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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Computer Science

Finalists revealed: VL Innovators Challenge

Latinos use digital media more than any other ethnic group. But few Latinos are translating their tech savvy into tech work. In fact, only 7% of technology workers are Hispanic. Voto Latino believes Latinos can use their tech savviness to open doors to amazing careers in Science, Engineering, Technology and Math (STEM).
The VL Innovators Challenge was created to get millennials, especially Latino millennials, thinking about technology both as an innovative change agent and as a potential career. Applicants were encouraged to “use a tech tool to address a need in the Latino community.”
The Challenge will award $500,000 in grants to the best proposed projects. Winners will also spend two days on the Google campus in California where they will be paired with members of Google’s Marketing, Creative Labs, and Android teams, among others. Besides the chance…
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Lessons to be learned from Latinos with dream jobs in tech

For millennials, jobs in the highest reaches of tech are among the most coveted. For Latino millennials, they sometimes seem unobtainable.
The numbers don’t lie. At Google, Twitter, and Facebook, Latino employees make up between 2 percent and 3 percent of their respective workforce. These abysmal numbers are standard also throughout Silicon Valley, where overall only 3 percent of workers are Latino…
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What It’s Like to Be a Latino Entrepreneur in Silicon Valley

November 24, 2014 SAN JOSE, Caif.—Alex Murillo leans forward in his seat, sipping coffee from a shot glass and waving his hands as he talks. He points to the screen of his MacBook Pro, explaining the genius behind Audive, the mobile application he is developing that allows users to record cover songs and mix tracks with music enthusiasts around the world.
“This is the secret sauce,” says Murillo, hitting a key on his computer that fills the air with the sound of a man singing in Italian. “You can bring in vocals from a guy in Italy or you can bring in the flamenco guitar from Spain.”
Murillo has made this pitch about three times to potential investors in Silicon Valley since launching his start-up this summer. He came up with the idea and polished his pitch with the help of Manos Accelerator, a…
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Majority of of STEM College Graduates Do Not Work in STEM

Jul 10, 2014 – About the Newsroom · Facts for Features · News Releases · Press Kits · Tip Sheets … The U.S. Census Bureau reported today that 74 percent of those who have … however these graduates are not necessarily employed in STEM occupations … The tables released today highlight statistics on field of degree, …
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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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Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists

MAES was founded in Los Angeles in 1974 to increase the number of Mexican Americans and other Hispanics in the technical and scientific fields.

The idea to establish a professional society for Mexican American engineers originated with Robert Von Hatten, an aerospace electronics engineer with TRW Defense Space Systems in Redondo Beach, California. Mr. Von Hatten had for several years served as volunteer for programs directed at combating the alarming number of high school dropouts. He envisioned a national organization that would serve as a source for role models, address of the needs of its members, and become a resource for industry
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Northrop Grumman engineer named Woman of the Year by Mexican American group

Ana Luisa Ramirez, a system engineering manager in the Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting Systems Division at Northrop Grumman in Linthicum, has been named Woman of the Year by the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation.

She received the honor in recognition of her professional achievements and service to the Hispanic community. At Northrop Grumman, Ramirez leads the systems engineering integration and test function for an international program.
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Thomson Reuters Recognizes Leading Mexican Researchers for Their Contributions to Science and Innovation

Reuters
Research in Science and Social Sciences/Arts & Humanities further progress in food technology, health and psychology MEXICO CITY, MEXICO, March 16, 2012 – The Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters recognized the most highly cited
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Conference helps UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON’S MEXICAN AMERICAN ENGINEERS AND SCIENTISTS become stronger chapter

The Venture
… where five members from the Mexican-American Engineers and Scientists chapter at the University of Houston had the exciting opportunity to compete against other chapters across the nation. What seemed to be a professional networking opportunity …
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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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