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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Mexican-American artist Angelica Contreras uses her artwork to explore identity, culture, and social justice
“One of the most pronounced differences between Southern California and Wisconsin are the winters, and for Angelica Contreras six years ago, that was what welcomed her to Madison. Although Contreras moved from Los Angeles, she grew up in Guadalajara, Jalisco in Mexico. After earning a bachelor’s degree in art and a master’s degree in art education, Contreras moved back to the United States and eventually ended up in Madison where she was able to connect with a community of artists…”
Mexican American to Graduate USM with the Highest Honors
“Meet Cheyla Muñoz Ramos, a Mexican American student who served as the Presidential Standard Bearer at The University of Southern Mississippi’s (USM) Spring 2023 Commencement. Standard bearer is considered the highest honor bestowed upon a student during Commencement, as the selection is based on academic achievement, leadership, and campus involvement. Ramos finished with the highest grade point average of all USM graduation candidates.
Munoz graduated with a double major in International Studies and French through USM’s Honors College. Originally born in Minnesota to Mexican American parents, she spent most of her childhood and high school years in Veracruz, Mexico. She moved to the U.S. about seven years ago to attend high school in Pelahatchie, Miss…”
https://www.usm.edu/news/2023/release/cheyla-munoz-ramos.php
Student Mariah Hernandez spotlights strong Latina characters in directorial debut
“Mariah Hernandez is embracing unconventional forms of self-love in her upcoming film, “Self-Love, Mija!”
The fourth-year English student and member of UCLA’s Latine Film and Theatre Association made her film directorial debut exploring young womanhood and the significance of friendship in one’s healing journey, Hernandez said. Entering UCLA without prior film experience, Hernandez said LFTA presented her with the opportunity to delve into an art form she had been interested in but never explored. Beginning primarily as a writer, she said LFTA provided her with the encouragement she needed to challenge herself in a larger, directorial role…”
Prospanica Philadelphia elects Maria Cristina Rios as its new board president
Maria Cristina Rios is the new Board President of Prospanica Philadelphia.
Prospanica Philadelphia is a professional development organization whose mission is to empower and enable Hispanic professionals to achieve their full educational, economic, and social potential. Th
roughout her professional career, Rios has consistently demonstrated ways of reaching her own potential, as she has established herself as a recognized marketing leader. Her specialization includes retail and both multicultural and event marketing.
https://aldianews.com/en/leadership/advocacy/prospanica-phls-new-prez
Waxing and Waning Relations Between the Jewish and Mexican-American Communities in Los Angeles
“…Beyond Alliances contains four biographical essays in rough chronological order. Genevieve Carpio wrote the first one about Jewish attorney David C. Marcus, one of whose most important clients was the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles and whose second wife, Yrma, was a political refugee from Mexico and a devout Catholic. In 1943, he successfully defended the Bernals, a Mexican-American family whose Orange County neighbors wanted them evicted because their presence violated a racially restrictive housing covenant that stated that property should not be “used, leased, owned or occupied by any Mexicans or persons other than of the Caucasian race.” Five years before the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed racially restrictive covenants in Shelley v. Kraemer, Marcus was able to persuade the court that there was no such thing as a “Mexican race,” and that therefore the restriction was (in words that sounded like television’s Perry Mason objecting to D.A. Hamilton Berger’s question) “incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial.” Marcus noted that the status of Mexicans as Caucasians had permitted him to marry Yrma, notwithstanding California’s laws that at that time had prohibited miscegenation. Furthermore, the restrictions went contrary to President Franklin Roosevelt’s “Good Neighbor Policy” with Latin America, which was part of the nation’s wartime defense fabric. The judge ruled in favor of the Bernals…”
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/
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…”
Student Jasmine Gomez sells designed Slayed Sets to accessorize nails
“Jasmine Gomez’s Slayed Sets is nailing what it means to be a small business.
In August 2021, the fourth-year Chicana and Chicano studies and education and social transformation student launched Slayed Sets, which sells custom ready-to-wear press-on nails. Gomez said she started doing her own nails during her freshman year of college and came up with the idea of Slayed Sets after diving deeper into nail art at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic…”
Sunday Morning Eva Longoria: “You don’t have to be a politician to be political”
“When Eva Longoria invited “Sunday Morning” over to her Beverly Hills home for lunch, we assumed it was just that, lunch. But she also served up a tasty morsel of culinary history, too. “People think Mexico’s just about tacos and tequila,” she said. “Mexican cuisine is the only cuisine in its entirety protected by UNESCO as a World Heritage treasure – corns, beans, chili, chocolate, vanilla, avocado…”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eva-longoria-searching-for-mexico-desperate-housewives/
UCLA Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion grants awards to student leaders
“…Award recipient Norma Sandoval said that her own experiences as a first-generation student in the sciences led her to support younger students in the field as well.
