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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Who is Jovita Idár? Google Doodle Celebrates Mexican-American Civil Rights Pioneer
“Jovita Idár, a pioneer of Mexican-American civil rights, is celebrated in today’s Google Doodle, on the anniversary of the week the First Mexican Congress was held, September 14—22, 1911.
Born in the border city of Laredo, Texas, in 1885, Jovita Idár lived at a time when Mexican-Americans faced rampant discrimination…”
EXPO PRODUCCIÓN® Announces New 2021 Dates
“MEXICO CITY — September 17, 2020 — Tarsus México and Exposition Development Company, Inc. (ExpoDevCo) announce new dates for the sixth edition of EXPO PRODUCCIÓN. The show will now take place June 15 – 17, 2021 instead of the originally scheduled March 2021 dates at Centro Citibanamex, Mexico City.
The organizers are committed to providing a safe, sanitary and professional event while maintaining the quality that defines EXPO PRODUCCIÓN. The new dates will allow the organizers, all participants, and the industry more time to plan and prepare due to the global pandemic situation.
The power of being face-to-face is essential for developing successful and strategic business relationships and the organizers are prioritizing the well-being of all participants that will attend the event…”
https://www.textileworld.com/textile-world/2020/09/expo-produccion-announces-new-2021-dates/
LATINO-OWNED BUSINESSES Shining a Light on National Trends
“This report draws on a variety of data sources, both quantitative and qualitative. A short descrip-tion of the range of sources referenced in this report, from Census data to surveys to detailed interviews with entrepreneurs, is found in the following paragraphs.Timely and detailed data about small business growth potential, including the ability to access financing, is scarce. For national and state trends, researchers have relied heavily on two datasets from the U.S. Census Bureau: the Survey of Business Owners (SBO) and Annual Survey of Entre-preneurs (ASE). The SBO surveys both employer and nonemployer businesses and is conducted every five years (in years ending in two and seven), but contains limited financing questions. The ASE, which commenced in 2014, provides more frequent data (the first survey was released in 2016 and has been updated annually) but examines only employer firms. Beginning in 2017, the Census Bureau initiated a new survey called the Annual Business Survey (ABS) to replace the ASE and the SBO. The ABS will only survey employer firms and will contain more detailed questions on…”
Mexican ambassador to US discusses immigration, trade in Wednesday event
“Martha Bárcena Coqui, Mexican ambassador to the United States since December 2018 and the first woman to hold the position, spoke to Duke students Wednesday in a virtual event.Topics focused on United States-Mexico relations, increasing tensions due to immigration, the replacement of the North American Free Trade Agreement by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and the impact of COVID-19 on an already-complex diplomatic relationship. “Be proud of your culture and what you represent,” Bárcena urged students as she reflected on the parallel trends of increasing opportunities for Mexican Americans and increased hostility toward immigrants.In the past 30 years, she argued, the United States and Mexico have gone from being almost distant neighbors to being essential trade partners, thanks to agreements such as NAFTA. Supply chains between the two—as well as Canada—have become completely integrated in areas ranging from pharmaceutical supplies to automotive parts. The free trade area encompassing Mexico and the United States is now valued at over $1.3 trillion, which, as Bárcena points out, is greater than the gross domestic products of some nations in the Group of 20…”
When Arizona Elected a Mexican Immigrant Governor
“Border Patrol agents once ordered an elderly Hispanic man out of his vehicle and requested his identity papers, which showed that he was a Mexican-born immigrant named Raúl H. Castro. Turns out he was Arizona’s former governor…”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/us/arizona-immigration-new-nativists.html
Only 9 Hispanic CEOs at top 500 companies
“The shake up in United Airlines’ corner office has placed one more Hispanic executive in the top spot at a Fortune 500 company.
That brings the total to nine.
United Airlines named Oscar Muñoz as its new CEO on Tuesday, after the company’s CEO and chairman Jeff Smisek stepped down amid an investigation into wrongdoing at the airline.
Fewer than 2% of all CEOs at Fortune 500 companies are Hispanic, according to the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility.
