) to (6.2% in 2007) and Non-Hispanics which in 2007 number 27%. At this pace it would take Mexican-American 27 years to catch up with the Non-Hispanic population.
Sources:
- Census Bureau 2000 Demographic Profile characteristics: Race, ethnic, or ancestry group.
- Census Bureau 2005-2007 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates.
- Census Bureau, Foreign Born Population in the United States: 2003. Slide show.
- Census Bureau, Social and Economic Characteristics of the Hispanic Population: 2006. Table 39.
- Los Jóvenes en México, Instituto de Estadística Geográfica e Informática. PDF file, starts on P174.
These PDF files are the complete documents, parts of which were used to write the above article.
- Census Bureau, Percent of Persons 25 Years Old and Over Who Have Completed High School or College, by Race Hispanic Origin and Sex: Selected Years 1940 to 1990. PDF file.
- Census Bureau, Hispanic Population in the United States: 2002. Current Population Reports. PDF file
- Census Bureau, Educational Attainment in the United States: 2003. PDF file.
Getting to Know You Better
Price: $.99
Publisher: Humberto (Tito) Gutierrez (August 31, 2008)
Editorial Reviews
Getting to Know You Better is an article written by a father, among the millions, whose children grew up with their mother. It is about his relationship with his grown daughter.
It is a warm hearted story of emotional growth for both individuals and a good insight into Generation X.
The writer explains how Generation X is not a homogeneous group and how they represent cynical disdainers, traditional materialists, hippies revisited and Fifties Machos.
Read this interesting analysis about parental relationships in the divorce age.
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Mexican Professionals flee Drug War
Mexicans fleeing drug war help El Paso house market
Wed Sep 10, 2008 2:41pm EDT
EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) – Mexicans fleeing a gruesome drug war are buying homes across the border in El Paso, helping keep the Texan city’s property market afloat despite the worst U.S. housing crisis in decades.
With clashes between rival drug gangs leaving dead bodies on the streets of the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez almost daily, hundreds of middle class Mexicans are selling up and moving to El Paso, just over the Rio Grande.
The cities are a short walk apart, but there have been 12 homicides in El Paso this year compared to some 900 in Ciudad Juarez, where law and order has collapsed as Mexico’s most wanted man Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman battles local drug baron Vicente Carrillo Fuentes for U.S. smuggling routes.
The increase in the number of Mexican buyers has helped support El Paso’s housing market. While foreclosures hit a record high across the United States between April and June, El Paso estate agents report brisk sales of houses and apartments in the $80,000 to $300,000 range and broadly steady prices.
“Our market is not a plummeting market compared to the rest of the country,” said Dan Olivas, president of the Greater El Paso Association of Realtors.
“A lot of that is buoyed by a substantial number of people from Juarez coming over to buy properties for security reasons, for fear of kidnappings, extortion, cartel violence,” he said.
Already notorious for a spate of brutal murders of young women in the 1990s, Ciudad Juarez has become Mexico’s most violent city in a drug war that has killed some 2,700 people nationwide so far this year. Some 3,000 troops were sent to the city of 1.5 million but they have failed to stop the chaos.
El Paso real estate brokers say demand from over the border began rising early this year as the drug violence flared, and has ballooned since then as murders, abductions, extortions and car theft have spiraled. Many Mexicans are even paying cash.
Media Professionals adopt charter
Latin American Media Professionals Adopt the Charter of Guadalajara
21-06-2005 (Paris)
More than 200 media professionals gathered in Guadalajara (Jalisco, Mexico) on 14-16 June 2005 to analyze the current audiovisual landscape in the region and come up with concrete proposals for action in 2006/2007.
The Conference, jointly organized by UNESCO and the University of Guadalajara with the sponsorship of numerous Mexican media, was the culmination of a one-year process at the beginning of which UNESCO launched a call for “good ideas and best practices” in local audiovisual production and distribution in the region. Thirty of the one hundred fifteen innovative proposals received were retained and presented in Guadalajara. The initiatives included cultural, scientific, community television channels, community radio stations, itinerant movie theaters, festivals and thematic and local news agencies. They all had in common their success in reaching important publics and delivering to them public service oriented contents.
The Charter of Guadalajara includes a set of recommendations addressed to the media, governments, civil society, universities and UNESCO. Among the most concrete ones addressed to UNESCO is the setting up of an Audio-Platform which, inspired by UNESCO’s E-platform, would gather under one single portal different audio archives for the use of radio stations in search of public service oriented content. To overcome the language barriers, the portal would be divided into different linguistic blocks
Michigan State launches new Ph.D Chicano Studies Program
MSU offers Midwest’s first Ph.D. in Chicano/Latino Studies
Contact: Andy Henion, University Relations, Office: (517) 355-3294, Cell: (517) 281-6949, Andy.Henion@ur.msu.edu
Published: Sept. 26, 2007
Story
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University has launched the first doctoral program in Chicano/Latino Studies in the Midwest – and only the second in the nation.
The interdisciplinary graduate degree, which grew out of MSU’s undergraduate Chicano/Latino Studies program, is offered by the College of Social Science. Like many doctoral programs, it is starting small; five students are enrolled for the 2007-08 academic year.
