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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Social Sciences

Annual New Mexico Hispanic Fiesta Draws Native American Ire

It’s a week-long event that draws together generations of northern New Mexico Hispanic residents, some who can trace their roots to the 1600s.
For centuries, northern New Mexico Hispanic residents have held an elaborate festival in Santa Fe to honor Spanish conquistador Don Diego De Vargas, who reclaimed the city following an American Indian revolt. There is music, dancing, a parade and the reenactment of De Vargas’s “peaceful reoccupation” of what is now New Mexico’s capital…
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Nationally Recognized Scholar of Latino Politics to Speak at CSU, Chico for Constitution Day 2016

Dr. Gary Segura of Stanford University will make the California State University, Chico Constitution Day keynote address, “The Future is Ours: How Demographic Change and Latino Voters Are Changing American Politics in 2016 and Beyond.” The event is on Tuesday, September 20 at 6 p.m. in the Bell Memorial Union auditorium. It is a free, public event open to all students, faculty and community members.
Gary Segura is the Morris M. Doyle Centennial Professor of Public Policy at Stanford University. He is the director of the Stanford Institute on the Politics of Inequality, Race and Ethnicity, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His work focuses on issues of political representation and social cleavages, the domestic politics of wartime public opinion, and the politics of America’s growing Latino population…
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‘I’m Latino and I Don’t Speak Spanish’: Young Men Talk About Identity

Am I Hispanic enough? Am I American enough? This is the dilemma that many Latinos face at some point in their lives, whether they are 1st or 5th generation.
Part of this is the tension in answering people’s assumptions, expectations and yes, stereotypes that exist about what “constitutes” a Hispanic. And these assumptions come from both inside and outside the Latino community.
We spoke to three young men who have different upbringings and unique backgrounds. Yet they have one trait in common: their love for their roots, and their candor at some of the challenges they have while trying to explain their cultural identities…
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Young Latina Poet’s Ode to Her Heritage Goes Viral

Xochitl Morales may be young, but she learned early to use her voice to highlight her community and culture. Through poetry, the sixteen year old demonstrates what it means to be a Mexican American. Her video poem, titled “Latino-Americanos: The Children of An Oscuro Pasado” addresses her cultural identity.
The video went viral and has been shared widely on Facebook and other social media, as well as by Latino sites. The poem is a response to Donald Trump’s comments about Mexicans in the U.S. “My culture is important, although it wasn’t always accepted. This poem is a call to action, it a reminder to never forget where you come from” Morales said…
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The Devil is Loose: Drownings, shootings, high-speed accidents, immigrants in labor-the life of a border paramedic

For the paramedics in Laredo, Texas, the only event more concerning than a Dallas Cowboys’ loss is a fight night. Saturday, May 7, the eve of Mother’s Day, was fight night. Throughout the afternoon, the cemeteries were full of people carrying flowers to their mothers’ tombstones, bright tributes laid down in the searing heat. That evening, much of the town gathered around flat screens to watch the Mexican champion Canelo Álvarez and a British contender named Amir Khan slug it out for the middleweight title. Not many were rooting for Khan…
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Without Change, African-American and Latino Families Won’t Match Current Average White Wealth for Centuries

WASHINGTON – If current federal wealth-building policies remain in place, it will take the average African-American family 228 years to amass the same amount of wealth that white families have today and it will take Latino families 84 years to reach that goal, according to a new report from the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).
The Ever-Growing Gap: Failing to Address the Status Quo Will Drive the Racial Wealth Divide for Centuries to Come shows how the well-documented chasm between white household wealth and African-American and Latino household wealth will play out over a period of decades and even centuries if nothing is done to change the current scenario.
For instance, the report finds that by 2043, when households of color are projected to account for more than half the U.S. population, the racial wealth divide between white households and African- American and Latino households will have doubled from about $500,000 in 2013 to $1 million…
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Hispanic millennials make less, but save more

Most millennials are trying to save for retirement, but female and Hispanic millennials make less money than their counterparts and are more focused on everyday finances, according to new survey results released Wednesday by Wells Fargo.
The survey focused on how millennials plan for retirement. A $1-million savings goal is supposed to provide enough retirement funds for decades, according to Wells Fargo. While 64 percent of respondents said they don’t think they will ever save enough to hit that mark, nearly 60 percent have started stashing away money anyway…
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Eva Longoria’s powerful speech: ‘My family didn’t cross the border. The border crossed us’

Eva Longoria took the podium at the Democratic National Convention with a powerful speech about her family’s immigrant past.
The actress was among the various speakers at Monday night’s opening night in Philadelphia. She spoke about her personal experience as a Mexican-American living in the U.S.
“I’m from a small town in South Texas, and if you know your history, Texas used to be part of Mexico,” Longoria, 41, said. “I’m ninth-generation American. My family never crossed the border, the border crossed us.”…
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A Latino Angel Wants To Help You Invest In Tech Startups

