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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Editorial: Kevin De León for U.S. Senate
“…The confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The passage of a self-serving, $1.5 trillion tax cut for the well-off. Numerous attempts to politically ax a now-cornerstone of the American health care system.
Californians have a lot of reasons to look indignantly at the United States Senate. Compromise is a thing of the past, values continue to be undercut and representatives grow more disconnected from those they represent.
And yes, that includes Democrats. Key among them: incumbent senator Dianne Feinstein.
The fourth-term senator has held the senate seat longer than many UCLA undergraduates have been alive. In her 26-year tenure, she’s spearheaded notable legislation, including a 10-year assault weapons banned passed in 1994. She voted in support of gay marriage against the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and stands as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee…”
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As Democrats Court Latinos, Indifference Is a Powerful Foe
“…By Jose A. Del Real and Jonathan Martin
Oct. 21, 2018
LAS VEGAS — Children ripped from their parents’ arms and held in sweltering tent cities. Immigration raids outside hospitals, schools and courthouses. An onslaught of ads and speeches delivering insults and racist remarks.
With the hard-fought midterm elections less than three weeks away, Democratic Party strategists hope Latino voters who are angered by the Trump administration’s policies and divisive language will help deliver resounding victories in many of the races that will decide political control in Washington. If ever there were a time to cast protest ballots, they reason, it would be with President Trump in the White House…”
Americans have mixed views of Mexico, ‘warmer’ feelings toward Canada
“…Views of Mexico are mixed: While 39% say they feel “warmly” toward Mexico, 34% feel “coldly,” and 26% are neutral, according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted July 30 to Aug. 12 among 4,581 adults.
The feelings are expressed on a 0-100 “feeling…”
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Against Trump’s wishes, Mexican professionals keep visas in new trade deal
By Anita Kumar And Franco Ordoñez
August 28, 2018 04:35 PM
Updated August 28, 2018 11:12 PM
WASHINGTON
Tens of thousands of Mexican professionals who come to work in the United States will be able to keep their visas as part of the new U.S.-Mexico trade agreement, the Mexican government says, delivering a political loss to the Trump administration who sought to slash the number of visas as part of NAFTA re-negotiations.
The Mexican Economy Ministry told McClatchy that…”
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The Making of a Mexican American Mayor: Raymond L. Telles of El Paso and the Origins of Latino Political Power
MT García – 2018 – books.google.com
Raymond L. Telles was the first Mexican American mayor of a major US city. Elected mayor
of El Paso in 1957 and serving for two terms, he went on to become the first Mexican
American ambassador in US history, heading the US delegation to Costa Rica. Historian …
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Young Texas Latinos are an untapped voting goldmine
“…Nearly half of Texans under 18 are Latino and 95 percent of them are U.S. citizens — meaning they will be eligible to vote once they turn 18. Will they?…”
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Borders, mobility and belonging
M Gilmartin, P Wood – 2018 – books.google.com
Questions of migration and citizenship are at the heart of global political debate with Brexit
and the election of Donald Trump having ripple effects around the world. Providing new
insights into the politics of migration and citizenship in the UK and the US, this book …”
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Trump Officials Reverse Obama’s Policy on Affirmative Action in Schools
“WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said Tuesday that it was abandoning Obama administration policies that called on universities to consider race as a factor in diversifying their campuses, signaling that the administration will champion race-blind admissions standards…”
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What you need to know about Mexico’s historic election
“Mexico holds an historic election on Sunday: its biggest to date in terms of the sheer number of races.
Eighty-eight million registered voters — many of whom are fed up with corruption and inefficiency under the administration of current president Enrique Peña Nieto — will get the chance to change the face of Mexico’s government, and affect the course of U.S. relations, with major border and trade issues at stake.
Beyond the presidential race, more than 1600 elected positions at the state and local level are up for a vote across 30 of Mexico’s 32 states — including Mexico City’s mayor — as well as its entire federal legislative body: 500 seats in the legislature, and 128 in its senate…”
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Mexican Americans’ many routes to finding their own national identities
“…Alfredo Corchado is messing with my head, forcing me to think hard about something I had neatly packed away: What it means to be Mexican American. What are friends for if not to turn your world upside down?
As a reporter — currently for the Dallas Morning News, and earlier at the El Paso Herald-Post and the Wall Street Journal — Corchado has always been a good storyteller. But when he began writing books, he had to learn to tell his own story. He has become good at that, too…”
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NAFTA talks focus on low wages for Mexican autoworkers
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has promised to bring auto manufacturing back to the United States from Mexico.
The success of NAFTA negotiations could be determined by how willing the Mexican government is to let him try.
