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 and Other Hispanic Couples’ Relationship Dynamics: A Review to Inform Interventions Aimed at Promoting Healthy Relationships
RE Orengo-Aguayo – Marriage & Family Review, 2015
… Marriage & Family Review. Mexican American and Other Hispanic Couples’ Relationship
Dynamics: A Review to Inform Interventions Aimed at Promoting Healthy Relationships. …
RELATIONSHIP DYNAMICS AMONG MEXICAN AMERICAN AND OTHER HISPANIC COUPLES. …
Link to abstract
Why-Mexican-Americans-are-making-more-progress-than-other-minorities
“Tiger Mother” Amy Chua claimed in a recent book that there’s something special about Chinese immigrants, who usually end up ahead of other newcomers both economically and academically. But researchers in the University of California system say Chinese immigrants have a head start, but when it comes to making progress, Mexican immigrants lead the pack…
Link to article
Cultural, Media, and Peer Influences on Body Beauty Perceptions of Mexican American Adolescent Girls
LF Romo, R Mireles-Rios, A Hurtado – Journal of Adolescent Research, 2015
… Beauty Perceptions of Mexican American Adolescent Girls Laura F. Romo1, Rebeca
Mireles-Rios1, and Aida Hurtado1 … Page 2. 2 Journal of Adolescent Research Keywords Mexican
American, Latinas, adolescent girls, body image, self-esteem, appearance …
Link to abstract
Cerritos College a model of boosting Latino students’ success, study finds
Michelle Mancilla enrolled in Cerritos College three years ago on the advice of her father. Impressed with the school’s academic programs, he told her she would have the best chance of success there.
He may have been right. According to a study by New America, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit, Cerritos College was singled out for increasing the number of Latinos who are eligible to transfer and who do well academically…
Link to article
MARIO, A 35-YLD Mexican American male, and Kevin, a 33-year-old
DJ Alonzo – Handbook of Couples Therapy
… MARIO, A 35-YEAR-OLD Mexican American male, and Kevin, a 33-year- old words, 370 …
Nevertheless, it is important for GLBT therapists to expand their professional knowledge of
dynamics in same-sex couples so that they can offer the most balanced treatment possible. …
Link to preview
America redefining its identity for 21st century
WASHINGTON
As it marked another birthday, America is forging the outlines of a new century.
It’s moving with now remarkable speed to cast aside some of the traditions and mores that dominated American life for centuries. The Confederate flag is coming down, 150 years after the end of the Civil War and a half-century after it was raised in defiance of civil rights. Marriage is being redefined. Whites are fast becoming a minority. And after electing its first African-American president, the country is poised to elect a new leader from among a roster including a woman, two Cuban-Americans, and the scion of an old Yankee family married to a Mexican-American…
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Truth vs. perception of crime rates for immigrants
Incendiary comments made by Donald Trump and a random killing of a California woman have added fuel to national debate on the contributions of and concerns about undocumented immigrants. William Brangham speaks to Marielena Hincapié of the National Immigration Law Center, Marc Rosenblum of the Migration Policy Institute and Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies…
Link to video and program transcipt
Addressing disparities in accessing hearing health care in a U.S. Mexico Border community
Hearing loss has a major impact on the quality of life among older adults. In population-based studies, 90-96% of Mexican-American adults with hearing loss do not have access to hearing healthcare. To begin to reduce this health disparity, we used a community-based participatory research approach to investigate unmet needs of families affected by hearing loss in a rural, predominately Mexican-American community on the U.S.-Mexico border. We utilized the community health worker (CHW) model as a means to address cultural aspects that might impact access to hearing health care. CHWs are individuals from the community who serve as intermediaries between health professionals and patients…
Link to abstract
The Family Festival Prevention Model: findings from a pilot of a teenage pregnancy prevention programme conceptualised by and for Mexican American communities
Y Murphy-Erby, K Stauss, E Koh – Sex Education, 2015
… Festival Prevention Model: findings from a pilot of a teenage pregnancy prevention programme
conceptualised by and for Mexican American communities. … women of Mexican heritage in the
USA, particularly in rural communities, it is important for health professionals to develop …
Link to abstract
How Trump’s comments unleashed ‘Latino Spring’
There were no mass demonstrations in the streets, but Latino protesters amassed online. Their focus? The hurtful anti-Mexican comments made recently by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Latinos gathered in social media circles to condemn, plot and retaliate against Trump with such fervor in the past two weeks that they caused three multibillion dollar media companies to back away from him: Univision, NBC and Televisa…
Link to article
Census: Hispanics overtake whites to become California’s largest ethnic group
It’s official: Hispanics are now the largest ethnic group in California.
