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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Truth vs. perception of crime rates for immigrants
Incendiary comments made by Donald Trump and a random killing of a California woman have added fuel to national debate on the contributions of and concerns about undocumented immigrants. William Brangham speaks to Marielena Hincapié of the National Immigration Law Center, Marc Rosenblum of the Migration Policy Institute and Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies…
Link to video and program transcipt
US Latino Unemployment Rate: 13 Million Latinos ‘Not in the Labor Force’ But May 2015 Hispanic Unemployment Declines
The U.S. Latino unemployment declined by one percentage point in comparison to May 2014, and economists have remained optimistic about the latest jobs report.
Overall, the U.S. unemployment rate increased from 5.4 percent in April to 5.5 percent for May. According to The New York Times, the latest data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) helped ease the debate about the first quarter’s financial results. During May, 280,000 jobs were created, which was a stronger number than expected, and it may further the Federal Reserve to start raising interest rates.
The Latino unemployment rate, however, declined from April’s 6.9 percent to 6.7 percent in May. As the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) noted, Latino employment gains in leisure and hospitality likely attributed to the unemployment rate decline as 57,000 jobs were added in this sector. The leisure and hospitality employment gains come as the summer vacation season approaches…
Link to article
LinkedIn makes slight progress on diversity
SAN FRANCISCO — Change is coming very slowly to LinkedIn which over the past year only slightly increased the number of women and made no headway in increasing the number of underrepresented minorities at the professional networking company.
The Mountain View, Calif., company is still dominated by men, according to work force demographics released Tuesday. Nearly six out of 10 employees at LinkedIn — or 58% — are men, but that is an improvement from 61% last year.
Women also made some progress in the company leadership, holding 30% of those positions, a 5% increase from 2014.
In technical roles, women saw a 1% increase. In non-tech roles, LinkedIn had gender parity with 50% of those positions held by women.
But LinkedIn did not see any improvement in the small percentage of underrepresented minorities. In the U.S., 2% of LinkedIn employees are African American and 4% are Hispanic…
Link to article
NCLR Educational Programs to Help Young Latinos and Millenials Swarm the Financial Services Sector
Hispanic/Latino banks, analysts, investors and tellers are noticeably absent from the financial sector. However, programs designed by one of the nation’s largest advocates for la raza should help to swarm the financial services sector with capable young Latinos…
Link to article
59 percent of college-educated Latinos have trouble meeting monthly expenses, report says
Published: 19 May 2015 07:11 PM
Updated: 19 May 2015 07:11 PM
A majority of Latinos say they have trouble covering monthly expenses, and almost 40 percent say they would have trouble finding $2,000 in an emergency, a new study said.
Despite attaining higher education levels in recent decades, many Latinos find themselves in a “fragile financial state,” according to the study released Monday by New York investment giant TIAA-CREF…
Link to article
Mexican American Opportunity Foundation
The mission of the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation (MAOF) is to provide for the socio-economic betterment of the greater Latino community of California, while preserving the pride, values, and heritage of the Mexican American culture.
We advance our mission through an array of programs in early childhood education, job training, financial literacy and senior services provided throughout California…
Link to page
Hot topic: ‘America’s Hispanics’
The linked issues of immigration and America’s growing Hispanic population have generated what has become a permanent public argument. Everybody in the country, it seems – especially in Arizona — has an opinion, and often a fierce one. So it might be worth hearing what the issue looks like from outside the U.S., especially from a viewpoint that prides itself on a rational, balanced approach to even the hottest of topics…
Link to article
Viva Gentrification!
LOS ANGELES — FOR years, our family journeys have taken us from our hillside home, in the multiethnic Mount Washington district of northeast Los Angeles, into the flatlands of the Latino barrios that surround it.
My wife, Virginia Espino, who is Mexican-American, knows these neighborhoods well, especially the community called Highland Park. She grew up there in the 1960s and 1970s, when it was still integrated, before “white flight” was complete. In the decades that followed, Spanish-language ads took over the billboards, and the complexions of the locals became almost exclusively cinnamon and café con leche…
Link to article
From minor to major
One American in six is now Hispanic, up from a small minority two generations ago. By mid-century it will be more than one in four. David Rennie explains what that means for America
IN THREE TERMS representing Colorado in Congress, John Salazar got used to angry voters calling him a Mexican and not a proper American. During fights over the Obamacare health-insurance law, a constituent told him to “go back where you came from”. The attacks were misplaced. Mr Salazar is proud of his Hispanic heritage, but he comes from a place with deeper American roots than the United States. One of his ancestors, Juan de Oñate y Salazar, co-founded the city of Santa Fe in New Mexico…
Link to article
Meet Austin, Texas’s Growing Ranks Of Latino Business Owners
AUSTIN, TX — Becoming a successful entrepreneur is all about the business of product, payroll, cash flow, money in and money out. But maybe most of all it is about risk-taking and sacrifice. Just ask Adriana Rodriguez, German Ustariz and his wife Delmy, three Central Texans who took a chance and turned their business ventures into profit makers.