Roberto Goizueta became the first Hispanic CEO in 1981 when he was named chief executive at Coca-Cola (KO), according to a 2013 HACR report. But there is still lots of room for improvement, according to the organization…”
https://money.cnn.com/2015/09/09/news/hispanic-ceo-fortune-500-companies/index.html
Four generations: Mexico to U.S. — a culture odyssey
“Arcadio Yniguez was barely a teenager when he crossed the border into the United States in 1913. He came from Nochistlan, a town in central Mexico; like thousands of his countrymen, he was fleeing the violence of the Mexican revolution. Family legend later said that he had run horse for Pancho Villa at age 12 and even shared meals with the notorious revolutionary…”
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-26/four-generations-mexico-to-u-s-a-culture-odyssey
Editorial: The Democratic convention is missing Latino, Texas voices. That’s a mistake.
“No party should take for granted the votes of any group tied together by race, ethnicity, gender or religion. And yet for all the focus they’ve put on diversity in recent years, Democrats appear to be doing just that as they gather virtually beginning tonight for the party’s four-day online convention.
Latinos, part of a voting bloc that is expected to play a large role in determining the outcome of the election, are all but shut out of the prime speaking spots. In fact, Texas itself, where Latinos are an especially big factor and helping to make the state competitive for the first time in decades, is nearly absent from the podium. That’s a big mistake on both fronts…”
Washington Post managing editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz named editor in chief of San Francisco Chronicle
“…During Garcia-Ruiz’s tenure, The Post became one of the largest digital-news sites in the world, with monthly traffic regularly exceeding 80 million U.S. visitors and surpassing 100 million during the coronavirus pandemic. Digital-only subscriptions to The Post grew to more than 2.5 million this summer.
Garcia-Ruiz will join the Chronicle, long the San Francisco Bay area’s largest newspaper, next month. He succeeds Audrey Cooper, who left the newspaper this summer after five years leading its newsroom to become editor in chief of WNYC, the public-radio station in New York City…”
Some school districts in the U.S. are getting creative to deliver educational services to students who lack computers at home
“..Similarly in Northeastern Michigan, Microsoft is working with internet service provider Allband Communications to put equipment on buses that harness TV white space (TVWS) to provide an internet connection. TVWS can deliver broadband internet over broadcast signals that are no longer in use, with a reach up to 18 miles, according to the WhiteSpace Alliance…”
https://www.educationdive.com/news/homework-gap-continues-to-impact-18-of-nations-students/556583/
Struggling With Lockdown, Schools Relearn Value of Older Tech: TV
“In a hillside shantytown of Lima, Peru, Delia Huamani’s school day starts not with the bustle of classmates, but with the flicker of a television. With physical schools closed indefinitely, she gets her lessons at home, from the country’s brand-new library of slickly made educational broadcasts.
As a substitute, it’s far from perfect. Delia, 10, says her parents cannot afford books — she misses reading about animals in the school library — and she has no one to check her work. She leans on her friend Katy Bautista, 12, who wishes she could ask the television presenters to slow down during difficult lessons…”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/17/world/coronavirus-television-schools.html
As schools close due to the coronavirus, some U.S. students face a digital ‘homework gap’
“As K-12 officials in many states close schools and shift classes and assignments online due to the spread of the new coronavirus, they confront the reality that some students do not have reliable access to the internet at home – particularly those who are from lower-income households.
…”A quarter of lower-income teens do not have access to a home computer. One-in-four teens in households with an annual income under $30,000 lack access to a computer at home, compared with just 4% of those in households earning over $75,000, according to the 2018 survey. There are also differences by race and ethnicity. Hispanic teens were especially likely to say they do not have access to a home computer: 18% said this, compared with 9% of white teens and 11% of black teens…”https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/16/as-schools-close-due-to-the-coronavirus-some-u-s-students-face-a-digital-homework-gap/
Pandemic presents a chance to address continued disparities in health care
“…The COVID-19 pandemic and national demonstrations against the deaths of Black Americans have shed light on the brutal manifestations of systemic racism. Across humanity’s collective history, stories have elevated marginalized voices and breathed life into once broken structures. Through “In My Words,” community members and Daily Bruin staffers share their own experiences with racial identities and perspectives on the current state of race at UCLA and across the nation…”
Force for Good
“…The still surging COVID-19 crisis has disproportionately affected marginalized communities nearly anywhere you look. That disparity is marked in northern Santa Barbara County, where a vast majority of positive cases have been recorded among its populations of Indigenous migrants and undocumented residents.
