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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How this grassroots environmental justice hero is leading his hometown resistance
The activist mark! Lopez didn’t attend his first march for environmental justice on foot. He was pushed in a stroller. A winner of this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize for grassroots “heroes”, Lopez has agitated alongside his family since childhood.In the late 1980s, when he was growing up in East Los Angeles, Lopez’s grandparents and others took down a proposed state prison, a toxic waste incinerator, and a pipeline planned to run near a school. The 32-year-old Lopez stepped up to help lead the battle against the Exide battery smelter — a factory just outside East L.A.’s borders that for decades spewed noxious chemicals, like lead and arsenic, into neighboring communities that are mostly inhabited by people of color. Activists in the area fought the company for years — citing public health concerns related to lead contamination, such as impaired neurological development in children and increased violence in exposed communities — and the plant officially closed in 2015. Cleanup, however, for which the state set aside $176.6 million, has barely gotten underway and has already hit roadblocks…
A Latino Is Called To Help The Tech-Sun Rise In Arizona
He did it in Boulder, Colorado. He did it in Silicon Valley, California. Now he’s been tapped — called — to help accelerate the startup scene in Tucson, Arizona.
Remy Arteaga was the subject of several stories I wrote here about the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative — an innovative branch of one the the nation’s most ambitious NGO’s devoted to supporting Latino business owners — after serving as director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado-Boulder. In February this year, he was named director of the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Arizona in Tucson. When I first learned about it — over the Winter holiday break — I saw there were at least three things about Remy’s new gig that are noteworthy…
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A Chicana Warrior
Alicia Escalante was an unlikely hero. A poor single mother of five, she became one of the leading activists of the Chicano Movement in the 1960s. She founded the East Los Angeles Welfare Rights Organization (ELAWRO) in 1967 and participated in some of the most important Civil Rights struggles of the decade…
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Phoenix seeks input on building Latino arts and cultural center
A cultural center showcasing Latino communities may be Phoenix’s next major investment in city art institutions.
Some Phoenix leaders and organizations have for years pushed for a space to highlight the artistic contributions of Latinos through a designated facility, without a designated funding source or plan. Now, the city is considering if nearly $1.4 million in bond funding could launch the project.
There’s no precise vision, location or business model — yet. A consultant approved by the City Council last year is investigating how such a center would function.
The institution would aim to hold exhibitions and programs that focus on cultural education and celebration. Early outreach to artists and an advisory board for the proposal point to interest in a multipurpose space that could include visual and performing arts as well as classroom and event space, said Evonne Gallardo, the California-based consultant working on the project…
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Finding Harmony: Meet the Latina Conductor Breaking Barriers With Music
Paula Nava Madrigal started conducting almost by chance. She was a cellist in the Guadalajara University orchestra in Mexico. When their regular conductor became sick, she and her classmates took turns conducting.
“Someone [had] to do it,” she says. “And when I did it, I loved it!”
Not long after, Madrigal went to Mexico City to take her first conducting workshop.
“The role of the conductor is really to make sure that the composer’s written score comes to life,” explains tenor José Iñiguez, whose concerts Madrigal has been conducting. “From the rhythm to knowing when instruments crescendo, diminuendo, to [knowing] the depth of a score.”…
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Managing Diversity in Organizations: A Global Perspective
M Triana – 2017 – books.google.com
This book equips students with a thorough understanding of the advantages and challenges
presented by workplace diversity, suggesting techniques to manage diversity effectively and
maximize its benefits. Readers will learn to work with diverse groups to create a productive..
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Chomsky gives an historical look at immigration and social justice
DULUTH
Our national quarrel over immigration that was reignited during Donald Trump’s campaign is actually older than this nation. Yet, there has been little substantive debate since his inauguration as the dictates two weeks into his administration showed.
His first dictate could not stand up to the rule of law or the Constitution. So he tried again March 6 with a little softer approach that still offended a majority of Americans, judges, and state attorneys’ general.
The nation would have been better served if President Trump would have waited a day and had sat quietly in the College of St. Scholastica’s Mitchell Auditorium March 7 prior to his second dictate. He would have gotten an historical and social justice perspective on immigration from guest lecturer Aviva Chomsky that would have served us better.
