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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“Early Saturday morning, Jose Sierra walked into the Baker Ripley House on Navigation to ask for information on the funeral services of Felix Fraga, a former city councilman and lifelong community advocate who devoted his career to address the needs of Houston’s Mexican-American residents…”
“…García, who started teaching at UCSB in 1975, was among the first generation of professionally trained historians to excavate and document Chicano/a history, helping to set the foundation for emerging scholars during the past half-century. Among more than a dozen books, García’s recording of Corona’s testimonio would become “Memories of Chicano History: The Life and Narrative of Bert Corona” (UC Press, 1994), about the labor and community activist and organizer who, starting in the 1930s in Los Angeles, spearheaded the struggle for immigrant rights, particularly undocumented workers from Mexico…”
“A lonely historical marker stands in the desert winds of Presidio County in far West Texas, telling of the 1918 Porvenir Massacre, when 15 Mexican American members of a farming and ranching settlement were murdered by a company of Texas Rangers.
The marker is the result of efforts by San Antonio-based nonprofit Refusing To Forget working with the Texas State Legislature to give a more complete historical picture of life along the Texas borderlands…”
“Colonizers were known to carry books in their luggage. In the early 1500s, books began to arrive in America by the thousands, destined for the capital of New Spain, Mexico City, and other urban hubs in Spain’s territories. A century later, Catholic monarchs in Spain learned of crypto-Jewish books across the Atlantic Ocean. They ordered all bookstores to submit detailed inventories to the Mexican Inquisition — an extension of the Spanish Inquisition — freezing in time a record of the reading materials that circulated among New Spain’s intellectual class…”
“A recent poll conducted in the United States by Mexican avocado exporters showed that only 22% of Americans know the true history of Cinco de Mayo. For Mexican Americans, it is a day to celebrate their Mexican heritage. For those who aren’t Mexican — and who often mistakenly think it is Mexico’s Independence Day — it’s a day to imbibe tequila and indulge in guacamole and chips.
But May 5, 1862, had a profound impact on the history of both Mexico and the United States. Cinco de Mayo is a commemoration of the Mexican victory over the French in the 1862 Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War…”
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/culture/cinco-de-mayo-changed-mexican-and-us-history/
“…Beyond Alliances contains four biographical essays in rough chronological order. Genevieve Carpio wrote the first one about Jewish attorney David C. Marcus, one of whose most important clients was the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles and whose second wife, Yrma, was a political refugee from Mexico and a devout Catholic. In 1943, he successfully defended the Bernals, a Mexican-American family whose Orange County neighbors wanted them evicted because their presence violated a racially restrictive housing covenant that stated that property should not be “used, leased, owned or occupied by any Mexicans or persons other than of the Caucasian race.” Five years before the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed racially restrictive covenants in Shelley v. Kraemer, Marcus was able to persuade the court that there was no such thing as a “Mexican race,” and that therefore the restriction was (in words that sounded like television’s Perry Mason objecting to D.A. Hamilton Berger’s question) “incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial.” Marcus noted that the status of Mexicans as Caucasians had permitted him to marry Yrma, notwithstanding California’s laws that at that time had prohibited miscegenation. Furthermore, the restrictions went contrary to President Franklin Roosevelt’s “Good Neighbor Policy” with Latin America, which was part of the nation’s wartime defense fabric. The judge ruled in favor of the Bernals…”
“…I felt lightheaded as if I’d stood up too quickly as I processed their words. “Tan feos,” she said. So ugly. A prominent Mexican American had invoked stereotypes about a group that, for so long, has been among the most marginalized in Mexico, a country that has long refused to acknowledge systemic colorism and racism.
As shown in a transcript, then-Councilmember Gil Cedillo followed Martinez’s comments by saying, “I’m glad they’re wearing shoes.” Former Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera casually mentioned his mother used to call Oaxacans “Indios,” or Indians, a word often used not as an identifier but spat as an insult.,,”
“…When Gonzales was doing research for his dissertation, he had a “chilling moment,” he told South Texas College in 2020. As he was reading an account from 1929 denouncing a sheriff for his involvement in a massacre, it included a list of people who had been killed — and he found the names of his great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather.
Growing up, he said in the interview, he had heard from his parents about the killings but did not know the term “La Matanza,” or the massacre, which specifically refers to a period in 1915 when several hundred Mexicans and Mexicans Americans were killed in the Lower Rio Grande Valley…”
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/texas-professor-wins-john-lewis-235150687.html
“An estimated 400,000 Mexican Americans served in the US armed forces during World War II and compared to other ethnic and racial groups in the United States, Mexican Americans served in disproportionately high numbers in frontline combat positions. Despite their efforts and sacrifices for their country during the war, these men continued to face discrimination when they returned from war.
Join the Pritzker Military Museum & Library and authors Carlos Harrison and Dave Gutierrez on Thursday, October 6th from 6-7pm for a conversation moderated by Hernan Fratto, news anchor with Telemundo Chicago as they discuss the role of Mexican American soldiers during World War II, the communities that they came from, and how these men fought, not just in battle, but to be accepted in an American society that remained biased against them even after they returned home as heroes…”
“…Hispanic Heritage Month (HHM) starts on Sept. 15, the anniversary of the Cry of Dolores that began the Mexican War of Independence, and runs until Oct. 15. September 15 is the anniversary of independence for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on Sept. 16 and Sept. 18 respectively…”
https://www.hrmorning.com/news/hispanic-heritage-month/
‘Latina Professionals of Chattanooga will mark the start of Hispanic/Latinx Heritage month on Sept. 15 with its first annual Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month events celebrating the Hispanic/Latinx culture and contributions to the local community and nation.
Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated nationally in recognition of the contribution and influence Hispanic Americans bring to the history, culture and achievement of the United States. Originally adopted in 1988 by the United States Congress, the resolution was designated Sept…”
https://www.chattanoogan.com/2022/9/1/455114/Latina-Professionals-Of-Chattanooga.aspx
“UCLA professor emeritus and artist Judith Baca’s original mural was unveiled in Ackerman Union on Friday.
Located at the Wescom Student Terrace on level one of Ackerman Union, the mural is titled “La Memoria de la Tierra: UCLA” and consists of three 26-foot-long panels. The first panel depicts the original Los Angeles River and its original peoples, the second panel highlights influential members of the UCLA community, and the third panel displays a future in which the university recognizes and coexists peacefully with the Native land.
The UCLA Centennial Committee first commissioned the mural in 2019, and it was created in partnership with ASUCLA…”
“…The Chicano Movement of the 1960s and ’70s, like so much of the period’s politics, is best known for its radicalism: militancy, distrust of mainstream institutions, demands for rapid change. Less understood, yet no less significant in its aims, actions, and impact, was the movement’s moderate elements. In the Midst of Radicalism presents the first full account of these more mainstream liberal activists—those who rejected the politics of protest and worked within the system to promote social change for the Mexican American community…”
“…On December 27, 2020, legislation passed calling for the Smithsonian to establish the National Museum of the American Latino. The new museum will be the cornerstone for visitors to learn how Latinos have contributed and continue to contribute to U.S. art, history, culture, and science. Additionally, it will serve as a gateway to exhibitions, collections, and programming at other Smithsonian museums, research centers, and traveling exhibition services…”
Art and community wellness are merging together for downtown Los Angeles’ Día de los Muertos celebration.
Marking the holiday observed from Nov. 1 to Nov. 2, Grand Park will host its ninth annual Downtown Día de los Muertos event. As part of the 12-day celebration, park-goers can visit art installations, altars and community workshops at the park. One altar featured in the park, operated by The Music Center in LA, was created by the UCLA organization the Los Angeles Family AIDS Network with the Latino Outreach Understanding Division. Their altar, which highlights the impact of HIV and AIDS on women and Latinos, is meant to create a discussion about HIV and AIDS, alumnus and director of the LAFAN Natalie Sanchez said…”
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While conducting research for my current book on the use of collective memories of the U.S.-Mexican War as a motivation for civil rights struggles, I ran across an exchange of letters between four scholars/activists: Adina de Zavala, Elena Zamora O’Shea, José T. Canales and Carlos Castañeda.
These letters were fascinating to read because these scholars were discussing the way Texas history was taught in schools and its negative effects on Mexican American children. The 1935 exchange of letters between State Rep. Canales and scholar Castañeda was particularly fascinating because Canales was very optimistic that Texas history textbooks would change within five years. As we know from recent news articles regarding the state legislature’s attempts to dictate what school teachers can include about Texas history, the debate about what is included and excluded from textbooks continues today…”
https://www.utsa.edu/today/2021/10/story/Hidden-Figures-of-Texas-History.html
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“WASHINGTON, DC – A new report, Place, Story and Culture: An Inclusive Approach to Protecting Latino Heritage Sites, released today by the Latino Heritage Scholars, an initiative of the Hispanic Access Foundation, emphasizes the need for the protection of seven Latino heritage sites that embody the architectural, cultural and deep historical roots of the Latino community currently in need of preservation. The scholars are a group of young Latino professionals focused on historic preservation and ensuring that Latino history is protected, shared, and celebrated as part of the U.S. narrative…”
https://patch.com/michigan/farmington-mi/new-report-highlights
“…The doll was developed with the guidance of an advisory board made up of historians, educators, curators and other professionals with academic knowledge of the American Southwest, according to the American Doll brand. She lives on a ranch near Santa Fe with her father and three older sisters, wears a braid with a flower, faux leather loafers, a white shirt with short puffed sleeves trimmed with lace and a necklace of crosses that the brand says came from Mexico City.
Josefina aspires to be a curandera, like her godmother Magdalena. She is an idealistic, loving and hopeful character and faithfully believes that “kindness really is the best medicine.”..”
“FORT BELVOIR, Va. (AP) — A sword from the defense of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812. A stopped wristwatch recovered from the wrecked E-Ring of the Pentagon on the Sept. 11 attacks. The Sherman tank that first broke through enemy lines at the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.
Those are just a few of the artifacts that tell the 245-year story of the nation’s largest and oldest military branch at the new National Museum of the United States Army.
Planning for the museum has been in the works for more than a decade, and construction began in 2017. Early plans called for an opening in late 2019, but delays pushed it back to 2020, and then the pandemic hit. Those delays, though, provided an opportunity for a debut that coincides with Veterans Day…”
https://apnews.com/article/army-museum-national-debut-veterans-day-908c60e2c6ca1d4115806672d4634073
