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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Front Page Items

Fighting “two devils”: Eleuterio Escobar and the School Improvement League’s battle for Mexican and Mexican American students’ educational equality in the San Antonio, Texas public schools, 1934 to 1958

LA Wilson – 2012
… He argued that Mexican and Mexican American children were legally a “white” population, which
made the city’s use of “Mexican schools” illegal. He lobbied the local school district, local and
state politicians, and legal professionals to improve the West Side schools. …
Link to abstract

Mother-Daughter Participation in a Community of Practice: Understanding the Sociocultural Mediation of the Identity/ies of Marginalized, 6th Grade Mexican-American Girls

R Reyes III
… introduce participants to how universities function; (3) a Career Day introducing participants to
possible fields of study and to professional Hispanic women who serve as role models; (4) a … The
purpose of this study is to understand how Mexican-American girls who have …
Link to article

Gender Roles and Substance Use Among Mexican American Adolescents: A Relationship Moderated by Acculturation?

S Kulis, FF Marsiglia… – Substance Use & Misuse, 2011
… school level influences on individual level risk and protective behaviors; gender and racial
inequities in professional careers; and … projects, studying risk and protective factors associated
with health and mental health outcomes among Mexican/Mexican American and American …
Link to abstract

The Mexican-American Trial of Community Health workers (MATCH): Design and baseline characteristics of a randomized controlled trial testing a culturally tailored community diabetes self-management intervention

SK Rothschild, MA Martin, SM Swider, CT Lynas… – Contemporary Clinical …, 2011
… live in target communities to provide outreach and health education (5, 6) . Although trained and
supervised by health professionals, the value … This paper describes the design and implementation
of the Mexican American Trial of Community Health workers (MATCH), a blinded …
Link to abstract

Factors that influence mammography use and breast cancer detection among Mexican-American and African-American women

RZ Garcia, SC Carvajal, AV Wilkinson… – Cancer Causes and …, 2011
… promoting culturally appropriate messaging about the benefits and limitations of mammography,
education about breast awareness, and prompt reporting of findings to a health professional.
Keywords Mammography 4 Screening 4 Acculturation 4 Mexican-American 4 African …
Link to article

RESULTS OF THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY FOR 2010: a comparison of the total population of the United States and Mexican professionals

By HUMBERTO (TITO) GUTIERREZ
Edited by Carol Ponzio
Graphs by Mara Ann Fuller

The total population of the United States is 309,349,689.

The Mexican American population is 32,929,683, roughly about 11% of the total population.

The following are the results of a partial comparison of these two groups for professional occupations.

FOR EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT:

  • The 2010 Graduate or professional degree was 10.4% for the total population.
  • The 2009 Graduate or professional degree was 10.3% for the total population, a gain of .1% for the total population.
  • The 2010 Graduate or professional degree was 2.6% for Mexican Americans.
  • The 2009 Graduate or professional degree was 2.5% for Mexican Americans, also, a gain of .1%, however the gap is still 7.2% between the total population and Mexican American educational achievement in professional degrees.

Educational Attainment - Grad & Prof Degrees - U.S. Population vs. Mexican American

These numbers have remained steady for the last two years, but when we look at the breakdown for men vs. women, the numbers are very different.

The 2009 number for male bachelor’s degrees or higher for the total population were 28.4% vs. 8.2% for Mexican Americans.

The 2009 number for female bachelor’s degrees or higher for the total population were 27.4% vs. 9.9% for Mexican American women. The difference between male and female for the total population in 2009 was in favor of males 28.4% vs. 27.4% for females. Males have a 1% advantage. In 2009 there was a 1.7% gap in favor of Mexican American females, 9.9% for women vs. 8.2% for men, a 1.7% advantage for women.

The 2010 number for male bachelor’s degree or higher for the total population was 28.5% vs. 8.4% for Mexican Americans.

The 2010 number for female bachelor’s degree or higher for the total population was 27.9% vs. 10.4% for Mexican Americans. The difference between male and female for the total population in 2010 was in favor of males, 28.5% vs. 27.9% for females, but the gap has narrowed to .6% between the genders, down from 1% in 2009. For Mexican American males the gap in 2010 is 8.4% vs. 10.4% for females, a gap of 2% in favor of females, which have gained from 1.7% in 2009 to 2.0% in 2010.

Educational Attainment - Bachelor Degrees - U.S. Population vs. Mexican American

OCCUPATIONS: Male civilian employed 16 years and over:

  • In 2009, management professional and related occupations results were: 32.6% for the total population, vs.12.2% for Mexican Americans.
  • In 2010, management professional and related occupations results were: 32.8% for the total population, vs. 12.4% for Mexican Americans. The ratios have remained close for these groups. A gain of .2% by both groups, but Mexican American men are underrepresented by 20.4%, as compared with the total population.

OCCUPATIONS: Female civilian employed 16 years and over:

  • In 2009, management professional and related occupations: total population, 39.1%, Mexican American, 21.4%.
  • In 2010, management professional and related occupations: total population, 39.4%, Mexican American, 21.7%.

As a general statement the gap between the total population and women is narrower than with men. For women it’s only 17.7% instead of 20.4% for men. What is also of interest is the percentage of women vs. men in this group, which is 9.3% if favor of Mexican American women over Mexican American men.

Educational Attainment - Grad & Prof Degrees - U.S. Population vs. Mexican American

INDUSTRY: Civilian employed population 16 years and older:

  • In 2009, the results for professional, scientific, management, administrative and waste management services were 10.6% for the total populations vs. 10.1% for Mexican American.
  • In 2010, the results for professional scientific, and management, and administrative waste management services were 10.6% for the total population vs. 10.1% for Mexican American population. The numbers have remained the same and are one area, which shows equality between the total population and Mexican American population.

For public administration:

  • In 2009, the total population was 4.8% in public administration and 3.2% for Mexican Americans.
  • In 2010, the total population was 5.2% in public administration and, 3.5% for Mexican Americans. This comparison shows that Mexican Americans lost .1% in this category.

SUMMARY

Ratios of professional employment have remained the same for the total population of the United States vs. the Mexican American population. To a large extent, Mexican American professionals remain underrepresented among professionals in general, but Mexican American women have gained ground in some areas.

Reference Documents from the U.S. Census Bureau

 


  

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.

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