Chomsky did not, however, lay the blame on Trump for where he had arrived on the immigration question
“It’s not like we had a generous immigration policy that Trump was trying to displace,” Chomsky told a gathering of over 100 people.
She said we need to radically change the way we see our history otherwise we end up with incorrect assumptions that permeate the way we think.
And so we end up with the mess that is our national quarrel on immigration.
Chomsky is a professor of history and coordinator of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies at Salem State University in Massachusetts. She was born into a family of scholars who included her father, linguist Noam Chomsky. She worked for the United Farm Workers in 1976 and 1977, an experience that sparked her interest in migrant workers, labor history, and the effect of global economic forces on individuals…
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Mexican-American Biologist Speaks On Science’s Continued Diversity Problem
It wasn’t that long ago that a science professor could easily tell a struggling female student that women just don’t belong in chemistry.
As an undergraduate at the University of Washington in the 1960s, Lydia Villa-Komaroff was determined to be a chemist, but sought help from her advisor.
“Well of course you’re having difficulties,” the professor said, according to Villa-Komaroff. “Women don’t belong in chemistry.”..
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Latino Self Identity
JME de Queirós – Latin America: The Allure and Power of an …, 2017 – books.google.com
Nowadays, whether one lives in Chicago or San Pedro de Macorís, the Dominican Republic,
one has to be careful. The doorbell may ring at any moment, and one could carelessly open
it to find a social scientist at the door asking how one identifies—Black? White? Mestizo?…
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Photographer Captures The Breathtaking Beauty Of Mexico’s Indigenous Communities
“Oaxaca was something that had to happen, it was something that I didn’t look for. It simply occurred.”
That’s how photographer Diego Huerta describes his work in the southern Mexican state, where he has diligently traveled to for the past four years to document its indigenous communities with breathtaking portraits.
The 30-year-old Mexican photographer began working on this project, titled “Inside Oaxaca,” after traveling to Oaxaca and inadvertently witnessing the Guelaguetza, its biggest annual celebration and parade that features traditional dances and customs from the States’ eight regions…
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Mestizos Come Home: Making and Claiming Mexican American Identity
RC Davis-Undiano – 2017 – books.google.com
Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano has described US and Latin American culture as
continually hobbled by amnesia—unable, or unwilling, to remember the influence of
mestizos and indigenous populations. In Mestizos Come Home! author Robert Con Davis…
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America Ferrera talks about her Latino-American identity crisis growing up, says she felt ‘very alone’
But now that’s she’s a full-fledged Hollywood star, Ferrera is finally able to do something about it. In 2015, she launched her own production company, Take Fountain Productions, which is currently developing “Gente-fied,” a show about seven Latin characters living in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights.
“As an actor, what I love about the process is talking to the directors and writers and discovering it,” she said. “It felt natural to parlay that into producing stories I really thought should be told. I feel driven, as a woman of color who has access, to use that to create opportunity for certain stories that other people may not be paying attention to. There isn’t a majority of people out there searching to tell the kinds of stories I’d love to see”…
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Latino Persistence in Education: Finding a Balance
The number of Latinos in higher education is increasing. However, Latinos are the least educated ethnic group in terms of bachelor’s degree completion with only 16 percent attaining a bachelor’s degree or higher.
According to Dr. Linda Castillo’s research, part of the problem may stem from intragroup marginalization. In other words, being teased by family members for not being Latino enough can impact a student’s motivation to continue in college.
Dr. Castillo, professor of counseling psychology, and her research team knew the importance of addressing this because of their own experiences in the education pipeline. Dr. Castillo had many instances where she was treated differently by white students and faculty for being Latino, but it was not until she was in college that she noticed her family’s views start to change. They treated her differently because of the way she spoke and for not being Latino enough…
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University of Texas at El Paso grad founds orchestra in Europe
For Claudio Ordaz, music is something to be pursued, courted like a potential lover, even if it means following it around the world to have it.
For that love, Ordaz first crossed one border as a teenager, then as an adult crossed an ocean. All along, he says, music was calling to him.