Sandoval, a molecular, cellular, and integrative physiology doctoral student, was nominated for the EDI Student Leadership Award by her mentor Stephanie Correa, an assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology at UCLA.
She said it was meaningful to work with people such as Correa, who understands her values and supports the work she’s done, adding that she hopes to fulfill a similar role for other students looking into the field of science…”
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.”…”
Bárbara Hernández Huerta
“Bárbara Hernández Huerta completed the 20 Bridges Swim around Manhattan Island in 7 hours 59 minutes to achieve the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming and an unprecedented 7.5 km high-altitude swim across Chungará Lake in the Andes Mountains in 10°C water in 2 hours 11 minutes at 4,517 meters in altitude, and a new 9.5 km course across the Beagle Channel in 1 hour 55 minutes in 7.8°C water, and won the 30-39 age group on the International Winter Swimming Association World Cup…”
https://www.openwaterswimming.com/contestants/barbara-hernandez-huerta/
First Latina and woman sworn in as Alameda County sheriff
“OAKLAND, Calif. – It was a historic moment Tuesday as Yesenia Sanchez was sworn in as Alameda County sheriff. Sanchez, a 25-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, is the first woman and Latina to fill the role…”
https://www.ktvu.com/news/first-latina-and-woman-sworn-in-as-alameda-county-sheriff
Recording Latinx Dance Histories
“…Originally from the El Paso/Juárez border between Texas and the Mexican state of Chihuahua, it was Avelar’s time and work in New York City that crystalized her identity as a fronteriza (borderlands) artist. Early on, she knew her goal was to research and create accessible, inclusive dance practices anchored in Chicanx and Latinx feminism and border theory…”
Becky G Boyfriend: Who Is Sebastian Lletget?
“Gomez was born to Mexican-American parents, Francisco Gomez and Alejandra Gomez. She shares the same parents with her three siblings; two brothers, Alex Gomez and Frankie Gomez and her younger sister, Stephanie Gomez
Gomez was up in Moreno Valley, where at the age of nine her family had to move out of their home owing to financial difficulties and into the converted garage of her grandparents’ home. Gomez started performing voiceover and commercial work as a part-time profession to support her family…”
https://www.ghgossip.com/becky-g-boyfriend-who-is-sebastian-lletget/
‘Emma Tenayuca Memorial Way’ first step in new effort to honor Mexican-American legacy in San Antonio
“…Tenayuca led the 1938 pecan-shellers’ strike of nearly 12,000 mostly Mexican-American workers. The strike protested unjust wages and horrible working conditions, and it is still the biggest in San Antonio’s history. Her niece and nephew, Sharyll Teneyuca — who spells her last name differently — and Dennis Campa, were present at the announcement and spoke about who Tenayuca was…”
Mexican-American Judge Teresa Sarmina immortalized at Philly City Hall
“In the storied walls of Philadelphia City Hall now hangs a portrait of Honorable Teresa Sarmina, a Mexican-American judge who served in the city’s judicial system for decades and whose name now resides among the Hispanic legal caliber in Pennsylvania…”
https://aldianews.com/en/politics/elected-officials/judge-sarminas-portrait
National Hispanic Heritage Month: Making STEM Work for Everyone
“…Diana Trujillo’s Instagram handle is @fromcalitomar. That’s not Cali for California. It’s Cali, Colombia, her hometown, and she made it to Mars. The Colombia native was NASA’s flight director for the Mars 2020 mission.
Trujillo is just one name among many Hispanics making strides in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Yet today, Hispanic high school students in STEM courses are less likely to have internet access at home or feel school is preparing them for digital citizenship…”
https://www.yahoo.com/now/national-hispanic-heritage-month-making-131500709.html
Librarian of Congress Names Ada Limón the Nation’s 24th U.S. Poet Laureate
“…Ada Limón was born in Sonoma, California, in 1976 and is of Mexican ancestry. She is the author of six poetry collections, including “The Carrying” (Milkweed Editions, 2018), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry; “Bright Dead Things” (2015), a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Books Critics Circle Award; “Sharks in the Rivers” (2010); “Lucky Wreck” (Autumn House, 2006); and “This Big Fake World” (Pearl Editions, 2006). She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University and is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, and the Kentucky Foundation for Women…”
Pasadena Mexican American History Association Honors “Rosie” and South Pasadena Police Detective
“Commemorating more than 25 years of service to Pasadena, the Pasadena Mexican American History Association Sunday celebrated two “local heroes,” as they honored 99-year-old Herlinda Ruiz, the oldest supporter member of the organization, and South Pasadena Police Detective Lieutenant Shannon Robledo, during a luncheon event at Mijares Restaurant, itself a long time supporter of the non-profit organization…”
