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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The Mexican morass
A president who doesn’t get that he doesn’t get it
Jan 24th 2015
IN A new year message Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, promised to work to “liberate” his country from crime, corruption and impunity. His cabinet has duly set these as its priorities. The message is the right one. But unfortunately for Mr Peña, Mexicans are increasingly cynical about the…
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Tech Program Helps Put Latinos On A Path To Silicon Valley
About an hour south of Silicon Valley in a classroom at Hartnell Community College, Daniel Diaz and Brian De Anda stand at a whiteboard mapping out ideas on how to reduce the size of a mobile app their team is building.
This isn’t a class, and the app they’re building — an informational guide for a drug rehab center — isn’t even a school project. But this is what it takes to have a chance at an elite summer internship, says Daniel Diaz.
“What you are taught at school is not enough,” Diaz says, “especially in today’s competitive society. I think you need to do some more outside learning.”The inaugural class of the Computer Science and Information Technology program, scheduled to graduate in 2016.All Tech ConsideredOut Of The Fields And Into Computer Science Classes
So these students are working on other apps, doing hackathons and learning additional programming languages outside of class. They’re doing it because there’s a thought — perhaps a reality — that hangs over…
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Cecilia Abbott becomes state’s first Hispanic first lady
AUSTIN, Texas
The swearing in of new Texas Gov. Greg Abbott makes his wife the state’s first Hispanic first lady.
Cecilia Abbott is the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants and was raised in San Antonio.
Delivering his inaugural address on the steps of the state Capitol on Tuesday, the new governor said his wife embodies Texas.
He said the state “has been the blending of cultures from across the globe even before we became our own nation.”…
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How Mexicans Became Americans
SOUTH GATE, Calif. — A FEW weeks ago, the City Council in this suburb southeast of Los Angeles appointed a Mexican immigrant to its advisory council. Jesus Miranda is from Michoacán and owns a taco restaurant here. He’ll advise the council on housing development and other issues.
Mr. Miranda’s appointment is hardly national news. But small moments like these are signs of a historic change of heart toward America and civic engagement among Mexican immigrants, many of whom, like Mr. Miranda…
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Shumaker Loop names first Hispanic managing partner
Julio Esquivel, partner and a member of the management committee at Shumaker Loop & Kendrick LLP, is about to make history in the company.
Esquivel will be the firm’s next managing partner, taking over for J. Todd Timmerman, and will be the first Hispanic managing partner in the firm’s history.
Esquivel specializes in corporate law with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, securities, IPOs, franchise and distribution, and international transactions. He’s been a member of Shumaker Loop for 17 years, and said Partner Greg Yadley was his mentor from the start at the firm…
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The Things All White Latinos Are Tired of Hearing
As a white Latina, if I had a dollar for every time someone said to me, “You’re whiter than I am!” I’d have enough money to … well, the point is, I’d be making it rain, OK?
(Also, yes: I’m aware that I’m whiter than you. Trust me. I’d like to be able to tan as easily as you think I do, but alas, that’s not really in the cards for me.)
For many people, it’s not the most offensive thing ever to be told you don’t look Latina or to be asked if you’re adopted or to be asked why you’re white if you’re Latina, but the truth is, people often have a specific, stereotypical idea of what it means to be Latino in the U.S. today, and often that idea is at odds with the reality that pale-skinned, blue-eyed, or blonde Latinos actually can and do exist. After a while, it gets kind of annoying to constantly have to “prove” to people — Latinos and non-Latinos alike — how “Latina” you really are…
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Ruben Navarrette Jr.: TV’s skewed vision of Latinos
Through perseverance and hard work, Latinos have overcome a long history of discrimination and made it to the U.S. Senate, the Supreme court and the Cabinet. You’ll find them in the executive suites of Fortune 50 companies, leading championship sports teams, and heading the nation’s largest nonprofit organizations. They’ve even made it to outer space.
That was easy. Now for the last frontier: television.