The Latinx and Indigenous Migrant COVID-19 Response Task Force —conceived by Dr. Van Do-Reynoso, director of the Santa Barbara County Department of Public Health, and helmed by physician Melissa Smith, director of health equity initiatives at UC Santa Barbara — is working to help these individuals by focusing on their experiences, health education and equitable treatment in the face of the pandemic…”
Stephen Miller Not Saying Americans In Mexico Can’t Come Home … Yet
“Time for some more security theater from the Trump administration. They don’t have a plan to deal with COVID-19, but they’re queuing up some more empty gestures, so get ready to please clap.
The New York Times was first to report that Trump’s helpful minions are debating a plan to fight the virus by excluding American citizens and legal US residents from entering the country if border agents believe they may have been exposed to the virus. Never mind that we’re arguably the worst hotspot on earth, with endemic community spread. Forget about the big, beautiful wall around the country since no one else will let us in anymore. Ignore the fact that the president is now scream-tweeting a demand that college football players risk their longterm health for our amusement…”
https://www.wonkette.com/stephen-miller-not-saying-americans-in-mexico-cant-come-home-yet
South Bay family mourns Gilbert Polanco, San Quentin guard who died from COVID-19
“…A South Bay family is mourning the loss of a beloved husband, father, veteran and longtime corrections officer. 55-year-old Gilbert Polanco died at a San Jose hospital Sunday morning after a long battle with COVID-19.
“Everything I have is because of him.. all the positivity he brought, all the hard work he’s done,” said daughter Selena Polanco.
She said her dad was an Army Veteran and started working at San Quentin when he was just 21. The novel coronavirus pandemic has caused a mass outbreak inside the prison, 24 inmates have died, 2,000 inmates infected. Selena was worried for her father’s safety.
“I was scared he would get sick and this would happen,” said Polanco.
Gilbert Polanco tested positive for COVID-19 in late June, he was admitted to the hospital on July 2.
Last month, Polanco was on life support in the ICU.
Selena and her mom also contracted the virus and recovered…
Mexico City’s Open for Atlanta Tourists, but Are They Bold Enough to Travel?
“…While U.S. citizens barred from most of Europe in what would be prime travel season as COVID-19 cases here continue to grow by the tens of thousands, Mexico has flung open its doors, making it one of the few foreign destinations to which cooped up American tourists can fly for some R&R.
To be clear, Mexico hasn’t conquered the pandemic within its own borders. The country added more than 12,000 confirmed cases and 829 deaths Wednesday to bring its totals to nearly 450,000 and almost 50,000, respectively. Some experts fear the numbers could be much higher, as the country has only conducted about 1 million tests…”
Spurs’ Popovich discusses systemic racism impacting the Hispanic community
“Our brown brothers and sisters have suffered the same discrimination in a lot of ways that reflect the same system that has created such inequality in wealth across the board for black and brown people,” Popovich said to local reporters during a Zoom teleconference. “The population that is the brown community has suffered no less systemic type racism in many ways.”
https://www.facebook.com/mexicanamericans/posts/2606823516233270
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change appointed as Executive Secretary Patricia Espinoza Appointed for Second Term
“…Members of the COP Bureau unanimously agreed with the re-appointment, highlighting the Executive Secretary’s excellent leadership and commitment to the climate change agenda and her dedication to ensuring the continuous guidance and support of the UNFCCC Secretariat to Parties and the UNFCCC process in general.
Ambassador of Mexico to Germany from 2001 to 2002 and from 2012 to 2016, Ms. Espinosa was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico from 2006 to 2012, bringing more than 30 years of experience at highest levels in international relations, specialized in climate change, global governance, sustainable development, gender equality and protection of human rights…”
https://unfccc.int/news/unfccc-executive-secretary-patricia-espinosa-appointed-for-second-term
SAISD elementary school teacher dies after battle with COVID-19
“SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio Independent School District officials confirmed Friday that one of their elementary school teachers died after a battle with COVID-19.
Carmen Canales, 48, taught at Ogden Academy. SAISD officials said she tested positive for the virus this summer and had been hospitalized. It’s the first death of a district employee due to COVID-19…”