They are among the thousands of people fueling a booming growth in Hispanic-owned businesses in the greater Austin area, a compelling portrait which emerges in a recent study by the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Hispanic-owned businesses in the study posted revenues of $4.8 billion in 2013, an impressive 90 percent increase over 2007 revenues reported in a Census Survey of Business Owners. More robust growth is expected. The study projects that Hispanic-owned businesses could exceed 51,000 in number and add more than $12.8 billion to the Central Texas economy by 2020. Employment by Hispanic-owned businesses in the region is projected to more than double – from just shy of 49,000 in 2013 to 127,500 in 2020…
Link to article
Mexican professionals bringing ambition, startups to North Texas
Dallas Morning News
A cocktail mixer sponsored by the Association of Mexican Entrepreneurs …. “Americans respect power, and that’s what we’re striving for, economic …
Link to article
Employment & Job News 2014: US Employers Hire 321,000 Employees in November; Latino Unemployment Drops Slightly
Employment & Job News 2014: US Employers Hire 321,000 Employees in November; Latino Unemployment Drops Slightly
U.S. employers hired 321,000 people in November, the latest sign of steady growth and health job gains. The latest job figures mean 2014 is on track to be the strongest year for hiring since 1999, and 10 million jobs were lost during the financial crisis in 2008.
More jobs, 44,000, were added in September and October than had previously been estimated. The Department of Labor said the unemployment rate remained at a six-year low of 5.8 percent.
Economy analysts say job gains will accelerate improvement in the labor market as more industries participate in the recovery. The Labor Department measured a 69.7 percent rate increase in its Diffusion index which measures industry payrolls…
Link to article
Mexican American Mobility: Early Life Processes and Adult Wealth Ownership
LA Keister, JA Vallejo, EP Borelli – Social Forces, 2014
… capital who encounter a positive context of reception will have children (the second generation)
who attain professional occupations and … Empirical tests of segmented assimilation compare young
adults from various immigrant groups and find that Mexican American youth face …
Link to abstract
Latinos moving up to own, run farms
WATSONVILLE, Calif. — When he was 15, an immigration raid at a Japanese flower nursery turned Arturo Flores’ life around. The owners needed a new group of workers to replace the ones removed by immigration officials, and Flores landed a job cutting flowers.
He slowly worked his way up to packaging and delivering them. In the mid-1980s, he got a call from two businessmen looking to start their own cut-flower business. They asked him to manage deliveries and distribution. Today Flores, 50, is the president of Central California Flower Growers in Watsonville, a distributor in Santa Cruz County that sells more than 100 varieties of flowers and other plants…
Link to article
The Population With a Bachelor’s Degree or Higher by Race and Hispanic Origin: 2006–2010
This report examines people aged 25 and over with a bachelor’s degree or higher among racial and Hispanic-
origin groups. As the U.S. population becomes more racially and ethnically diverse, it is important to exam-
ine educational attainment among population groups,which is a strong predictor of economic well-being.
Also, government agencies require data on educational attainment for funding allocations and program plan-
ning and implementation, while local government use information on educational attainment to attract
potential employers to their areas…
Link to report
American-Mexican Company Builds Bridge to Help US Small Businesses Exhibit at Trade Shows in Mexico City
Expo Solutions Mexico is a logistics coordination service offering American small businesses a budget friendly solution to exhibiting at trade shows in Mexico City.
Minneapolis, MN, August 13, 2014 –(PR.com)– New Company creates a bridge for small U.S. businesses on a budget wishing to do trade shows in Mexico.
The new logistics coordination service company offers financially smart solutions for small businesses who want to expand into the Mexican market by exhibiting at trade shows. The service offers logistics coordination and a concierge service for the visiting business executives. The objective of the services is to save time, money, worry and risk, allowing the visiting business…
Link to press release
Upscale and Affluent Latinos Are Tech Savvy, Bilingual and Big Spenders
Upscale and Affluent Latinos Are Tech Savvy, Bilingual and Big Spenders
By Nicole Akoukou Thompson (n.thompson@latinpost.com)
First Posted: Jul 25, 2014 01:17 PM EDT
Guests attend a launch event for Kiva City D.C. hosted by Capital One, Kiva, and the Latino Economic Development Center on January 8, 2013 in Washington, DC
Savvy, affluent and upscale Latinos have soaring purchasing power, and ad campaigns have been working to connect with high-earning Latinos by attempting to understand the preferred media and voice of this segment.
The upsurge in U.S. Hispanic affluence has become more visible within the last two decades. The number of wealthy Latinos (incomes greater than $75,000) doubled from 2000 to 2010, growing at three times the rate of non-Hispanic upscale households. In 2010, there were 2.9 million upscale Latino households, and that number has continued to…
Link to article
LEGAL MIGRATION AND FREE TRADE IN THE NAFTA ERA : BEYOND MIGRATION RETHORIC
This study analyzes the variation of legal migration flows between Mexico and the United
States (U.S.) from the entry into force of the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA). As a product of the asymmetry in the size of the U.S., Canadian and Mexican
economies, migration flows, both from Canada and Mexico
Link to article
The Mexican-American Diaspora and its Influence on American Trade Policy
M Mucci Pineda – 2014
Page 1. The Mexican-American Diaspora and its Influence on American Trade Policy By … ii Abstract
This study focuses on the Mexican-American community in the US, the American and Mexican
governments, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and trade in …
Link to dissertation
Mexican-American Children’s Perspectives: Neighborhood Characteristics and Physical Activity in Texas-Mexico Border Colonias
N Mier, LEE CHANAM, ML Smith, W XIAOHUI… – Journal of environmental …, 2013
… Ten focus groups were conducted with 67 Mexican-American colonia children ages 8 to 13 living
in one of the poorest border … Findings may inform policy makers and public health professionals
about ways to promote PA among underserved children through urban planning …
Link to abstract
