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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Mexican American textbook is courting controversy in Texas
“Mexican Americans might not recognize their cultural history as it unfolds in a new textbook proposed for Texas public schools.
Chicanos are described as people who “adopted a revolutionary narrative that opposed Western civilization and wanted to destroy this society.”
In another passage, Mexican Americans are linked to undocumented immigrants.
Illegal immigration has “caused a…”
Koret Foundation awards $50 million to Bay Area colleges
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To be distributed over five years, the grants will provide support for school leadership priorities, campus programs and initiatives, the creation and expansion of new models for learning, the modernization of campus technology and infrastructure, and efforts to strengthen relationships between institutions in the United States and Israel…”
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/05/us-unemployment-may-jobs-report-five-key-points
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On Two Fronts: Latinos & Vietnam | Full Episode
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Mexico registered 149 deaths of health professionals and 11,349 infections
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Mexicans do not stay at home, mobility increased worryingly in four states despite quarantine
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AMLO again questioned the increase in domestic violence during the health emergency…”
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Facebook commits to seeking more minority directors
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https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/31/technology/facebook-board-diversity/index.html
Employment status of the Hispanic or Latino population by sex and age, 5/8/2020
Forced to wait in Mexico, migrant medical professionals become asset in fight against COVID-19
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An early look at the 2020 electorate
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https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/an-early-look-at-the-2020-electorate/
Miami-born Cesar Conde named chief of new NBC Universal news division
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Conde will now lead an expanded news division that combines all TV and streaming operations, according to reports published by the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article242496056.html
UCLA-led study identifies LA neighborhoods most economically vulnerable to COVID-19
“..Latino and Asian majority neighborhoods in Los Angeles County are especially economically vulnerable to disruptions caused by COVID-19, a UCLA study found.The study, which was published April 1 by the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative and the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, sought to locate neighborhoods in LA County that are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus because of their large number of at-risk workers.The researchers identified two sectors of the service workforce – hospitality and retail – that are especially at risk for coronavirus-induced layoffs…”
Lawsuit: US citizens with immigrant spouses should get help
“…The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund has sued the federal government over its denial of coronavirus relief payments to U.S. citizens who are married to immigrants without social security numbers.The lawsuit was filed in Maryland on Tuesday on behalf of six American citizens who were denied coronavirus relief checks because they filed and paid taxes with a spouse who has what’s known as an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or a way for immigrants without legal status to still pay federal taxes, which millions do…”
10 MBA Programs With the Most Diversity More than 15 percent of students are underrepresented minorities at these MBA programs.
‘MBA Programs With Diverse ClassroomsAt more than 100 MBA programs, the percentage of African-American, Latino, American Indian and Pacific Islanders is less than 10 percent. A few schools, however, have a much stronger representation for these and other groups. Here are the 10 schools with the highest percentage of full-time students who are underrepresented minorities…”
First National Poll of Latinos in 2020 Finds 35% of Households Have Experienced a Layoff as a Result of COVID-19
“As the Latino community grapples with the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, including a higher rate of fatalities compared to other populations, the nation’s first in-depth poll of the Latino population in America for 2020 has found that 35% of Latino households have already experienced a job loss, while more than 65% of respondents reported having difficulty buying or finding necessities such as food, household supplies or medicine.
[Poll results here | Slide deck here]
The poll was conducted by Latino Decisions in partnership with SOMOS, the country’s largest physician-led health delivery network. Of SOMOS’s nearly 3,000 physicians and 800,000 patients, nearly all are immigrants or first-generation Americans, and over two-thirds are Latino…”
