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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An early look at the 2020 electorate
“…We project that the 2020 election will mark the first time that Hispanics will be the largest racial or ethnic minority group in the electorate, accounting for just over 13% of eligible voters – slightly more than blacks. This change reflects the gradual but continuous growth in the Hispanic share of eligible voters, up from 9% in the 2008 presidential election and 7% in the 2000 election. The black eligible voter population has grown about as fast as the electorate overall, meaning their share has held constant at about 12% since 2000…”
https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/an-early-look-at-the-2020-electorate/
Lawsuit: US citizens with immigrant spouses should get help
“…The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund has sued the federal government over its denial of coronavirus relief payments to U.S. citizens who are married to immigrants without social security numbers.The lawsuit was filed in Maryland on Tuesday on behalf of six American citizens who were denied coronavirus relief checks because they filed and paid taxes with a spouse who has what’s known as an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or a way for immigrants without legal status to still pay federal taxes, which millions do…”
Mexico Likely To Keep Making The World’s Biggest Oil Hedge
“The Mexican oil hedge, or the Hacienda Hedge, is considered the biggest hedging bet on Wall Street as well as perhaps the most secretive. It has earned Mexico—and a few large investment banks—billions of U.S. dollars. Mexico buys put options from investment banks and typically hedges a whopping 200-300 million barrels of oil a year. With the put options, it has the right, but not the obligation, to sell oil at a previously set price and timing. But will this tradition continue under the newly elected administration?Throughout his campaign, Mexico’s now president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador kept the oil industry on edge with comments and promises that he would review the landmark 2013 energy reform of outgoing President Enrique Peña Nieto that ended seven decades of oil monopoly in the country…”
NALEO: Nearly 4 Million Latino Voters in California Expected to Cast Ballots in 2020 Election
“WASHINGTON, D.C. — One week before Latinos will make a decisive impact on the outcome of the California Democratic primary on Super Tuesday (March 3, 2020), the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund released its profile of the California Latino electorate and key Congressional races to watch in the state in 2020.According to NALEO Educational Fund analysis, more than 4 million Latino voters will make their voices heard at the ballot box in 2020. Latino voter turnout in California more than doubled from 1,597,000 in 2000, to 3,345,000 in 2016, an increase of 109 percent…”
Latino voters favor raising minimum wage, government involvement in health care, stricter gun laws
Most Latino registered voters say they want government to be more involved in solving the nation’s problems, a view that is reflected in their broad support for raising the minimum wage, government involvement in health care and stricter gun laws, according to a national Pew Research Center survey of Latino adults conducted in December.
A record 32 million Latinos are…”
Ayala: A new generation rises at San Antonio’s Hispanic chamber
“…The scene unfolded in the beautifully restored Monte Vista home that Congressman Henry B. Gonzalez once shared with his wife, Bertha, and their eight children.
A political fundraiser was under way, and Rep. Beto O’Rourke, then running for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Ted Cruz, had the floor.
The host, Dr. Erika Gonzalez (who’s unrelated to the Henry B. clan) had gathered together successful, young Mexican American professionals interested in politics — people much like herself.
Unlike previous generations of Mexican Americans, who worked at the grass-roots level, those gathered in her home flexed political power by opening their wallets…”
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Latino Voters Will Decide the 2020 Election
“MIAMI — I am dreading the 2020 presidential race, which I think will be the most brutal Americans have ever witnessed. Irrespective of who the Democratic nominee is, President Trump will use all the power and dirty tricks at his disposal to remain in power for another four years.
As was the case in 2016, if Democrats want to have any chance of defeating Mr. Trump, they will need the strong support of Latino voters. This time, however, they will have to work extra hard to get it…”
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Why Do So Many Californians Choose NOT to Vote?
“…Likely voters do not represent the diversity of the state’s population. They are disproportionately white and tend to have incomes and levels of education that are notably higher than the state’s average. A recent Public Policy Institute of California study found that:
Non-Hispanic whites constitute only 44 percent of California’s adult population but make up 65 percent of the state’s likely voters.
Hispanics make up a third of the state’s population but represent only 17 percent of likely voters…”
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Hispanic Unemployment Rate Ties All-Time Low
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The number of Hispanics and Latinos employed set a record high in August as their national, seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate matched its record low of 4.2%, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data released Friday show.
In August, the unemployment rate for Hispanics and Latinos, aged 16 and up, was 4.2%, down from 4.5% in July, returning to the record low of 4.2% in April and May – which broke the record low of 4.3% set two months earlier in February. BLS began tracking Hispanic-Latino employment data in 1973.
285,000 more Hispanics had jobs in August, as the 27,866,000 employed broke the record for Hispanic employment of 27,701,000 set in December 2018. The number of Hispanics participating in the workplace rose in August, as did Hispanics’ labor force participation rate, which increased from 66.4% to 66.7%.
The number of unemployed Hispanics fell by 98,000 to 1,216,000, down from 1,314,000 in July…”
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The Washington Post’s Carlos Lozada wins the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism
“…Washington Post Nonfiction Book Critic Carlos Lozada has won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for his ambitious and innovative essays that range across politics, presidential history, immigrant memories, national security reporting and feminist analysis to probe national dilemmas.
“The frenzied presidency of Donald Trump has upended countless norms of political and national life. Understanding it requires a critic who can sift through the clashing ideas and agendas, pushing through the noise to find the signal underneath. Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post’s nonfiction book critic, is the interpreter we need. Rather than remain hostage to the publishing industry with weekly reviews of one-off books, Lozada gathers armfuls of new or related volumes and grasps the themes, arguments and urgency pulsing through them,” wrote Martin Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post, in his letter of support.
