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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“…I’m an immigrant, after all. My family fled by foot and bus to the U.S. in the 1980s as right-wing death squads were killing and torturing thousands across El Salvador, including several of my relatives.
The trauma of those dark days shaped everything about me.
I figured I might recognize some part of my story in Cummins’ book, which follows an immigrant mother and son on their harrowing escape north from Mexico…”
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-01-24/american-dirt-book-latino-response
“…Victor Rios knows this all too well. A UC Santa Barbara associate dean of social science and a professor of sociology, he has both lived through and deeply studied the ways police treat people of color…”
“..Freshman admission offers to African-American students increased by more than 40 percent, and offers to Chicanx-Latinx students increased by 45 percent. In addition, we saw gains in various measures of greater socio-economic diversity among students offered admission. Further, this exceptionally talented admitted class maintains the high academic accomplishment seen in admitted classes from prior years…”
https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/07/16/berkeley-admits-most-ethnically-diverse-class-in-over-30-years/
“Traci Martinez is a member of the firm’s Global Board and is the deputy office managing partner of the Columbus, Ohio, office. She is an experienced civil litigation and labor and employment lawyer. Traci has a unique and broad practice that focuses on the business objectives of her clients, whether through counseling, litigation or transactional matters. Traci is also a demonstrated leader in the Central Ohio community.”
https://www.squirepattonboggs.com/en/professionals/m/martinez-traci-l
“As the United States grapples with civil unrest, many people are questioning how we arrived in this situation and how the nation can change for the better. In his new book, “American Poison: How Racial Hostility Destroyed Our Promise,” New York times economics reporter Eduardo Porter presents a comprehensive examination of how discrimination based on race has hurt not just members of marginalized groups, but the nation as a whole. While the U.S. has gutted education systems, healthcare programs, and assistance for the poor, he writes, the nation instead diverted resources to incarcerating people. Porter, who has previously served as economics columnist and editorial writer for the New York Times, joins us to discuss his new book and how it relates to current debate over dismantling systemic racism…”
“After months of negotiations following US President Donald Trump’s pledge to scrap NAFTA, the 24 year old trade agreement between Canada, the USA and Mexico, a new deal was reached minutes before a midnight deadline on September 30, 2018. Despite a number of changes, the new agreement – rechristened the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) – leaves NAFTA provisions for work visas untouched. The retention of the visa program is significant for workers in over 60 professional categories, and for employers across the continent, who will continue to have access to labor from all three countries..”
“…..”The rebound in jobs has not been shared equally across groups. The unemployment rate for white workers has fallen more than four percentage points over the past two months, to 10.1 percent. For Black workers, the rate has fallen just over one point, to 15.4 percent, and the rate for Black men actually rose in June. Asian workers, too, have seen only small gains. Latinos, hit particularly hard when the pandemic shut down much of the service sector, have had a larger drop in unemployment, but their jobless rate remains elevated at 14.5 percent…”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/business/economy/jobs-unemployment-coronavirus.html
“On July 1, 2020, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (“USMCA”) will enter into full force, when it will replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”) as the primary agreement governing trade relations between the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
President Trump’s April 2017 Buy American, Hire, American executive order threatened to end or severely limit the free trade agreement between the three countries, so its preservation is a victory for businesses and for professionals who qualify for entry under the agreement…”
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/goodbye-nafta-hello-usmca-45841/
“Mexico and the United States are striving to reopen their integrated supply chains while grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic. Mexico is the United States’s biggest trading partner and the U.S. buys about 80 percent of Mexico’s imports.
The two countries, along with Canada, also plan to launch the new North American trade agreement — USMCA — on July 1. That could help the continent’s economies rebound from the pandemic. To maximize the impact on jobs and prosperity, however, USMCA’s launch and reopening supply chains need to be managed well. ..”
