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,”
Read More…

Front Page Items

No green card? No problem — undocumented immigrant can practice law, court says

By Catherine E. Shoichet and Tom Watkins, CNN
updated 9:25 AM EST, Fri January 3, 2014
Illegal immigrant becomes lawyer
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: California State Bar: The decision is a legal one, not a political one
California’s Supreme Court: Undocumented immigrant Sergio Garcia can practice law
“I’m glad to see us moving forward in the right direction,” one law student says
Critic: Case shows troubling trend, a push to “normalize illegal immigration”

(CNN) — Sergio Garcia’s parents brought him to the United States from Mexico nearly two decades ago. He’s been waiting for a green card ever since.

But there’s one thing the undocumented immigrant no longer has to wait for, according to a California Supreme Court ruling on Thursday: his law license.

Link to article

Mother-reported sleep, accelerometer-estimated sleep and weight status in Mexican American children: sleep duration is associated with increased adiposity and risk for overweight/obese status

SM Martinez, LC Greenspan, NF Butte, SE Gregorich… – Journal of Sleep Research, 2013
… we examined the reliability of retrospective parent-reported sleep duration, compared with an
objective measure of sleep duration in a sample of Mexican American children. … Occupational
status ranged from lowest (1 = unskilled) to highest (9 = professional) (Hollingshead, 1975 …
Link to abstract

The Role of Behavioral and Cognitive Cultural Orientation on Mexican American College Students’ Life Satisfaction

L Ojeda, LM Edwards, EE Hardin, B Piña-Watson – Journal of Hispanic Higher …, 2014
… Implications for Practice Despite the limitations of this study and its exploratory nature,
our findings suggest several implications for professionals in college settings working
with Mexican American students. For example, higher …
Link to abstract

Cultural Differences in the Parenting of Young Children: An Observational Study of Low-Income Mexican American and European American Families

KM McCabe, JR Shanley, LN Niec, M Naaf, M Yeh… – Child & Family Behavior …, 2013
… Cultural Differences in the Parenting of Young Children: An Observational Study of Low-Income
Mexican American and European American Families. … Parenting style of Mexican, Mexican
American, and Caucasian–non-Hispanic families: Social context and cultural influences . …

Link to abstract

Democratizing Texas Politics: Race, Identity, and Mexican American Empowerment, 1945-2002

B Márquez – 2014
… Page 4. Democratizing Texas Politics Race, Identity, and Mexican American Empowerment,
1945–2002 by benjamin márquez University of Texas Press Austin … Introduction This is a book
about Mexican American incorporation into Texas electoral politics after World War…
Link to preview of book

Acculturation and Religious Coping as Moderators of the Association Between Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms Among Mexican-American Vocational Students

A Fernandez, A Loukas – Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 2013
… population, because of limited eco- nomic resources and access to other forms of coping, such
as professional counseling [2 … Although religious involvement is important to the Mexican-American
population, the amount of literature examining religiousness and its influence on …
Link to abstract

MEXICAN AMERICAN BASEBALL IN THE CENTRAL COAST

RA Santillán, C Docter, A Bermúdez, E Navarro…
… He is the 2012–2014 poet laureate of California. FRONT COVER: Ernie Cervantes, shown here
in 1940, was known as “Mr. Baseball” within the Sacramento Mexican American community. He
was good enough to be offered a professional contract with the St. Louis Browns. …
Link to preview

Mexican-American Children’s Perspectives: Neighborhood Characteristics and Physical Activity in Texas-Mexico Border Colonias

N Mier, LEE CHANAM, ML Smith, W XIAOHUI… – Journal of environmental …, 2013
… Ten focus groups were conducted with 67 Mexican-American colonia children ages 8 to 13 living
in one of the poorest border … Findings may inform policy makers and public health professionals
about ways to promote PA among underserved children through urban planning …
Link to abstract

Familismo, Ethnic Identity, and Bicultural Stress as Predictors of Mexican American Adolescents’ Positive Psychological Functioning.

B Piña-Watson, L Ojeda, NE Castellon, M Dornhecker – 2013
… Familismo, Ethnic Identity, and Bicultural Stress as Predictors of Mexican American Adolescents’
Positive Psychological Functioning … Page 2. Familismo, Ethnic Identity, and Bicultural Stress as
Predictors of Mexican American Adolescents’ Positive Psychological Functioning …
Link to abstract

GIFTED, BILINGUAL, MEXICAN/MEXICAN-AMERICAN STUDENTS: USING COMMUNITY CULTURAL WEALTH AS A STRATEGY FOR NEGOTIATING PARADOXES

TM Beam-Conroy – 2013
… the approved version of the following dissertation: GIFTED, BILINGUAL, MEXICAN/MEXICAN-
AMERICAN STUDENTS: USING COMMUNITY CULTURAL WEALTH AS A STRATEGY FOR
NEGOTIATING PARADOXES … vii GIFTED, BILINGUAL, MEXICAN/MEXICAN-AMERICAN
Link to dissertation

Demographic Shift In The Big Apple: First Mexican-American Elected Official

Just a generation ago, Mexicans were a rarity in the Big Apple.

But now they are New York City’s fastest-growing Hispanic group, numbering well over 300,000 and comprising more than 12 percent of the city’s Latino population. It’s part of a demographic shift that, on the other end, has witnessed the city’s “Old Guard” – Puerto Ricans and Dominicans – seeing their numbers decline over the years.

Link to article

Mexican and Mexican-American children’s funds of knowledge as interventions into deficit thinking: opportunities for praxis in science education

MM Licona – Cultural Studies of Science Education
… These scholars have also identified other ways that Mexican American parents show they care
about their children’s educations: politically, legislatively … Of course, the responsibility to create
professional development for existing teachers cannot only be a point for rethinking the …
Link to abstract

Cultivating Critical Resilience among Mexican American Community College Students through a Three-Way Learning Community

B Campa – Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology, 2013
… Language was a common obstacle among the participants and their Mexican American
peers. In many parts of the world, speaking more than one language is seen as an
asset, an opportunity for personal and professional growth. …
Link to article

Acculturative Stress, Violence, and Resilence in the Lives of Mexican American Youth

LK HOLLERAN, S JUNG – STRESS TRAUMA SUBSTANCE USE-BRIDE, 2013
3 Acculturative Stress, Violence, and Resilience in the lives of Mexican-American Youth LORI
K. HOLLERAN and SOYON JUNG University of Texas at Austin, Austin, T’exas, USA This
ethnographic study examines the experiences of Mexican American youth in the Southwest …

Link to chapter


  

Poem
“…And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while…”

T.S. Eliot
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Mexican American Proarchive Annual Report for 2022

The American Community Survey is an annual survey administered by the federal government to help local officials and community leaders and businesses understand the changes that take place in their communities. It includes percentages of our population’s graduate school attainment and the employment of Mexican Americans in various occupations.  These important factors influence the allocation of federal resources. Mexican American Proarchives uses the data provided by the American Community Survey to better understand how Mexican Americans compare to the general population.

Read More…