About 15 million Hispanics lived in California on July 1, 2014, compared to roughly 14.9 million non-Hispanic whites, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released late last week. The California Department of Finance predicted in 2013 that Hispanics would outnumber whites in 2014; the census figures confirm that prediction…
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Exploring Mexican American adolescent romantic relationship profiles and adjustment
Although Mexican Americans are the largest ethnic minority group in the nation, knowledge is limited regarding this population’s adolescent romantic relationships. This study explored whether 12th grade Mexican Americans’ (N = 218; 54% female) romantic relationship characteristics, cultural values, and gender created unique latent classes and if so, whether they were linked to adjustment…
Link to abstract
Focus on their promise : how Mexican American teachers address challenging classrooms
M De Lourdes Viloria – Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research …, 2015
… Texas A & M International University, College of Education, Department of Professional Programs,
Office Killam Library 435A. … Abstract This study examined the culturally responsive teaching
practices of two third generation Mexican American teachers from the South Texas …
Link to abstract
An American in Mexico
By Celia Wren June 26
The silver jaguar carries six amethysts: one in each paw, and on its back and tail. The brooch is remarkable on its own merits, but as part of a new exhibition at the Mexican Cultural Institute, the jewelry also epitomizes the style of its designer, William Spratling…
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JJC receives grant to highlight Latino culture and history
JOLIET — Joliet Junior College was awarded a grant last week that will go toward highlighting the culture and history of than 200 organizations nationwide to receive the grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to participLatinos – a fast-growing demographic at the community college.
JJC was one of more ate in “Latino Americans: 500 Years of History,” produced by NEH and the American Library Association.
Martha Villegas Miranda, JJC Latino student support specialist, said she was excited the college was one of the grant’s recipients.
She said she pursued the grant because of the college’s and community’s growing Latino population. Currently, 23 percent of students at JJC are Latino…
Link to article
Science: There Is No Such Thing As Race
Back in 1950, an international panel of geneticists, sociologists, anthropologists, and psychologists issued a statement through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) affirming that all humans belong to the same species. sapiens.
Back in 1950, an international panel of geneticists, sociologists, anthropologists, and psychologists issued a statement through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) affirming that all humans belong to the same species…Race is not a biological reality. It is an adaptation of humans living in different parts of the world – and society’s way of dividing people up.
What is referred to as “race” is in actuality a product of social context – as there is only one biological race in the human species: Homo sapiens…
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Dragging the State Board into the Present
When Houston author and activist Tony Diaz lit a cultural fire at the State Board of Education last year by demanding that Texas honor its majority Hispanic student body with a high school course in Mexican-American studies, the board did what it does best: It burned.
Board member David Bradley (R-Beaumont), perhaps as a sort of thought exercise, proposed adding a course in Irish-American studies to honor his heritage. Board member Pat Hardy (R-Weatherford) deemed the course wholly unnecessary. “We’re citizens of the United States, not citizens of Mexico,” she said.
Diaz asked, “Who will walk with us into this new America, and who will turn their backs on us?”
MerryLynn Gerstenschlager of the Texas Eagle Forum wondered aloud what sort of “new America” Diaz had in mind and why the Founding Fathers weren’t good enough for him…
Link to article
Looking to hire Hispanic STEM graduates? FIU a top producer of science and engineering talent
FIU graduates more Hispanics with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) than any other university in the continental U.S., according to a report released today by Excelencia in Education.
Finding Your Workforce: Latinos in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), identifies institutions that graduate large numbers of Hispanics with STEM degrees in hopes of encouraging employers to engage with these institutions and hire graduates. FIU ranked second only to universities in Puerto Rico in graduating Hispanics with bachelor’s and master’s degrees…
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There’s a War Going on Here: Defending American Identity at the US-Mexican Border Through the Cinema
A Macleod
… view of the 1836 battle of the Alamo. Sam and Pilar are former lovers, kept apart by their respective
parents, Sam’s father and Pilar’s Mexican-American mother Mercedes Cruz … migrants and
drug-smugglers. The CBP agents we see are very professional and show …
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US Latino Unemployment Rate: 13 Million Latinos ‘Not in the Labor Force’ But May 2015 Hispanic Unemployment Declines
The U.S. Latino unemployment declined by one percentage point in comparison to May 2014, and economists have remained optimistic about the latest jobs report.
Overall, the U.S. unemployment rate increased from 5.4 percent in April to 5.5 percent for May. According to The New York Times, the latest data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) helped ease the debate about the first quarter’s financial results. During May, 280,000 jobs were created, which was a stronger number than expected, and it may further the Federal Reserve to start raising interest rates.
The Latino unemployment rate, however, declined from April’s 6.9 percent to 6.7 percent in May. As the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) noted, Latino employment gains in leisure and hospitality likely attributed to the unemployment rate decline as 57,000 jobs were added in this sector. The leisure and hospitality employment gains come as the summer vacation season approaches…
Link to article
