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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July Recognizes Minority Mental Health Awareness Month
“-Pulic Information Officer for the California Highway Patrol, Tomas Martinez, grew up in a household where mental health struggles were not acknowledged.– Martinez believes that cultural attitudes, such as the belief that men should not express their emotions, contribute to the lack of acknowledgement of mental health issues.– Stacey Kuwahara, the Director for Kern Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, says that mistrust in health professionals can be a barrier for minority communities to seek help for mental health.– Kuwahara emphasizes that there are resources available for mental health support, including text, internet, phone, and video-based services.– Martinez encourages seeking help for mental health and believes it is important for maintaining healthy relationships with oneself and others…”
How Latino health care may suffer after Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling
“…They found a concerning lack of diversity in the country’s health workforce. While Mexican Americans make up the largest Latino subpopulation and nearly 11% of the country’s workforce, they make up less than 2% of physicians…”
Assistant Professor of Nursing Elected to National Board of Directors
“…Dominguez De Quezada, a first-generation Mexican-American and a native of the El Paso-Juárez community, has been an assistant professor in the College of Nursing since 2021. She earned a master’s degree in nursing at UTEP as well as a bachelor’s degree in nursing from New Mexico State University and a doctoral degree in nursing from The University of Texas at Tyler. In her research, she has focused on reducing health disparities commonly seen in the Hispanic community by addressing language incongruence between health care providers and patients living along the U.S.–Mexico border…”
Latino workers underrepresented in healthcare: analysis
“…According to the data, in the registered nurse profession, Mexican Americans made up 3.85% of the workforce; Puerto Ricans, 0.99%; Cuban Americans, 0.61%; and other Latinos, 2.08%.
For licensed practical nurses, Mexican Americans made up 7.94% of the workforce; Puerto Ricans, 1.45%; Cuban Americans, 0.51%; and other Latinos, 2.76%…”
Why do millions of Americans go to Mexico for health care?
“…The US spends about twice as much on health care as other industrialised nations, frequently with worse outcomes, as insurance middle men, hospital bureaucracies and other administrative costs siphon money away from patient care…”
Mexican doctor wins 2023 Carlos Slim Health Award
“…Dr. José Alejandro Madrigal Fernández is a physician at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Thereafter, he studied the specialty and the doctorate at the universities of Harvard, London and Stanford. His research focuses on immunotherapy and stem cell transplantation
Dr. Madrigal’s leadership led him to pioneer the establishment of donor registries and umbilical cord banks around the world. He was the founder and scientific director of the Anthony Nolan Cellular Therapy Center. His leadership led him to chair the European Transplant Society. Besides. He was Vice-Chancellor for Latin America at University College London.
His research has resulted in the publication of over 500 articles in the world’s most prestigious journals, including Nature, Nature Genetics and The Lancet. He is currently conducting research on cell therapy against different types of cancer…”
https://worldnationnews.com/mexican-doctor-wins-2023-carlos-slim-health-award/
Activists’ network in Mexico helps U.S. women get abortions
“CHIHUAHUA, Mexico (AP) — Marcela Castro’s office in Chihuahua is more than 100 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, yet the distance doesn’t prevent her from assisting women in the United States in circumventing recently imposed bans on abortion.
From the headquarters of Marea Verde Chihuahua, an organization that has supported reproductive rights in northern Mexico since 2018, Castro and her colleagues provide virtual guidance, as well as shipments of abortion pills for women who want to terminate a pregnancy on their own…”
https://www.metro.us/activists-network-in-mexico-helps-u-s-women-get-abortions/
Dominican Health Professionals Commit to ‘Rise Up and Shine’ Read more at: https://adventistreview.org/news/dominican-health-professionals-commit-to-rise-up-and-shine/
“…More than a hundred physicians, bio-analysts, nurses, psychologists, physical therapists, pharmacologists, nutritionists, and other health professionals networked, enjoyed various learning experiences, took part in spiritual reflections, and impacted the community.
The event included specialized topic presentations by Franck Généus, health ministries director for the Inter-American Division of the Adventist Church; Chiapas Mexican Union health ministries director Faustino de los Santos; and North Mexican Union health ministries director Roel Cea. Cea also coordinates health ministries at Montemorelos University…”
https://adventistreview.org/news/dominican-health-professionals-commit-to-rise-up-and-shine/
Chicano/a studies chair Aída Hurtado named a fellow of American Education Research Association
“…Hurtado is among 24 individuals named to the 2023 AERA Fellows Program which honors scholars for their exceptional contributions to education research. Her work has focused on intersectional feminisms, particularly the effects of gender on educational success. In a novel way, she has looked at educational achievement with a focus on Latinas and Chicanas, ultimately disproving the idea that traditional Latino families just want their children to get married and have more children…”
Explainer: What is the US-Mexico GM corn dispute about?
“…March 8 (Reuters) – The U.S. has requested formal trade consultations with Mexico over the Latin American country’s plans to restrict imports of genetically modified corn.
