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

THE MEXICANISATION OF THE PEW HISPANIC CENTER

It is with great pleasure to discover that The Pew Hispanic Center has at last recognized that Mexican Americans like to be referred to as Mexican and not Hispanic. It is also welcome news that they have begun to publish articles about Mexican Americans.
The groundbreaking fact that governmental institutions are referring to Hispanics as Mexicans and specific groups is forward-moving in two ways,
1. Because it gives governmental institutions and other institutions a more accurate reading of the Mexican American community therefore it makes it easier to plan and project and,
2. It provides Mexican Americans and the larger population with recognition and validation for their accomplishments as well as their failures. In California, the Hispanic population is now equal to the white population and Mexican Americans comprise the largest number of Hispanics.

When I was looking for information for my Mexican American Professionals Articles a few years ago, I called the Pew Hispanic Center. I was able to speak with one of their principal writers and I asked him if his center had any information about Mexican American Professionals they could share with me. He informed me, in a very authoritative and abrupt way, that the Pew Hispanic Center did not have any such information. That they only dealt with Hispanics in their research. I said thank you and moved on to the Census Bureau Data.
Since that time, by their own research, they have concluded that “a report based on a nationwide survey” found most Hispanics don’t embrace the term “Hispanic,” and even fewer prefer the term “Latino.” Some light at the end of the tunnel. Gee, they had to do a nationwide survey to conclude that individuals think of themselves as “Guatemaltecos,” “Peruanos,” and even Mexicans.
Of further interest is the newest report released by the Pew Hispanic Center entitled “A Demographic Portrait of Mexican-Origin Hispanic in the United States.” It’s nice to see that we are finally worthy of being looked at as the majority of a minority. By their own admission, The Pew Hispanic Center in their recent publication “A Demographic Portrait of Mexican-Origin Hispanics in the United States” …Mexicans are by far the largest Hispanic-origin population in the U.S., accounting for nearly two-thirds (64%) of the U.S. Hispanic population in 2012”.
I hope that the Pew Hispanic Center will continue to gather and release information pertinent to Mexican Americans with a more in-depth look at women and other variables. In the 2011 American Community Survey, Mexican American Women out earned Bachelor’s degrees by 2%. They also outnumber men in several other professional areas. In so far as other variables are concerned it is surprising to see that Mexican Americans in at least one area are almost equally represented:
The following data is from my article entitled “Results of the American Community Survey…for 2011”:
Industry: Civilian employed population 16 years and older:
• 10.6% of the general population was employed in the professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste management services in 2010. In 2011, this number only increased by .1% to 10.7%.
• 10.1% of Mexican Americans were employed in the professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste management services in 2010. In 2011, this percentage remained the same.

This information is of great benefit to those in government or educational institutions that rely on this data to administer resources.

In spite of the limited resource of one, my website mexican-american-proarchive.com has provided annual reports on the results of the American Community Survey since it’s inception. They focus on Mexican American professionals and provide a link between the census data and the ability to read the information in an anecdotal form. I focus on what I think are the most important differences and similarities between Mexican American professionals vs. the overall population. The data is footnoted with It’s sources and when available a URL to the raw data is given.
I can be reached at:
Betohg2012@gmail.com
Tel. 650-738-8584

A Cross-National Study on Prevalence of Mental Disorders, Service Use, and Adequacy of Treatment Among Mexican and Mexican American Populations

R Orozco, G Borges, ME Medina-Mora… – American Journal of Public …, 2013
… Among Mexican and Mexican American Populations … of family physicians, general practitioners,
and other medical doctors, such as cardiologists, or gynecologists (for women) and urologists
(for men), nurses, occupational therapists, or other health care professionals; 4. human …
Link to abstract

Attitudes of Mexican American Students Towards Learning English as a Second Language in a Structured Immersion Program

DU MARTÍNEZ, JG PÉREZ, DM FERNÁNDEZ – PORTA LINGUARUM, 2013
… pp. 205-221 Attitudes of Mexican American Students Towards … ABSTRACT: This study involves
the examination of the attitudes of a group of Mexican American students towards learning
English as a second language in a struc- tured immersion program. …
Link to article

The Role of Family Support and Parental Monitoring as Mediators in Mexican American Adolescent Drinking Read More

M Pagan Rivera, D DePaulo – Substance Use & Misuse, 2013
… ORIGINAL ARTICLE. The Role of Family Support and Parental Monitoring as Mediators in Mexican
American Adolescent Drinking. … Analysis of the data utilizes multiple regression to identify risks and
protective factors of adolescent drinking in Mexican American youth. …
Link to article

The Presence and Significance of Imaginative Play in the Lives of Mexican-American Adults

AT PERONE III – 2013
Page 1. The Presence and Significance of Imaginative Play in the Lives of Mexican-American
Adults … Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy and Carrie Lobman at Rutgers
University for co-creating play spaces with me at professional conferences, in print, and in …
Link to dissertation

SPOUSAL CONCORDANCE ON COGNITIVE TRAJECTORIES: AN EXPLORATORY LATENT CLASS APPROACH WITH MEXICAN AMERICAN OLDER ADULTS

K Small, J Margrett, D Russell – Successful aging and social contexts: The importance …, 2013
… 4 SPOUSAL CONCORDANCE ON COGNITIVE TRAJECTORIES: AN EXPLORATORY LATENT
CLASS APPROACH WITH MEXICAN AMERICAN OLDER ADULTS … provided oral informed consent
and were interviewed in their home by trained, professional personnel employed …
Link to dissertation

A Demographic Portrait of Mexican-Origin Hispanics in the United States

A record 33.7 million Hispanics of Mexican origin resided in the United States in 2012, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by Pew Research Center. This estimate includes 11.4 million immigrants born in Mexico and 22.3 million born in the U.S. who self-identified as Hispanics of Mexican origin.
by Ana Gonzalez-Barrera and Mark Hugo Lopez
Mexican-Origin Hispanics in the United States
Link to article

Mexican Roots for Majority of Latino Americans

Mexican Latinos make up more than two thirds of all Latinos in the United States, according to a new Pew Hispanic report.