“Since I remember, music has been some type of light inside, a voice guiding and explaining, telling me where to go.” Ordaz said during a phone interview from his home in Savonlinna, Finland, where he conducts the Savonlinna Camerata, an orchestra that he founded. “Italians say, ‘Listen to your heart,’ and my heart was speaking music.”…
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Latino Leader Named Head Of City Colleges Of Chicago
In the midst of a controversial overhaul, a Latino community leader has been tapped to take the helm of the City Colleges of Chicago.
Juan Salgado will replace Cheryl Hyman, a former corporate executive, as the head of the state’s largest community college network
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel praised Hyman for improving the City Colleges’ graduation rate and consolidating programs with a focus on linking them to jobs under a plan called Reinvention. She also raised tuition and created a tuition structure that favored full-time students over those taking classes part time.
Those moves were sharply criticized by faculty and some community groups as a top-down initiative that they said limited student access…
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Mexican American Psychology: Social, Cultural and Clinical Perspectives
MA Tovar – 2017 – books.google.com
There are now more than 32 million Mexican Americans living in the United States. As a
result, the odds that a clinician will work with a member of this population—one of the fastest-
growing minority groups in the United States—is extremely high. Understanding the culture…
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How perceptions of an anti-immigrant environment negatively impacts Latino health outcomes
The first 50 days of President Trump’s administration has seen an increase in immigration raids and the rise of hate crimes towards immigrants. This anti-immigrant sentiment is creating fear and stress for immigrants which ultimately lead to negative health outcomes. In our paper recently published in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law we examine how living in an anti-immigrant environment can negatively impact Latina/o health, consistent with recent published research by Dr. Francisco Pedraza. Using nationally representative data from the Latino National Health and Immigration Survey (LNHIS, n=1,493) funded by the RWJF Center for Health Policy at the University of New Mexico and implemented by Latino Decisions, we examine the relationship between Latino’s perceptions of where they live and their self-reported physical health and mental well-being. Our findings show that 38 percent of Latinos perceived their state’s immigrant policies as unfavorable towards immigrants. While this data collection was conducted in 2015, we believe the current political environment will exacerbate health disparities for an entire generation of Latina/o Americans…
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Prospera joins Clearwater SPARK, nurtures Hispanic businesses
Twenty-five years ago, Prospera — then called the Hispanic Business Initiative Fund — was established in a small West Tampa office.
There was a need to support Hispanic entrepreneurs in the area, says Claudia Johnson, senior business development consultant on the West Coast. Prospera stepped in to fill this void by offering bilingual technical assistance and workshops to Spanish-speaking businesses.
Decades later, the organization has spread to markets in south Florida and as far north as Jacksonville. Additional offices have opened in Miami and Orlando. Over the past 25 years, Prospera has “supported several thousands of people,” Johnson says. “Our objective became to strengthen the state of Florida’s economical sector with Hispanics.”…
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Helping ‘At-Promise’ Students Succeed
UCSB sociologist Victor Rios to discuss how emotional support from authority figures impacts the lives of marginalized students
UCSB sociology professor Victor Rios is among four presenters in PBS series of TED Talks on innovative approaches to education
Research on students who overcome adversity to successfully navigate higher education has shown that emotionally relevant educators often make the difference, by fostering the resilience that makes success possible. No one knows that better than Victor Rios, whose own life was forever altered by a high school teacher who saw his potential and became his mentor…
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Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa, M. D., Mexican American Professional
Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa (also known as “Dr. Q”) is a neurosurgeon, author, and researcher. Currently, he is the “William J. and Charles H. Mayo Professor” and Chair of Neurologic Surgery and runs a basic science research lab at the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville in Florida. In recognition of his work, Dr. Quiñones-Hinojosa has received many awards and honors, including being named as one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the U.S. by Hispanic Business Journal in 2008; as 2014 Neurosurgeon of the Year by Voices Against Brain Cancer, where he was also recognized with the Gary Lichtenstein Humanitarian Award; and by the 2015 Forbes magazine as one of Mexico’s most brilliant minds in the world…
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