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,”
Read More…
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…”
Link to article
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…”
Link to article
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…”
Link to aricle
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…”
Link to article
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
NAFTA renegotiation signals little change for HE so far
“…In his United States presidential campaign in 2016, Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and to potentially withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a trilateral agreement between Canada, Mexico and the US which has been in effect since 1994.
Trump kept his promise to end the US’ participation in the TPP and in January 2017 signed an executive order to withdraw from the agreement.
However, in the commercial interests of the major economic industries of the US, he agreed to begin the renegotiation of NAFTA. Talks took place between August 2017 and September 2018. The new agreement, which is to be revised and ratified by the three countries, includes important changes regarding rules of origin, wages, the review or renewal mechanisms, agriculture and e-commerce…”
Link to article
Editorial: Kevin De León for U.S. Senate
“…The confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The passage of a self-serving, $1.5 trillion tax cut for the well-off. Numerous attempts to politically ax a now-cornerstone of the American health care system.
Californians have a lot of reasons to look indignantly at the United States Senate. Compromise is a thing of the past, values continue to be undercut and representatives grow more disconnected from those they represent.
And yes, that includes Democrats. Key among them: incumbent senator Dianne Feinstein.
The fourth-term senator has held the senate seat longer than many UCLA undergraduates have been alive. In her 26-year tenure, she’s spearheaded notable legislation, including a 10-year assault weapons banned passed in 1994. She voted in support of gay marriage against the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and stands as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee…”
Link to article
As Democrats Court Latinos, Indifference Is a Powerful Foe
“…By Jose A. Del Real and Jonathan Martin
Oct. 21, 2018
LAS VEGAS — Children ripped from their parents’ arms and held in sweltering tent cities. Immigration raids outside hospitals, schools and courthouses. An onslaught of ads and speeches delivering insults and racist remarks.
With the hard-fought midterm elections less than three weeks away, Democratic Party strategists hope Latino voters who are angered by the Trump administration’s policies and divisive language will help deliver resounding victories in many of the races that will decide political control in Washington. If ever there were a time to cast protest ballots, they reason, it would be with President Trump in the White House…”
Against Trump’s wishes, Mexican professionals keep visas in new trade deal
By Anita Kumar And Franco Ordoñez
August 28, 2018 04:35 PM
Updated August 28, 2018 11:12 PM
WASHINGTON
Tens of thousands of Mexican professionals who come to work in the United States will be able to keep their visas as part of the new U.S.-Mexico trade agreement, the Mexican government says, delivering a political loss to the Trump administration who sought to slash the number of visas as part of NAFTA re-negotiations.
The Mexican Economy Ministry told McClatchy that…”
Link to article
The Making of a Mexican American Mayor: Raymond L. Telles of El Paso and the Origins of Latino Political Power
MT García – 2018 – books.google.com
Raymond L. Telles was the first Mexican American mayor of a major US city. Elected mayor
of El Paso in 1957 and serving for two terms, he went on to become the first Mexican
American ambassador in US history, heading the US delegation to Costa Rica. Historian …
Link to book excerpt
Young Texas Latinos are an untapped voting goldmine
“…Nearly half of Texans under 18 are Latino and 95 percent of them are U.S. citizens — meaning they will be eligible to vote once they turn 18. Will they?…”
Link to article
Minority youth will keep America great, white anxiety will not
“The Census Bureau reported last month that the nation’s white population declined for the first time. This dip was previously not projected to begin until the next decade, though it will continue for much of this century.
Many white supporters of President Trump will view this as yet another sign of the end of the America they know, as the country inches toward “majority-minority” status. To them, this means relinquishing dominance and privileged status to browner and newer Americans, whom they perceive as competing with them for jobs and government resources, while distorting their way of life. This “white anxiety” underlies many proposals from Trump, such as the Mexican border wall and Muslim ban..”
Link to article
Trump Officials Reverse Obama’s Policy on Affirmative Action in Schools
“WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said Tuesday that it was abandoning Obama administration policies that called on universities to consider race as a factor in diversifying their campuses, signaling that the administration will champion race-blind admissions standards…”
Link to article
