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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President Trump signs executive order temporarily suspending work visas for H-1B holders
“…“Whether his administration realizes it or not, they creating a significant handicap for US innovation. Our most innovative and impactful portfolio companies and many of their employees started as H-1b holders,” wrote Stonly Baptiste, the co-founder of technology investment fund, Urban.us. “We literally couldn’t have built our portfolio in an environment without H-1B. And we’re not even an immigrant focused fund.”
Also on the chopping block are H-2B visas, which are used to let short-term seasonal workers in landscaping and non-farm jobs into the country, J-1 jobs for short-term workers like camp counselors and au pairs and L-1 visas for corporate company transfers…”
Mexico City’s coronavirus death toll may be 3 times higher than official count, report says
“…Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity says it obtained a confidential database providing details on the 4,577 Mexico City deaths in which coronavirus or equivalent designations — such as “COVID-19,” “COV” and “SARS COV2” — were mentioned on death certificates. The certificates are kept in civil registry offices.
In 3,532 of the cases, the report said, the virus was listed on death certificates as the confirmed, suspected, probable or possible cause of death, sometimes in combination with other ailments, such as severe respiratory infections. In another 1,045 cases, COVID-19 was listed as a cause of death, without specifying whether it was suspected, likely or confirmed…’
Canada, US, Mexico extend border restrictions
“…Essential cross-border workers like healthcare professionals, airline crews and truck drivers are still permitted to cross. Truck drivers are critical as they move food and medical goods in both directions. Much of Canada’s food supply comes from or via the U.S.”
An early look at the 2020 electorate
“…We project that the 2020 election will mark the first time that Hispanics will be the largest racial or ethnic minority group in the electorate, accounting for just over 13% of eligible voters – slightly more than blacks. This change reflects the gradual but continuous growth in the Hispanic share of eligible voters, up from 9% in the 2008 presidential election and 7% in the 2000 election. The black eligible voter population has grown about as fast as the electorate overall, meaning their share has held constant at about 12% since 2000…”
https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/an-early-look-at-the-2020-electorate/
Mexico Likely To Keep Making The World’s Biggest Oil Hedge
“The Mexican oil hedge, or the Hacienda Hedge, is considered the biggest hedging bet on Wall Street as well as perhaps the most secretive. It has earned Mexico—and a few large investment banks—billions of U.S. dollars. Mexico buys put options from investment banks and typically hedges a whopping 200-300 million barrels of oil a year. With the put options, it has the right, but not the obligation, to sell oil at a previously set price and timing. But will this tradition continue under the newly elected administration?Throughout his campaign, Mexico’s now president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador kept the oil industry on edge with comments and promises that he would review the landmark 2013 energy reform of outgoing President Enrique Peña Nieto that ended seven decades of oil monopoly in the country…”
Mexico’s coronavirus-skeptical president is setting up his country for a health crisis
“…As Mexico fast approaches what’s highly likely to be a large coronavirus outbreak, the country’s leadership — mainly its president — mostly insists that everything is fineIn speech after speech, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, known by his nickname AMLO, tells Mexicans they shouldn’t fear Covid-19, even as hundreds of thousands of people have confirmed infections worldwide. Despite warnings from global health officials, he continues to hold political rallies, kiss supporters, and request that Mexicans go out shopping to prop up the country’s sputtering economy during a global slowdown.“Live life as usual,” he said in a video posted to Facebook on March 22, showing him outside at a restaurant. “If you’re able and have the means to do so, continue taking your family out to eat … because that strengthens the economy.”…”
https://www.vox.com/2020/3/26/21193823/coronavirus-mexico-andres-manuel-lopez-obrador-health-care
NALEO: Nearly 4 Million Latino Voters in California Expected to Cast Ballots in 2020 Election
“WASHINGTON, D.C. — One week before Latinos will make a decisive impact on the outcome of the California Democratic primary on Super Tuesday (March 3, 2020), the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund released its profile of the California Latino electorate and key Congressional races to watch in the state in 2020.According to NALEO Educational Fund analysis, more than 4 million Latino voters will make their voices heard at the ballot box in 2020. Latino voter turnout in California more than doubled from 1,597,000 in 2000, to 3,345,000 in 2016, an increase of 109 percent…”
Latino voters favor raising minimum wage, government involvement in health care, stricter gun laws
Most Latino registered voters say they want government to be more involved in solving the nation’s problems, a view that is reflected in their broad support for raising the minimum wage, government involvement in health care and stricter gun laws, according to a national Pew Research Center survey of Latino adults conducted in December.
A record 32 million Latinos are…”
Ayala: A new generation rises at San Antonio’s Hispanic chamber
“…The scene unfolded in the beautifully restored Monte Vista home that Congressman Henry B. Gonzalez once shared with his wife, Bertha, and their eight children.
A political fundraiser was under way, and Rep. Beto O’Rourke, then running for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Ted Cruz, had the floor.
The host, Dr. Erika Gonzalez (who’s unrelated to the Henry B. clan) had gathered together successful, young Mexican American professionals interested in politics — people much like herself.
Unlike previous generations of Mexican Americans, who worked at the grass-roots level, those gathered in her home flexed political power by opening their wallets…”
Link to article
Latino Voters Will Decide the 2020 Election
“MIAMI — I am dreading the 2020 presidential race, which I think will be the most brutal Americans have ever witnessed. Irrespective of who the Democratic nominee is, President Trump will use all the power and dirty tricks at his disposal to remain in power for another four years.