Studies have been done on what some call the entertainment industry’s “brownout.” One recent examination of the problem — “The Latino Media Gap: A Report on the State of Latinos in U.S. Media,” which was released last year by Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race — found that Latinos lag far behind whites and African-Americans in landing leading roles. When Latinos have appeared on television, it’s usually in one-dimensional, stereotypical and cookie-cutter roles: the housekeeper or hoodlum, the cop or soldier, the sexpot or illegal immigrant, the gardener or gang-banger…
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Golden Globes Winners 2015: Latinos Gina Rodriguez, Alejandro González Iñárritu Take Home A Prize, Who Else Won? [FULL LIST]
Action! Award Season has officially begun this year with the Golden Globes. On Sunday, January 11, The Hollywood Foreign Press Association awarded the best of movies and television while Tina Fey and Amy Poehler brought they hilarious skits to the award show hosting it yet again. Helping the funny duo present winners with their prizes were Latin divas Salma Hayek and Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Gervais, Amy Adams, Adrien Brody, Anna Faris, Kevin Hart, Kate Hudson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Pratt, Channing Tatum, Lily Tomlin, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Our new TV obsession, Latina Gina Rodríguez went home with a little statue. The “Jane The Virgin” star was nominated for the first time and gave a heartfelt speech when she was called on the stage to pick up her prize. As she fought back her tears of excitement, she thanked her family, cast mates, the network and everyone who believed in her, and added, “This award is so much more than myself, it represents a culture that wants to see themselves as heroes.”…
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CHCI Swearing-In Ceremony Welcomes New Chair Rep. Linda Sanchez and Hispanic Members of the 114th Congress
Government Fri, January 09, 2015 12:01 PM
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In an historic night for the Hispanic community, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI), the nation’s premier Latino youth leadership development and educational organization, welcomed the Hispanic members of the 114th Congress at a ceremonial swearing-in on Tuesday, January 6, 2015, at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C. More than 400 people turned out to see seventeen Hispanic members, including newly-elected CHCI Chair Rep. Linda Sanchez, stand shoulder to shoulder and be sworn in as leaders of their communities by the Honorable Judge Terry J. Hatter, Jr., Chief Judge, Central District of California.
“My goal for CHCI is simple: empower the next generation to realize their potential and to lead,” said Sanchez. “There are so many talented Latino youth that only need a door of opportunity to open for them. CHCI opens that door. I’ve been fortunate to have had great mentors, like Judge Hatter, who taught me not to accept others’ limited expectations for what I could be or achieve. CHCI does the same thing…
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Home Entertainment Story Berkeley: Mexican-American author Michele Serros, 48, dies
BERKELEY — Michele Serros, a short story writer, essayist and poet whose wry and witty observations on growing up Mexican-American in Southern California became required reading in many ethnic studies courses, has died at age 48.
Serros died Sunday at her home in Berkeley after a 20-month battle with a rare form of oral cancer, said her husband, Antonio Magana.
Serros was a community college student when she burst on the literary scene in 1994 with the publication of “Chicana Falsa and Other Stories of Death, Identity and Oxnard,” a collection of stories and poems inspired by her family life and childhood in a majority Hispanic coastal community. A fourth-generation Californian who did not learn to speak Spanish well until she was an adult, she gave voice to the struggle for belonging girls like her faced while straddling cultures…
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Cooper medical tries to buck the trend of Latinos absent from medical workforce
It’s no secret that doctors nationwide lack a Latino presence, but a recent study revealed just how dire the situation has become: A new report by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) shows that only 4 percent of Latinos and African-Americans are in the physician workforce.
So the message being sent nationally to medical schools is simple – create a more diverse physician workforce.
SEE ALSO: Shortage of Hispanic doctors increases health risks for all
One school not only taking the directive to heart but actually leading the way is Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU) . The relatively new institution, which serves the stressed Camden, New Jersey area, is already showing positive results that should in time help diversify doctors in the region…
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First Chicano film is added to the National Film Registry Entertainment FIlm & TV by Jonathan Muñoz – Jan 5, 2015
Along with classics such as “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Saving Private Ryan,” a Chicano film has found its way the National Film Registry, making it the first one in U.S. history.