Lozada’s writing has explored the role of identity in political and cultural life, how anti-Trump conservatives contributed to the destruction of the…”
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Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States
“…While immigrants from Mexico dominated the flows post-1970, the makeup of newcomers has changed since the 2007-09 recession. Recently arrived immigrants are more likely to come from Asia, with India and China leading the way. Countries such as the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, Cuba, El Salvador, and Venezuela have also seen sizeable emigration to the United States. By contrast, there were fewer Mexican immigrants in the United States in 2017 than in 2010, representing the biggest decline of all immigrant groups…”
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Latinos’ Incomes Higher Than Before Great Recession, but U.S.-Born Latinos Yet to Recover
“…Overall gain is driven by rise in share of higher-income immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for more years… U.S.-born Latinos have yet to recover financially from the Great Recession.The Great Recession of 2007-09 triggered a lengthy period of decline in the incomes of American workers. Since hitting a trough stretching from 2012 to 2014, their financial fortunes appear to be on the mend – in 2017, a decade after the recession began, the median personal income of American workers stood 3% higher than in 2007…”
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Why the United States Needs More Immigrants
“As controversy continued to rage on Thursday about the Trump Administration’s policy of separating migrant families at the southern border, the Census Bureau published new data that show why the United States will need more immigrants, not fewer, in the coming decades.
Demographers and economists have been warning that the aging baby-boomer population presents a serious challenge to the nation’s finances, as the ratio of seniors to working-age adults—the age-dependency ratio—rises. The reason is straightforward: Social Security and Medicare are largely financed on a pay-as-you-go basis, which means that some of the taxes paid by current workers are transferred to current retirees. If the dependency ratio rises, the financial burden on the working-age population …”
Posted in Economics, Front Page Items, Immigration, Political Science
A Central American Marshall Plan Won’t Work
“Since late January, thousands of would-be asylum applicants have been held up just outside of the U.S. border with Mexico, where they have been forced to wait their turn to speak to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The growing humanitarian situation—camps for migrants are overcrowded, unhygienic, and dangerous—has renewed focus on Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s call for a Central American Marshall Plan, through which $30 billion would be channeled toward regional development in an effort to ease migration pressures. López Obrador, popularly known as AMLO, has set a goal of funding the plan by May, and U.S. President Donald Trump, eager to halt immigration to the United States, agreed to participate to the tune of $5.8 billion…”
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California’s attorney general gave a scathing Spanish-language rebuttal to Trump’s speech
“…That’s how California Attorney General Xavier Becerra described the State of the Union Tuesday during the Democrats’ Spanish-language rebuttal to President Donald Trump’s speech.
California’s top law enforcement officer gave a scathing review of the Trump administration during his 20-minute rebuttal, accusing the president of infecting the White House with “criminality, collusion, and obstruction of justice.”
“There are dark clouds following Donald Trump around,” Becerra said in his speech, which aired during a prime-time slot on the Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo.
He also blasted the president’s immigration policies…”
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94 percent of Latinos who voted in ’18 plan to continue voting By Rafael Bernal
“…A large majority of polled young Hispanic voters who participated in last November’s elections plan to continue voting, according to a newly released poll by Voto Latino and Change Research.
According to the poll, released exclusively to The Hill, 94 percent of 18-to-35-year-old 2018 Hispanic voters who responded said they will vote in 2020 and beyond…”
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Hawaii’s Growing Latino Population
“…In 2017, one in every 10 Hawaii residents was Hispanic or Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. While this number may seem small, it doesn’t provide the full picture of the rapid growth of Hawaii’s Latino population.
Standing at an estimated 159,737 in 2018, the Hawaii Latino population has increased over 80 percent since 2000. The bulk of the growth of the individuals of Hispanic or Latino origin took place between 2010 and 2018 as the increase over the 2000-2010 period was “just” 37.79 percent.
But wait, there’s more. That is, more Latinos in Hawaii.
According to data from a recent study, Hawaii’s Hispanic population is poised to reach 186,611 or 12.29 percent of the projected total Hawaii population in 2023. That’s a projected 16.88 percent growth in Hawaii’s Latino population from 2018 to 2023 compared to a much smaller 0.79 percent increase for the total Hawaii population…”
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Latinos show record gains in Congress, though numbers are still low
By Suzanne Gamboa
AUSTIN, Texas — Although the new Congress will have a record number of Latino members, their numbers will fall far short of matching the share of the U.S. population that is Hispanic.
When the 116th congressional session begins in January, there will be at least 36 Latinos in the House and four in the Senate, according to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund.
But the nation’s 57.5 million Hispanics are about 17.8 percent of the U.S. population. If the share of Latinos in the 435-member House matched the share in the population..”
Posted in Front Page Items, News and Information, Political Science, Politics
Key takeaways about Latino voters in the 2018 midterm elections
“Latinos make up an increasing share of the U.S. electorate. A record 29 million Latinos were eligible to vote in this year’s midterm elections, accounting for 12.8% of all eligible voters, a new high. While it’s too soon to know how many voted and their turnout rate, Latinos made up an estimated 11% of all voters nationwide on Election Day, nearly matching their share of the U.S. eligible voter population (U.S. citizens ages 18 and older). Here are key takeaways about Latino voters and the 2018 elections…”
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NAFTA renegotiation signals little change for HE so far
“…In his United States presidential campaign in 2016, Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and to potentially withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a trilateral agreement between Canada, Mexico and the US which has been in effect since 1994.
Trump kept his promise to end the US’ participation in the TPP and in January 2017 signed an executive order to withdraw from the agreement.
However, in the commercial interests of the major economic industries of the US, he agreed to begin the renegotiation of NAFTA. Talks took place between August 2017 and September 2018. The new agreement, which is to be revised and ratified by the three countries, includes important changes regarding rules of origin, wages, the review or renewal mechanisms, agriculture and e-commerce…”
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