“…“Whether his administration realizes it or not, they creating a significant handicap for US innovation. Our most innovative and impactful portfolio companies and many of their employees started as H-1b holders,” wrote Stonly Baptiste, the co-founder of technology investment fund, Urban.us. “We literally couldn’t have built our portfolio in an environment without H-1B. And we’re not even an immigrant focused fund.”
Also on the chopping block are H-2B visas, which are used to let short-term seasonal workers in landscaping and non-farm jobs into the country, J-1 jobs for short-term workers like camp counselors and au pairs and L-1 visas for corporate company transfers…”
“…An irony of the coronavirus pandemic is that the idyllic Mexico beach vacation seen in the brochures really does exist now: The white sand beaches are sparkling clean and empty on the Caribbean coast, the water is clear on the Pacific Coast and the waters around the resort of Los Cabos are teeming with fish after 10 weeks with no boats going out. There are two-for-one deals and very eager staff.
It’s all only an airline flight – and a taxi ride and a reception desk – away, and that’s the problem…”
“…Hispanic women had the highest rate of unemployment in May (19.5%), compared with other women or men among the nation’s major racial and ethnic groups. The unemployment rate among white women jumped nearly fivefold, climbing from 2.5% in February to 11.9% in May. A steep increase in the unemployment rate among Asian women also pushed their unemployment rate in May (16.7%) to near parity with the unemployment rate among black women (17.2%)…”
“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…”
“…Hundreds of Mexicans and Americans who live south of the border enter southern California’s hospitals every day. But these are not the patients — they are medical workers and support staff keeping a saturated healthcare system running amid the coronavirus pandemic. Over a thousand nurses, medical technicians, and support workers who live in the Mexican border towns of Tijuana, Tecate and Mexicali work in the United States, Mexican census data shows. They staff emergency rooms, COVID-19 testing sites, dialysis centers and pharmacies. (Gottesdiener, 5/31”
“…Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity says it obtained a confidential database providing details on the 4,577 Mexico City deaths in which coronavirus or equivalent designations — such as “COVID-19,” “COV” and “SARS COV2” — were mentioned on death certificates. The certificates are kept in civil registry offices.
In 3,532 of the cases, the report said, the virus was listed on death certificates as the confirmed, suspected, probable or possible cause of death, sometimes in combination with other ailments, such as severe respiratory infections. In another 1,045 cases, COVID-19 was listed as a cause of death, without specifying whether it was suspected, likely or confirmed…’
“..While those affected 41% are nurses, 36% are doctors, 20% are other professions, 2% are laboratory workers and 1% are dentists; 19% had obesity, 12.6% hypertension and 7.9% diabetes 7.9%.
Mexicans do not stay at home, mobility increased worryingly in four states despite quarantine
‘Optimistic’ model predicts Mexico will have 6,859 deaths from COVID-19 by August 4
AMLO again questioned the increase in domestic violence during the health emergency…”
“…Essential cross-border workers like healthcare professionals, airline crews and truck drivers are still permitted to cross. Truck drivers are critical as they move food and medical goods in both directions. Much of Canada’s food supply comes from or via the U.S.”
“…When Rice University suspended classes in early March after a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus, three for-credit courses were available online. When Rice’s classes restarted on March 23, 1,906 online courses were offered, said Klara Jelinkova, the university’s chief information officer.Setting all this up – including training 487 professors, many of whom had never taught online before – was “simultaneously exhilirating and scary,” Jelinkova said.Online education has been around for a while, and some universities are built entirely on it. But many colleges — and particularly K-12 schools — have not embraced it…”
“…Minorities and women are underrepresented on Fortune 500 boards. Almost 70% of directors Fortune 500 companies are held by white men, according to a study from the Alliance for Board Diversity.They’re also underrepresented in the greater tech community. Facebook’s latest diversity report from August barely moved the needle: It increased its Hispanic and Black workforce by 1% each to 5% and 3%, respectively…”
https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/31/technology/facebook-board-diversity/index.html