Of the 51.9 million Latinos living in the United States in 2011, more than 33.5 million trace their family back to Mexico.

The report looked at demographic data collected from the 2011 American Community Survey. The report also examined U.S. citizenship, education levels and median income among U.S. Hispanics.
Link to article

Journalist Alfredo Corchado says it’s ‘Midnight in Mexico’

By Hector Tobar, Los Angeles Times

June 14, 2013, 8:00 a.m.

Journalist Alfredo Corchado has had a front seat to many of the most important events of recent Mexican history. In the 1980s he covered the protests in Northern Mexico that foreshadowed the end of one-party rule, and he was later a Mexico City correspondent for the Dallas Morning News. In 2000, he conducted the first interview with President-elect Vicente Fox, the opposition candidate…
Link to article

Do Peers Contribute to the Achievement Gap between Vietnamese-American and Mexican-American Adolescents?

MT Duong, D Schwartz, CA McCarty – Social Development, 2013
… We recruited participants from a middle school with sizeable numbers of Mexican-American and
Vietnamese-American students in order to identify a … fathers (96.0 percent) and 75.4 percent of
mothers were employed outside the home, with most working at non-professional jobs …
Link to abstract

Health Behavior Changes following Breast Cancer Treatment: A Qualitative Comparison among Chinese American, Korean American, and Mexican American Survivors

J Lim, P Gonzalez, MF Wang-Letzkus, O Baik… – … of Health Care for the Poor …, 2013
… and ethnically appropriate strategies for promoting healthy behaviors for Chinese American,
Korean American, and Mexican American BCS, who … in the health behavior changes among ethnic
minorities will assist both ethnic minorities and health care professionals to effectively …
Link to abstract

Older U.S.-Born Mexican-Americans Have More Physical Limitations Than Mexican American Immigrants

Newswise — TORONTO, ON —New research indicates that Mexican-Americans born in the United States who are aged 55 and over are significantly more likely than Mexican-American immigrants to report that they have substantial limitations in one or more basic physical activities such as walking, climbing stairs, reaching, lifting, or carrying. (30% versus 25%).
Link to article

Mexican American integration slow, education stalled, study finds

UCLA report charts Chicano experience over four decades
By Letisia Marquez March 20, 2008
Second-, third- and fourth-generation Mexican Americans speak English fluently, and most prefer American music. They are increasingly Protestant, and some may even vote for a Republican candidate…
Link to article

Family cohesion, acculturation, maternal cortisol, and preterm birth in Mexican-American women

RJ Ruiz, RH Pickler, CN Marti, N Jallo – International Journal of Women’s Health, 2013
… and preterm birth in Mexican-American women … Objective: To examine the potential moderating
effects of family cohesion and acculturation on the physiological stress response (cortisol) as
a predictor of preterm birth (PTB) in pregnant Mexican-American women. …
Link to article

Psychoecological Model of Alcohol Use in Mexican American Adolescents

H Chun, E Devall, P Sandau-Beckler – The Journal of Primary Prevention
… Parents, teachers, mental health professionals, business leaders, and community leaders
must work together to support Mexican American youth before they detach from social
institutions and turn to alcohol use as a coping mechanism
Link to abstract

Mexican American Women’s Activism at Indiana University in the 1990s

E Hernandez – The Journal of Higher Education, 2013
… to work on retention, that that was important, that he was going to try to bring in instructors and
other professionals into the … The narratives of these seven Mexican American women activists
offer a historical accounting of Indiana University during a tumultuous decade of racial …
Link to abstract

New Contexts for Curanderismo: Recasting Mexican American Folk Healing within American Metaphysical Religion

B Hendrickson – Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2013
… Elena Avila’s work with apprentices began with occasional workshops with medical
professionals who wanted to deepen their knowledge of Mexican American healing
traditions. In these workshops, Avila modeled her particular …
Link to abstract

Mexican American adolescents’ profiles of risk and mental health: A person-centered longitudinal approach

KH Zeiders, MW Roosa, GP Knight, NA Gonzales – Journal of Adolescence, 2013
… the mother was the child’s biological mother, lived with the child, and self-identified as Mexican
or Mexican American; (d) the … These interviews were conducted by professional interviewers who
read questions and response options aloud in the participants’ preferred language to …
Link to abstract

The Writings of Eusebio Chacón (Google eBook)

UNM Press, Mar 16, 2012 – Literary Collections – 288 pages

Eusebio Chacón, born in Peñasco, New Mexico, is arguably one of the most significant and most overlooked figures in New Mexico’s cultural heritage. He earned a law degree from Notre Dame and returned to practice law in Trinidad, Colorado. He served as a district attorney for Las Animas County, Colorado, and as a translator for the U.S. Court of Private Land Claims. In 1898, he began to write and edit for El Progreso, in which many of his articles exposed the unjust treatment of Hispanics in Colorado and New Mexico. He was also New Mexico’s first novelist, and took pride in his
Link to summary


  

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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