The North American neighbors will inch closer to a full-blown trade dispute under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade (USMCA) if there is no resolution during the talks, which Mexico says will last one month.
-old native varieties and has questioned their impact on human health….”
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/what-is-us-mexico-gm-corn-dispute-about-2023-03-08/
This Mexican Activist Is Helping Americans Defy Abortion Bans, Time Magazine Woman of the Year
“For Verónica Cruz Sánchez, the past year has felt like traveling back in time. Since 2000, Cruz’s feminist activist network, Las Libres, has transformed the experience of getting an abortion in Guanajuato, a deeply conservative Mexican state that had criminalized abortion in almost all circumstances. Cruz and her colleagues have worked to distribute misoprostol, a WHO-approved abortion pill, across Guanajuato, helping women feel confident in its safety, and inspiring similar networks in other Mexican states. But north of the border, the mood is more tense. “In the U.S., the women we see are terrified,” Cruz says. “They have very little knowledge about the pills.”…”
Letter to the Editor: UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences combats racial inequity
“…The medical school includes the development of a Social Medicine Collab that uses human-centered design to bring integrated mental health and primary care to youth-serving organizations in primarily Latino and Black neighborhoods in South LA, using cultural and athletic events as a platform…”
Politicians say they’ll stop fentanyl smugglers. Experts say new drug war won’t work
“…Even if China and Mexico were willing or able to help fight the cartels, stopping fentanyl smugglers would still be incredibly difficult.
The U.S. is actually seizing record amounts of fentanyl in drug busts, but the drug is so cheap to manufacture, the cartels just make more.
That doesn’t mean the fentanyl crisis is hopeless. According to Trone, a more promising strategy is to focus on reducing American hunger for drugs.
“That’s the only chance we’ve got,” he said. “Without the Mexican government’s help, without the Chinese government’s help, we can’t win [against the smugglers]. So we have to go on the demand side, work on all the things with education, work on treatment, work on prevention.”…”
Stark warning Britain may be on brink of becoming a ZOMBIELAND: Experts fear explosion of fentanyl — a drug 50 times stronger than heroin which has ravaged America — as Mexican cartels seek to reap billions from an untapped European market
“Britain faces being gripped by its own fentanyl epidemic, according to experts who fear that the devastating zombie-esque scenes plaguing US cities are coming soon to a high street near you.
EU drug enforcement chiefs believe that Mexican cartels are seeking to expand their billion-dollar empire beyond American shores, putting Europe’s untapped market in their crosshairs…”https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11727627/Is-UK-brink-fentanyl-crisis.html
Study finds Mexican American stroke survivors were less likely to receive intensive rehab
“Mexican American stroke survivors in a South Texas study, were more likely to use less intensive forms of rehabilitation services than their non-Hispanic white peers, and nearly one-third of all the stroke survivors did not receive any rehabilitation within 90 days of their stroke, according to preliminary research to be presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2023. The meeting, to be held in person in Dallas and virtually Feb. 8-10, 2023, is a world premier meeting for researchers and clinicians dedicated to the science of stroke and brain health…”
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02-mexican-american-survivors-intensive-rehab.html
How Black and Hispanic Americans view clinical trials
“…The views of Black and Hispanic adults on this question are especially notable because these Americans were underrepresented in clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines. Black and Hispanic participation in other kinds of clinical trials has often been too low to adequately assess whether new treatments are safe and effective across all racial and ethnic groups…”
Opinion: Pursuing Greater Representation in Health Care
“According to the census report, more than 80% of the people who live in the El Paso metropolitan area identify as Hispanic. Yet Hispanic students are under-represented in health care education as reported by the Mexican American Hispanic Physician Association…”
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/opinion-pursuing-greater-representation-in-health-care/
Pursuing greater representation in health care
“According to the census report, more than 80% of the people who live in the El Paso metropolitan area identify as Hispanic.
Yet Hispanic students are underrepresented in health care education, as reported by the Mexican American Hispanic Physician Association.
Las Palmas Del Sol Healthcare and the University of Texas at El Paso recently announced a new partnership that aims to improve that representation in advanced education…”
HACR Partnership Helps Medtronic Develop Hispanic Talent
“Cultural aspects of leadership can be very different,” Vargas said. “I wouldn’t speak up as much as others or call attention to myself.”
Her role with Medtronic was her first American corporate job, coming after an eight-year career at a company in Switzerland. That shift made the Mexican-born professional unsure about how to navigate the corporate world. “The shift to working with people who didn’t understand me, my culture,” she said. “It was the first time I realized that I was different.”…
https://www.yahoo.com/now/hacr-partnership-helps-medtronic-develop-121500788.html
2 Hispanic Americans Speak Out About Dementia in Their Communities
“Tony Gonzales is proud of his heritage as a third-generation Mexican American, but it wasn’t until he was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment in 2021, at age 47, that he learned that Hispanic Americans are at higher risk for cognitive decline compared with those of other racial and ethnic groups….”