As top officials from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico scramble to come to some sort of deal on the continental free trade pact by next Friday, the overwhelming focus of their discussions is the complicated issue of auto rules…
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Being Mexican in NYC with Carlos Menchaca
New York City Councilman Carlos Menchaca became the first Mexican-American elected in the city when he won his Brooklyn seat in 2013. In Sunset Park and Red Hook, many of Menchaca’s constituents are ethnically Mexican as well, making up part of what he says is a majority foreign-born district. To mark the Cinco de Mayo celebration of Mexican culture, Menchaca talked to City & State about spending summers on a farm south of the border, the best Mexican restaurant in the city and how he has to deny working with President Donald Trump…
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HSBC Highlights Corporate Optimism’s Resilience Over Global Trade Uncertainty
Protectionism has cast a shadow of uncertainty over global traders, and North America’s trade relationships are in flux.
Early in President Donald Trump’s presidency, the U.S. withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. One year later, the nation’s participation in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is also changing as the U.S., Canada and Mexico engage in negotiations that are expected to continue through April, according to Bloomberg reports this week.
Despite ongoing change and uncertainty, however, new analysis from HSBC finds corporates across North America remain confident in their future global trading operations…
…Eighty-seven percent of Mexican professionals, 77 percent of U.S. professionals and 70 percent of Canadian professionals say they are optimistic about increasing cross-border trade volume over the next year…
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Seeking better data on Hispanics, Census Bureau may change how it asks about race
Federal officials are considering major changes in how they ask Americans about their race and ethnicity, with the goal of producing more accurate and reliable data in the 2020 census and beyond. Recently released Census Bureau research underscores an important reason why: Many Hispanics, who are the nation’s largest minority group, do not identify with the current racial categories…
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Question of race not simple for Mexican Americans, author says
Those are assumptions drawn from the experience of European Americans, but they don’t match with the experience of Latinos, particularly those of Mexican origin in Texas, according to Dowling, the author of the new book “Mexican Americans and the Question of Race” (University of Texas Press).
For most European Americans, marking “white” likely means they experience little discrimination based on their racial background, Dowling said. For a Mexican American, it’s often a response to discrimination. “It’s for them a way of saying, ‘I belong, I’m an American citizen, and I want to be recognized as such,’ ” she said.
Her case in point: the border counties of southern Texas. Most are more than 80 percent Latino, and more than 80 percent of those Latinos marked “white” on the 2010 census…
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Colleges Scramble to Help Undocumented Students as Hopes for a DACA Deal Fade
On Wednesday afternoon, after House Democrats met with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, the spirit in Washington was one of stalemate. There was little progress toward a bipartisan deal to protect the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which prevents the deportation of undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children, in exchange for Democrats’ votes to prevent a government shutdown by January 19.
But across the country in Sacramento, at a press conference held by University of California system president Janet Napolitano, the mood was one of urgency. Flanked by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and two other UC system officials, she urged the system’s 4,000 undocumented students to hurry to take advantage of the recent court ruling that reinstated DACA renewals after the Trump administration ended them last fall—a ruling the Trump administration has already asked the Supreme Court to review. The University of California is waging its own court battle to protect DACA: In September, Napolitano—who carried out the initial implementation of DACA as President Barack Obama’s homeland security secretary—filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration after the administration announced the program’s repeal…
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New Latino Caucus launches in Virginia
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — There’s a new group in the General Assembly. The Latino Caucus held its first meeting Thursday.
The group was formed by Del. Alfonso Lopez (D-Arlington).
It’s been a goal of his since he started serving in 2012.
“My dream when I first came to the House of Delegates was, just like the Black Caucus, just like Latino caucuses in other states, we would have a Latino Caucus here in Virginia,” he said.
Lopez said some of the topics the caucus will cover are drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants, health care and the Dream Act.
Since nearly one in every 10 Virginians is Latino, Lopez said representation matters…
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The Making of America’s Culture Regions
RL Nostrand – 2018 – books.google.com
This outstanding text provides students with the essential foundation in the historical
geography of the United States. Distinguished scholar Richard L. Nostrand skillfully
synthesizes decades of historical geography research in an engaging and thought…
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Mexican Immigration and the Political Polarization of the United States
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.” Engraved on a slab of bronze, these hallowed words, written by Emma Lazarus, greeted millions of immigrants as they gazed upon the Statue of Liberty with hopeful eyes. Yet, nearly one hundred and thirty years after Lazarus penned her famous poem, there is much confusion over the issue of immigration. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, paralleling Miss Lazarus’s beckoning, “Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,” recently complained, “When Mexico sends people, they’re not sending their best.” Disregarding political decorum altogether, Trump continued: “They’re…
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Mexican Views of the U.S. Turn Sharply Negative
Widespread dissatisfaction with economy and political leaders
By Margaret Vice and Hanyu Chwe
More Mexicans view the United States unfavorably than at any time in the past decade and a half. Nearly two-thirds of Mexicans (65%) express a negative opinion of the U.S., more than double the share two years ago (29%). Mexicans’ opinions about the economic relationship with their country’s northern neighbor are also deteriorating, though less dramatically: 55% now say economic ties between Mexico and the U.S. are good for their country, down from 70% in 2013…
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