Dionicio Valdes, program director and MSU professor of history, said the Chicano/Latino population is simultaneously the fastest-growing and least-studied major ethnic group in the United States. Hispanics are also the largest minority group at nearly 43 million people.
“This program is important for many reasons,” Valdes said. “But the biggest single reason is that it offers a much different approach to knowledge and an understanding of our increasingly complex society that academia has not yet come to terms with.”
Doctoral candidates will explore the historical and contemporary experiences of Chicanos and Latinos in social, cultural, political and economic contexts. Doctorate courses range from “Latina Feminisms” to “Globalization and Mexican Immigration to the United States.”
The University of California, Santa Barbara, offers the only other doctorate focusing specifically on Chicano studies.
Valdes said Michigan State’s relatively large number of Hispanic students and reputation for Chicano/Latino scholarship make the new doctoral program a logical fit. According to the provost’s office, 1,309 students are enrolled at MSU this fall – a 34 percent increase over 1997.
MSU also has the Cesar E. Chavez Collection, one of the nation’s largest library holdings representing the life and philosophy of the late civil rights activist and the Chicano/Latino community.
In addition, the Julian Samora Research Institute is located on campus. The institute, named after the former MSU professor and pioneer in Mexican-American studies, conducts research and projects targeting the needs of the Hispanic community in the areas of economic development, education, families and neighborhoods.
Rubén Martinez, who became the institute’s director on Sept. 1, said a deeper understanding of Chicano and Latino groups “will contribute to the betterment of the nation as a whole as it moves forward into the 21st century.”
“Previous scholarship has argued that the flow of Mexican and Latino immigrants into cities and states has coincided with their development and prosperity – both the people and the economies have benefitted,” Martinez said. “We see this in many communities in the South today, even though local institutions struggle to meet the educational and health needs of their newest community members.
“The scholarly work of doctoral students in the new program,” he added, “will enhance our understanding of these dynamics and ultimately contribute to the betterment of intergroup relations in this country.”
For more information on MSU’s doctoral program in Chicano/Latino Studies, visit www.msu.edu/~cls.
For more information on the Julian Samora Research Institute, visit www.jsri.msu.edu/.
For more information on MSU’s Cesar E. Chavez Collection, visit: www.lib.msu.edu/coll/main/chavez/.
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UTEP awarded $13 million
GEAR UP awarded $13 million
The University of Texas at El Paso has been awarded more than $12.9 million from the Department of Education GEAR UP Program to help more than 3,000 area middle school students prepare for college.
Now in its fourth year at UTEP, the program is expected to receive $2.15 million each year during the next six years.
The award will fund UTEP’s Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program (GEAR UP) where students from 11 Ysleta Independent School District middle schools are enrolled.
GEAR UP is a federal program that helps youth from low-income communities obtain a postsecondary education through tutoring programs, standardized testing preparation and other programs. The course was enacted as a result of Congress’ passage of the Higher Education Amendment of 1998 where students in grades 6-12 are encouraged to stay in school and apply for college.
Getting to Know You
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File Size: 59 KB
Publisher: Humberto (Tito) Gutierrez (August 31, 2008)
Editorial Reviews
This article is about the relationship between a non-custodial father and his grown daughters. It addresses with humor and candor the delicate dance of a loving, but out-of-the-house father starting a new relationship with his now adult daughters. Humberto’s description of a weekend spent with one of his daughters will make you chuckle and may bring a tear.
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Electroluv
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File Size: 49 KB
Publisher: Humberto (Tito) Gutierrez (August 31, 2008)
Electroluv is an entertaining and sensuous story about Ed, a character out of the Greek classics, who does not want to know the truth about the relationship between his daughter and his second wife.
The setting is a small town in Northern California, well known for its pastoral beauty and peaceful way of life.
The story documents the struggles and aspirations of Mexican American Immigrants, a group that has largely been ignored by most fiction writers in this country.
Electroluv’s main character, Ed, is a High School Principal in Ukiah California, he crafts a definitive tale of the trials and tribulations of a single parent.
Helena, his beautiful and voluptuous wife, stirs the pot by betraying Ed’s trust.
This is an interesting and important tale that will excite your senses.
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Dating after Fiftyish
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File Size: 52 KB
Publisher: Humberto (Tito) Gutierrez (August 31, 2008)
Editorial Reviews
Funny, funny article about dating after fifty.
This is a well researched article about baby boomers and others in search of a mate. It focuses on Internet dating but the scope of the article goes beyond just Internet dating.
This informative and humorous article describes the difficulties of finding a mate when time is short and the rules of the institution of marriage have changed.
The author describes, in some detail, his own experiences with Internet dating. His experiences are insightful and delightful. In addition his experiences make for great conversation.
The article also includes general characteristics of the fifty plus single, divorced, or widowed population.
His advice to prospective mates is honest and refreshing.
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Poems by Humberto (Tito) Gutierrez
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File Size: 683 KB
Publisher: Humberto (Tito) Gutierrez (August 31, 2008)
Editorial Reviews
This photopoem collection is written in a simple, clear, and very personal style. It combines personal experiences and intimate feelings expressed in a poetic form. The author’s photographs of the places in which the poems were inspired are combined with the text. The poems range from tender and loving experiences to playful poems that were stimulated by the San Francisco Bay Area, its festivals, and its cultural diversity.
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