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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Mexican Studies in Lone Star Classrooms?
Roundup: Not letting Texas high school students study Mexican-American history and literature is racist, say activists pushing for inclusive curricula.
Link to article
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.
Push is on to close college gap for California’s Latinos
A study shows Latinos lag behind other Californians in finishing college. Educators are seeking ways to boost Latino graduation rates.
Link to article
College seems out of reach to most Latinos
San Leandro High School senior Veronica Santana strode across the stage in a scarlet cap and gown to receive her high school diploma at a graduation ceremony earlier this month on the hillside cam
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
Latino Winemakers Rise in California, Through the Ranks
SONOMA, Calif. — It is harvest season in wine country, the time of year when the scent of crushed grapes infuses the air and flatbed trucks heavy with fruit cargo come lurching down narrow back roads…
Link to article
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
How One Woman Is Bridging The Gap Between Classical Music And Latinos
There are many barriers that exist growing up Latino in America, but access to classical music is one that is not often
Link to article
Success Of Bilingual Crossover Films Shows Hollywood’s Paying Attention To Latinos
For years, Latinos who sat in movie theaters typically saw themselves depicted as ruthless killers, drug dealers or restaurant workers or impoverished dwellers of dilapidated housing projects in grim neighborhoods.
Link to article
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.
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
For Migrants, New Land of Opportunity Is Mexico
Americans now make up more than three-quarters of Mexico’s roughly one …. see Mexico as their best option, as an incubator for personal, professional and …
Link to article
Sibling Caretaking Among Mexican American Youth: Conditions That Promote and Hinder Personal and School Success
PL East, SB Hamill – Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 2013
… Others have found large gender disparities in Mexican American parents’ expectations for their
sons’ and daughters’ involvement in family roles and activities … as an end in and of itself, at the
expense of absent or severely limited educational and professional aspirations (Dodson …
The Facts on Immigration Today
People from Mexico account for a large part of the undocumented population … which also includes African Americans, women, young people, professionals,…
Link to article
Areas of conflict in the intimate couple
from “Trames”
by M.E. Meza-de-Luna and H. Romero-Zepeda.
In this paper conflict within couples is studied qualitatively in a Mexican context. The objective is to analyze the areas of conflict within couples of diverse sex and sexual orientation, focused on the areas of conflict in an intimate couple. Methodology: 61 narratives (43 interviews and 18 photo-interventions) were analyzed with Ground Theory. Results: Partners usually have a set of expectations that define their relationship.
Link to article
Two legacies: how blacks and Mexican-Americans helped shape University of Texas history
This article was written by Susan Smith and publised in “Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Before Heman Sweatt, an African-American from Houston, won his lawsuit to attend the University of Texas School of Law, Carlos Cadena, a Mexican-American from San Antonio, was among its brightest students. Cadena graduated summa cum laude from the law school in 1940, a decade before Sweatt’s lawsuit forced UT to open its graduate and professional programs to Blacks
The Relationship Between Mexican American Cultural Values and Resilience Among Mexican American College Students: A Mixed Methods Study
ML Morgan Consoli, JD Llamas – 2013
Page 1. Journal of Counseling Psychology The Relationship Between Mexican American Cultural
Values and Resilience Among Mexican American College Students: A Mixed Methods Study …
BRIEF REPORT The Relationship Between Mexican American Cultural Values and …
Linking Acculturation Patterns, Acculturative Stress, and Education Policies to Educational Competence among Mexican-American Children
YM Kim – 2013
Page 1. Linking Acculturation Patterns, Acculturative Stress, and Education Policies to
Educational Competence among Mexican-American Children Yoon Mi Kim … mentor. I am very
grateful for your valuable academic and professional advice and for sharing …
Link to dissertation
Trajectories of Mexican American and Mainstream Cultural Values Among Mexican American Adolescents
GP Knight, CD Basilio, H Cham, NA Gonzales, Y Liu… – Journal of Youth and …, 2013
… This sample of Mexican American families was diverse with respect to both SES and language
(Roosa et al. 2008). … professional experience in a social service agency), strong in communication
and organizational skills, and knowl- edgeable about computers. …
Link to abstract
THE MEXICANISATION OF THE PEW HISPANIC CENTER
It is with great pleasure to discover that The Pew Hispanic Center has at last recognized that Mexican Americans like to be referred to as Mexican and not Hispanic. It is also welcome news that they have begun to publish articles about Mexican Americans.
The groundbreaking fact that governmental institutions are referring to Hispanics as Mexicans and specific groups is forward-moving in two ways,
1. Because it gives governmental institutions and other institutions a more accurate reading of the Mexican American community therefore it makes it easier to plan and project and,
2. It provides Mexican Americans and the larger population with recognition and validation for their accomplishments as well as their failures. In California, the Hispanic population is now equal to the white population and Mexican Americans comprise the largest number of Hispanics.
When I was looking for information for my Mexican American Professionals Articles a few years ago, I called the Pew Hispanic Center. I was able to speak with one of their principal writers and I asked him if his center had any information about Mexican American Professionals they could share with me. He informed me, in a very authoritative and abrupt way, that the Pew Hispanic Center did not have any such information. That they only dealt with Hispanics in their research. I said thank you and moved on to the Census Bureau Data.
Since that time, by their own research, they have concluded that “a report based on a nationwide survey” found most Hispanics don’t embrace the term “Hispanic,” and even fewer prefer the term “Latino.” Some light at the end of the tunnel. Gee, they had to do a nationwide survey to conclude that individuals think of themselves as “Guatemaltecos,” “Peruanos,” and even Mexicans.
Of further interest is the newest report released by the Pew Hispanic Center entitled “A Demographic Portrait of Mexican-Origin Hispanic in the United States.” It’s nice to see that we are finally worthy of being looked at as the majority of a minority. By their own admission, The Pew Hispanic Center in their recent publication “A Demographic Portrait of Mexican-Origin Hispanics in the United States” …Mexicans are by far the largest Hispanic-origin population in the U.S., accounting for nearly two-thirds (64%) of the U.S. Hispanic population in 2012”.
I hope that the Pew Hispanic Center will continue to gather and release information pertinent to Mexican Americans with a more in-depth look at women and other variables. In the 2011 American Community Survey, Mexican American Women out earned Bachelor’s degrees by 2%. They also outnumber men in several other professional areas. In so far as other variables are concerned it is surprising to see that Mexican Americans in at least one area are almost equally represented:
The following data is from my article entitled “Results of the American Community Survey…for 2011”:
Industry: Civilian employed population 16 years and older:
• 10.6% of the general population was employed in the professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste management services in 2010. In 2011, this number only increased by .1% to 10.7%.
• 10.1% of Mexican Americans were employed in the professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste management services in 2010. In 2011, this percentage remained the same.
This information is of great benefit to those in government or educational institutions that rely on this data to administer resources.
In spite of the limited resource of one, my website mexican-american-proarchive.com has provided annual reports on the results of the American Community Survey since it’s inception. They focus on Mexican American professionals and provide a link between the census data and the ability to read the information in an anecdotal form. I focus on what I think are the most important differences and similarities between Mexican American professionals vs. the overall population. The data is footnoted with It’s sources and when available a URL to the raw data is given.
I can be reached at:
Betohg2012@gmail.com
Tel. 650-738-8584