As was the case in 2016, if Democrats want to have any chance of defeating Mr. Trump, they will need the strong support of Latino voters. This time, however, they will have to work extra hard to get it…”
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Regina Romero winner in Tucson mayoral race
“…Romero will be Tucson’s first female and first Latina mayor.
The Democrat won 55.7 percent of the vote in initial results, handily beating independent candidate Ed Ackerley with 39.69 percent and Green Party candidate Mike Cease with 3.9 percent…”
Link to news report
Postelection survey headed by UCLA professors receives $1 million grant
“…Edward Vargas, another co-principal investigator and assistant professor in the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University, overlooks the Latin American population data in the CMPS. Vargas said he hopes to make academia more inclusive to first-generation scholars and scholars of color with the CMPS.
“I want to be a support and I want to help propel and uplift other folks who are coming, and to bring folks along to make academia more inclusive,” Vargas said…”
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Six myths about Latino Republicans are challenged in University of Houston study
“…Latinos tend to be Democrats? Latinos who are Republican must be moderates and not feel welcome within the party?
A new University of Houston study seeks to debunk these common misconceptions about Latino voters.
The growing community in Texas will play a key role in the 2020 election, said Brandon Rottinghaus, lead author of the study and a political science professor at the university.
The latinx vote will be the decisive part of the 2020 election,” Rottinghaus said, using a gender-neutral term for the demographic group. “Republicans have long counted on a base of support from the Latinx community. If they don’t hold that support in 2020, Texas will turn blue.”
Here are some of the myths Rottinghaus and co-author Rudy Fonseca, field director for the Harris County Republican Party, examined…”
link to article
Bicultural Biography, Ana Maria Salazar
“…Ana Maria Salazar ’89 always notices the surprised looks. Salazar, deputy assistant secretary of defense for drug enforcement policy and support, gets that reaction often on the job. Someone in her position is not supposed to be a civilian, not supposed to be young, not supposed to be a woman. But, as a Mexican American woman who easily traverses different cultures, she knows her presence at the table helps many countries stem the spread of drugs.
“It’s surprising for them to see a woman walk in heading a delegation of generals and colonels and uniformed men and women in the different services, but at the same time, I come in, I speak the language and understand them,” said Salazar. “Being bilingual and bicultural has been one of the most important assets I bring.”…”
Link to article
A Central American Marshall Plan Won’t Work
“Since late January, thousands of would-be asylum applicants have been held up just outside of the U.S. border with Mexico, where they have been forced to wait their turn to speak to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The growing humanitarian situation—camps for migrants are overcrowded, unhygienic, and dangerous—has renewed focus on Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s call for a Central American Marshall Plan, through which $30 billion would be channeled toward regional development in an effort to ease migration pressures. López Obrador, popularly known as AMLO, has set a goal of funding the plan by May, and U.S. President Donald Trump, eager to halt immigration to the United States, agreed to participate to the tune of $5.8 billion…”
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Border agents held 2 US citizens for speaking Spanish in public, suit says
“…When a Border Patrol agent asked two Spanish-speaking women — one of them former California resident — for identification in a Montana convenience store, and later held them for 40 minutes, they asked why he was doing it.
His answer, recorded on video: Speaking Spanish “is very unheard-of up here.”
The incident was humiliating, traumatic, and a violation of the constitutional guarantee of equality, the women, both native-born U.S. citizens, said in a lawsuit filed Thursday in a Montana federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union against the agent and his employer, U.S. Customs and Border Protection…”
Link to article
California’s attorney general gave a scathing Spanish-language rebuttal to Trump’s speech
“…That’s how California Attorney General Xavier Becerra described the State of the Union Tuesday during the Democrats’ Spanish-language rebuttal to President Donald Trump’s speech.
California’s top law enforcement officer gave a scathing review of the Trump administration during his 20-minute rebuttal, accusing the president of infecting the White House with “criminality, collusion, and obstruction of justice.”
“There are dark clouds following Donald Trump around,” Becerra said in his speech, which aired during a prime-time slot on the Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo.
He also blasted the president’s immigration policies…”
Link to article
94 percent of Latinos who voted in ’18 plan to continue voting By Rafael Bernal
“…A large majority of polled young Hispanic voters who participated in last November’s elections plan to continue voting, according to a newly released poll by Voto Latino and Change Research.
According to the poll, released exclusively to The Hill, 94 percent of 18-to-35-year-old 2018 Hispanic voters who responded said they will vote in 2020 and beyond…”
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Latinos show record gains in Congress, though numbers are still low
By Suzanne Gamboa
AUSTIN, Texas — Although the new Congress will have a record number of Latino members, their numbers will fall far short of matching the share of the U.S. population that is Hispanic.
When the 116th congressional session begins in January, there will be at least 36 Latinos in the House and four in the Senate, according to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund.
But the nation’s 57.5 million Hispanics are about 17.8 percent of the U.S. population. If the share of Latinos in the 435-member House matched the share in the population..”
Posted in Front Page Items, News and Information, Political Science, Politics
Key takeaways about Latino voters in the 2018 midterm elections
“Latinos make up an increasing share of the U.S. electorate. A record 29 million Latinos were eligible to vote in this year’s midterm elections, accounting for 12.8% of all eligible voters, a new high. While it’s too soon to know how many voted and their turnout rate, Latinos made up an estimated 11% of all voters nationwide on Election Day, nearly matching their share of the U.S. eligible voter population (U.S. citizens ages 18 and older). Here are key takeaways about Latino voters and the 2018 elections…”
Link to article