For the past two decades, I have been an advisor to many technology startups, and I can tell you this: raising the first million is the hardest.
Even harder: raising the first million if you are Latino/Latina founder.
Last week, DreamFunded – a San Francisco-based company that I’ve written about before — became the first SF-headquartered firm to get approval from FINRA to launch a portal that will enable many people — not just the rich — to invest in technology through crowdfunding. According to DreamFunded, it’s also the first Latino-led equity crowdfunding portal anywhere to get FINRA approval…
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How Hispanic culture is changing America

This article is part of an ongoing Media Life series entitled “Catching the next big wave: Hispanic media.” You can read previous stories by clicking here.
Last month, Univision Deportes Network beat every other cable sports network in primetime among the key demos of adults 18-49 and 18-34.
It finished ahead of Fox Sports 1 and NBC Sports Network, which is an accomplishment of itself.
But it also beat cable sports’ big dogs, ESPN and ESPN2.
UDN carried the Copa America Centenario in June, which explains the big ratings, while the other networks were in a rare summertime lull between major events like NASCAR and the Tour de France.
But still, a Spanish-language network beating a bunch of English-language ones in the major sports demos?
A few years ago, that would have been unthinkable. In fact, five years ago, UDN didn’t even exist…
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DPS is hiring more Hispanic state troopers, and Texas’ border surge is a big reason why

AUSTIN — The face of Texas’ border surge is undergoing a makeover, as the security push has helped the state Department of Public Safety hire more Hispanic officers recently.
Over the past 18 months, more than 40 percent of the 450 participants in DPS’ grueling six-month trooper academies identified themselves as Hispanic. A Dallas Morning News analysis shows that it’s the highest such percentage DPS has seen over the last decade — and maybe ever…
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Possible Selves Mapping With a Mexican American Prospective First-Generation College Student

RE Michel – ACA Postmodern Career Counseling: A Handbook of …, 2016 – books.google.com
A high school diploma is no longer enough for most people to secure the career or lifestyle
they imagine. The value of a postsecondary education is well accepted, and significant
efforts have been made to support students who further their training past high school. For …
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Voto Latino Power Summit Kicks Off To Mobilize Young Latinos

With Hillary Clinton now virtually assured to be the Democratic nominee for President, the Voto Latino Power Summit being held this weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada holds particular significance for the growing power of Latino millennials, who make up 44 percent of all Latinos according to recent analysis from Pew Research.
An estimated 3.2 million Latinos will be able to cast their votes for the first time in the upcoming presidential election, and will likely pit Republican frontrunner Donald Trump against Clinton. With Donald Trump poised to get the lowest vote ever among Latinos for a Republican presidential nominee, organizations like Voto Latino will be an important venue for using the attention of the election to connect young Latinos with each other in networking opportunities and getting them motivated to become active citizens…
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Understanding Support From School Counselors as Predictors of Mexican American Adolescents’ College-Going Beliefs

JC Vela, B Flamez, GS Sparrow, E Lerma
… roles and responsibilities of professional school counselors include helping students in a number
of areas, such as personal, social, and career development (Studer, 2005). High school counselors
are provided specific strategies to help Mexican American students overcome …
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Is Acculturation Really Dead?

We’ve been hearing the death knell for acculturation for the past several years now in the Hispanic marketing world. A large percentage of Fortune 1000 companies, however, still use acculturation as a point of reference for segmentation so as a research company we still see acculturation models regularly.However, a call with an ad agency last week made us do a double take and question, is acculturation really dead? We were discussing a research strategy and mentioned segmenting by acculturation for research purposes and we were stopped dead in our tracks by the statement, “Let me stop you there. All Hispanics are bicultural. All Hispanics speak English. Acculturation is an outdated concept.” …
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Northrop Grumman’s Jeannie Hilger Honored as National Latina of the Year by the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation

SAN DIEGO, May 19, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) vice president Jeannie Hilger has been named a 2016 National Latina of the Year by the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation (MAOF), one of the nation’s largest Latino human service organizations…
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Organization Advocates for More Latinos On Corporate Boards

WASHINGTON, DC — It is an absolute business imperative to have Latinos and Latinas in leadership positions in the business world, particularly on the boards of the country’s top companies, where the numbers remain dismally low. That was the focus of a recent gathering here of many of the nation’s business leaders to commemorate three decades of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR), an organization that advocates for a greater number of Hispanics in corporate America.
Just over 7 percent of Latinos hold board seats among Fortune 500 companies, and just 4 percent of all executive positions…
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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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