Through the National Film Preservation Act, the Librarian of Congress names twenty-five films deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant to the National Film Registry every year. The goal preserve them so that future generations will be able to see these as well. It’s what makes “Please Don’t Burry Me Alive!” so special, now that’s it forms a part of the registry…
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In With the New: Meet Congress’ Latino Newcomers
The total number of Latinos in Congress rose by one, to 29, after the midterm elections, a new high, according to tallies kept by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. Here are the newcomers who will be sworn in after the 114th Congress convenes Jan. 7…
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‘Sciences,’ ‘Girl,’ ‘Gueros’ up for Palm Springs Fest’s Cine Latino Award
MADRID – Argentina’s “Natural Sciences,” Mexico’s “Gueros” and Spain’s “Magical Girl” and are among a record 27 titles — including “Wild Tales” and “Libertador,” both shortlisted for a foreign-language film Oscar nomination — that compete for the Cine Latino Award at the 26th Palm Springs Intl. Film Festival.
Prize goes to the best movie from Latin America, Spain or Portugal at the fest, which kicks off today. Sponsored by Mexico’s Guadalajara Festival, its biggest film event, and the University of Guadalajara Foundation in USA, the Cine Latino Award is now in its third year.
The Cine Latino Award’s cash prize has been raised to $10,000, Raul Padilla, president of the University of Guadalajara Foundation in USA, announced Friday. This recognizes and strengthens the fast-building bridges between the U.S. and Mexican film communities, seen in the number of companies operating out of both the U.S. and Mexico and the burgeoning number of U.S.-Mexico co-productions, in which Mexico brings increasingly significant coin to the table…
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The Election of Pete Chacón: Latino Hope, Pride and a New Belief in the System
By Maria E. Garcia
Peter “Pete” Chacón
The general public knew Peter Chacón as a California State Assemblyman who served from 1970-1992. Very few know or understand what Pete’s election meant to the Latino community.
From the time I was a small child I remember my parents going inside a building to vote. They would take turns voting as we sat in the car. One parent would go inside to vote while the other parent would care for us. Then the reverse would occur. Voting was always a special activity and in many ways a mystery…
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Latino Theater Company’s José Luiz Valenzuela on Creating Diverse Stage Productions
As the artistic director of the Latino Theater Company (LTC), José Luiz Valenzuela has spent the past 30 years producing work for the Los Angeles theater community. And as an immigrant himself, originally from Sinaloa, Mexico, Valenzuela is committed to telling stories that represent the new America—one that is more whole and diverse.
Operating out of the Los Angeles Theater Company since 2007, the LTC is an Equity group that employs 50–60 actors per season, with two seasons a year, and 5–7 plays within each of those seasons. And though the people in charge happen to be Latino, as Valenzuela explains, laughing, the LTC prides itself on producing work from various different cultures…
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San Diego Native Tackles Immigration In New Animated Series ‘Bordertown’
A San Diego native is on the team behind a new animated comedy sitcom tackling changing demographics and immigration.
Lalo Alcaraz, creator of the first nationally syndicated and politically themed Latino daily comic strip, “La Cucaracha,” is writing and consulting on the Fox show “Bordertown.”
The show focuses on the relationship between two neighbors, a border agent and an immigrant, living in a fictional town along the U.S/Mexico border…
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Lessons to be learned from Latinos with dream jobs in tech
For millennials, jobs in the highest reaches of tech are among the most coveted. For Latino millennials, they sometimes seem unobtainable.
The numbers don’t lie. At Google, Twitter, and Facebook, Latino employees make up between 2 percent and 3 percent of their respective workforce. These abysmal numbers are standard also throughout Silicon Valley, where overall only 3 percent of workers are Latino…
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University of Chicago Gets $13 Million to Attract More Hispanic Students
HYDE PARK — The Neubauer Family Foundation is spending $13 million to get more Hispanic students on campus at the University of Chicago.
The foundation announced Monday it is committing $13 million to reach out to Hispanic high school students to get them into programs on campus, as well as for financial support if they enroll at the University of Chicago…
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Wealth inequality has widened along racial, ethnic lines since end of Great Recession
The Great Recession, fueled by the crises in the housing and financial markets, was universally hard on the net worth of American families. But even as the economic recovery has begun to mend asset prices, not all households have benefited alike, and wealth inequality has widened along racial and ethnic lines.
The wealth of white households was 13 times the median wealth of black households in 2013, compared with eight times the wealth in 2010, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. Likewise, the wealth of white households is now more than 10 times the wealth of Hispanic households, compared with nine times the wealth in 2010…
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