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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Arts & Entertainment

Diversity in the Workplace: NPR’s Latino Employees, Audience Statistics Below US Population Average

National Public Radio’s employee ethnicity rate is nearly identical to their listenership statistics. NPR Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos disclosed the company’s ethnicity data following criticism of the cancellation of its diversity-focused talk show “Tell Me More.”

“I agree that cancellation of the journalistically excellent seven-year old show is sorrowful, and I don’t think I am talking out of school when I say that this seems to be a feeling shared up and down the NPR hierarchy,” Schumacher-Matos wrote. “The reasons for the closure, as Chief Content Officer Kinsey Wilson has made clear in a number of public statements, are that the show had a relatively small audience, lost money and is a victim of shifting strategies to keep up with changing times.”…
Link to article

3 Big Latino stars headed to the Walk of Fame

Their hard-working trajectory has made them some of the most successful Latinos in the entertainment business. That’s why three big Hispanic stars are headed to California’s popular tourist destination in Hollywood boulevard and Vine street to be honored with their very own star in the Walk of Fame.
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has announced the “Class of 2015 Star Honorees,” which include three very much-loved artists of our own.
SEE ALSO: Stars of ‘Rio 2′ fly to Miami’s Walk of Fame
Next year, Colombian actress Sofia Vergara, Cuban-American rapper Pitbull and Mexican comedian Eugenio Derbez will inaugurate their own permanent public monuments for their achievement in the biz…
Link to article

Yahoo Diversity Figures Show Lack of Blacks, Hispanics

Yahoo has released information on the diversity of its workforce, and like Google it has a lot of room for improvement.
Last month, Google revealed that only 2% of its workforce was Black, 3% Hispanic and women only 30%.
Yahoo has followed suit by publishing its workforce diversity figures, and they are along the same lines. Women make up 37% of the overall workforce, with blacks representing 2% and Hispanics 4%.
In leadership positions at Yahoo (defined as VP and above), the story is even more lopsided. 77% of those posts are held by men, 2% are held by Hispanics and only 1% by Blacks…

Link to article

Top 10 Chicano Films for M.A.S.

Mexican American Studies (MAS) is spreading like wildfire in Texas.

By the time you read this, Texas will have the most schools teaching MAS in the nation-and growing.

On that note, we’re fine-tuning the MAS Texas Took Kit to help any K-12 teacher to incorporate Mexican American Studies. This can range from implementing an entire curriculum to using one lesson plan for a particular unit or obvious time of year such as Hispanic Heritage Month…
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Truly Texas Mexican

After traveling through Europe, Latin America and Asia for 23 years, San Antonio native and Culinary Institute of America graduate Chef Adán Medrano was inspired to write a book about his biggest passion: the food of his home city. Medrano says his cookbook, Truly Texas Mexican, incorporates a written history of 10,000-year-old cooking techniques of Native Texas Indians along with traditional recipes, all while providing a fresh perspective on timeless dishes. “The more you know about your food, the more you will enjoy it,” Medrano says. “I call this ‘intellectually delicious.’” On Thursday (June 19), Nao restaurant, in partnership with the Twig Book Shop…
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This Fall TV Season Has Greatest Representation of Latino Actors, Characters

Goodbye summer. Welcome, fall.

This week kicks off the premieres of this year’s fall season shows, and the representation of Latino artists is at an all-time high.

More than 20 shows in all major networks will feature at least one Latino actor or actress in lead or supporting roles in both returning and premiering shows.

One show – “Welcome to the Family” starring Justina Machado and Ricardo Chavira alongside Mike O’Malley and Mary McCormack – has five Latino stars leading the way. The series premiere for the ABC show is Oct. 3 at 8:30 p.m….
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Latino Director Roberto Orci Signs on With ‘Star Trek 3’ Film; JJ Abrams Will Still Have Limited Role

Mexican-American Roberto Orci will direct the first “Star Trek” not helmed by filmmaker JJ Abrams.

Paramount chose the screenwriter, who got his start writing for “Xena: Warrior Princess” and “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.” Alex Kurtzman is his longtime writing partner; they co-wrote “Star Trek” and “Star Trek Into Darkness…
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Ricardo Valverde: Experimental Sights, 1971-1996 (May 17 to Jul 26) – Vincent Price Art Museum

May 17 to July 26, 2014
Opening reception: Saturday, May 17, 4 to 6 p.m.

The late Los Angeles-based photographer and artist Ricardo Valverde (1946-1998) is featured in a career retrospective at VPAM. The exhibition is guest-curated by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill and highlights more than one hundred artworks spanning a twenty-five-year period of production…
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Opera Mediaworks offers expanded reach to U.S. Hispanic consumers

SAN MATEO, California, Apr 15, 2014 (PR Newswire Europe via COMTEX) — — Integration of Hunt Mobile Ads opens up new possibilities

SAN MATEO, California, April 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Opera Mediaworks, the world’s largest mobile ad platform, today announced an expanded reach across the U.S. Hispanic population through the integration of Hunt Mobile Ads, the leading mobile ad network in Latin America. This will make Opera Mediaworks the best mobile network to reach the Hispanic audience across the United States at scale through premium U.S. and Latin American publishers.
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Dignity’s Elements: Mexican American Studies’ Transformational Resistance and Hip Hop Manifestations through Counterstorytelling

B Partida – 2013
Page 1. California State University, Northridge Dignity’s Elements: Mexican American Studies’
Transformational Resistance and Hip Hop Manifestations through Counterstorytelling … ix Figures
Page 27 Figure 1-The Mexican American Studies Model: Critically Compassionate …

Link to thesis

Viewing globalization in transnational, Mexican American Spaces

GAM Esparza
… Nine primary diary keepers – including one second and one third generation Mexican-American
(born in the US) – lived by themselves. … His professional background is in journalism, which he
practiced for 13 years in different news outlets in Mexico, including Siglo 21 in his …
Link to Article

We Became Mexican American: How Our Immigrant Family Survived to Pursue the American Dream

CB Gil
… parents especially in sensing that we were no longer Mexican like them, that we were becoming,
and in the end, became Mexican American. … As an honest storyteller and professional historian,
I felt obliged to explain that she was referring to the great Mexican Rebellion of 1910 …
Link to book


  

Poem
“…And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while…”

T.S. Eliot
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Mexican American Proarchive Annual Report for 2022

The American Community Survey is an annual survey administered by the federal government to help local officials and community leaders and businesses understand the changes that take place in their communities. It includes percentages of our population’s graduate school attainment and the employment of Mexican Americans in various occupations.  These important factors influence the allocation of federal resources. Mexican American Proarchives uses the data provided by the American Community Survey to better understand how Mexican Americans compare to the general population.

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