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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RA Santillán, R Peña, TM Santillán, A Padilla… – 2016 – books.google.com
Mexican American Baseball in East Los Angeles highlights the unforgettable teams, players,
and coaches who graced the hallowed fields of East Los Angeles between 1917 and 2016
and brought immense joy and honor to their neighborhoods. Off the field, these players and…
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According to the Top 100 Colleges and Universities for Hispanics list in the August 2016 edition of The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education magazine, New Mexico State University has been recognized as one of the best institutions for Hispanics in the country.
Two women walk down the sidewalk.
This fall, the Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education magazine ranked New Mexico State University as a top institution for Hispanics in the nation. (NMSU photo by Darren Phillips)
Using data from the Department of Education (2014), NMSU ranked in the top 30 in both first major bachelor’s degrees granted (26th) and first major master’s degrees granted (21st). NMSU awarded 1,302 bachelor’s degrees (48 percent) to Hispanics, and 305 Hispanic students (38 percent) were awarded master’s degrees…
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Francisco Lomelí had no idea he was being considered for membership in a prestigious organization of Spanish language scholars. And then out of the blue word came that he was in. A professor of Spanish and Portuguese and of Chicana and Chicano studies at UC Santa Barbara, Lomelí was elected as a correspondent to the North American Academy of the Spanish Language. The honor is given to a small number of scholars who have distinguished themselves in their fields. Known by its Spanish acronym ANLE, the academy…
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BERKELEY — Spanning the side of a liquor store across from the Ashby BART station, Juana Alicia Araiza’s arresting mural is impossible to miss and even harder to ignore.
A screaming skull floats against a backdrop of turbulent ocean and burning sky. Skeletal animals bob lifelessly in polluted, oil-slicked waters. Painted in response to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the ongoing Dakota Access Pipeline confrontation at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, Araiza’s mural is a nightmarish vision of environmental degradation.
“That image came to me in 2010 when (the spill) happened, and then I was sick in 2013 and after that, I just felt really motivated to do the image,” Araiza said about her latest project begun during the recent Bay Area Mural Festival, which brought together master muralists, muralist groups and at-risk youths…
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LIMA, Peru – Several U.S. allies expressed worry over what changes could take place when it comes to trade under president-elect Donald Trump’s administration at a summit of Asian-Pacific leaders in Peru on Saturday.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said NAFTA benefits workers and companies on both sides of the border. He expressed concern that the U.S. could be turning its back on a bilateral trade relationship responsible for moving $1 million worth of goods every minute…
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Latina entrepreneurs are among the fastest growing and industrious business owners in the United States, and one organization is looking to give a leg up to promising companies.
Access Latina, which is completely run by women, provides a platform for promising and pioneering Hispanic women who need capital or guidance to further grow their businesses. The platform seeks to uplift Hispanic women working in agriculture, social innovation and STEM fields…
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Jacki and Gilbert Cisneros, founders of educational outreach program Generation 1st Degree, bring Pico Rivera high schoolers and their parents to UCSB for a day of tours and talks…
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Developers with projects in the pipeline can expect to be asked to provide more affordable housing and a stronger community benefits package before being approved, Mayor-elect Jesse Arreguín said Monday during a far-ranging interview with Berkeleyside.
Now that the self-described progressives have the City Council majority (see below for more details) the “previous approach” to development will change, he said.
“I do think the voters wanted a change,”Arreguín said at PIQ on Shattuck Avenue. “That’s one of the reasons I was elected by such a large margin. One of the issues I heard throughout the city of Berkeley was a concern about the major demographic changes, the changes to the character of the place, long-time businesses being displaced, the scale of development.”
“I think the voters of Berkeley want more equitable, responsible growth,” he said. “That is not to say everything is going to come to a grinding halt. We need to create more housing so, certainly, under my administration, we are going to encourage the construction of transit-oriented development in Berkeley.”…
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Former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto made history on Tuesday night when she became the first Latina to be elected to the Senate in U.S. history — and she’s already making it very clear she’s more than willing to go head-to-head with Donald Trump once she arrives in Washington, DC.
“Our government is built on a system of checks and balances, and I will promise you this: I will be one hell of a check and balance on him,” she said during her victory speech on Wednesday. “Tonight we start our fight together… The diversity here is our strength and we will continue to be strong.”…
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Many miles away from the popular Mexican seaside resort towns of Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas lie the poor, rural villages of Mexico’s Mixtec people, also known as “the People of the Land of the Rain.”
The Mixtecs originally developed communities isolated by the hilly Oaxacan terrain, with many remote villages accessible only on foot. The arrival of Spanish colonizers in the 1500s brought Catholicism to these communities, and it became a major force — both religious…
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You might say there was something lost in translation when Santa Barbara named a street Canon Perdido. It should have been Cañon Perdido, after a cannon that disappeared on the beach in 1848. Without that Spanish enye Canon Perdido means something entirely different.
That twist of meaning is the theme of “Canon Perdido: XX Colloquium on Mexican Literature,” a three-day conference presented by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UC Santa Barbara. “We are playing with literary canon that is lost,” explained Sara Poot-Herrera, a professor in the department…
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The Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (DHSI) Program provides grants to assist HSIs to expand educational opportunities for, and improve the attainment of, Hispanic students. These grants also enable HSIs to expand and enhance their academic offerings, program quality, and institutional stability
Applicant Information
Institutions must be designated as an eligible institution of higher education in order to apply for the Title V program and must meet the program-specific requirements to be defined as an HSI.
To be designated as an eligible institution of higher education, an institution must apply for and receive designation through an application process. Please refer to the most recent Application for Designation as an Eligible Institution. You may contact the program office if you have questions regarding eligibility….
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News from the census American Community Survey is generally good for the 2015 year. Mexican American college enrollment was up from 18.7% to 18.9% in the 2014 and 2015 years. Graduate or professional degree attainment was also up from 2.9% to 3.0%. The number of bachelor’s degrees granted to Mexican American students rose from 7.6% in 2014 to 7.8% in 2015.
In spite of these gains, Mexican Americans still remain at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to earning a bachelor’s degree. Even after broadening the group to Latinos or Hispanics, this group still lags behind. According to the Pew Hispanic Center: “As of 2014, among Hispanics ages 25 to 29, just 15% of Hispanics have a bachelor’s degree or higher. By comparison, among the same age group, about 41% of whites have a bachelor’s degree or higher (as do 22% of blacks and 63% of Asians).” Pew reports that the main reasons for this low graduation rate is that Hispanics are less likely “to enroll in a four-year college, attend an academically selective college and enroll full-time.”
Also in the good news column, the University of California will continue to push for a greater number of underrepresented minorities; namely, Chicano/Latino students whose resident freshmen numbers rose from 2.7% to 32.3% of admitted California freshmen. In other good news, the proportion of Chicano/Latino students transferring from community colleges increased to 29.3% from 26.8% for 2015.
Occupations, including those in management, business, science, and art, fared better for Mexican Americans. The number of Mexican Americans filling these occupations rose from 17.4% in 2014 to 17.5% in 2015.
The total number of Hispanics filling these occupations was 16.1% in 2015, a bit lower than Mexican Americans specifically.
The report shows that industrial employment for Mexican Americans remained the same for 2014 and 2015 at 10.2%.
The figures for Hispanic or Latino employment for 2015 and 2016 show a healthy increase.
According to the Pew Hispanic center, “Construction, professional and business services, health services, financial services and food services…showed healthy gains.” Most of the jobs gained by native-born Hispanic workers were in manufacturing, mostly durable goods (82,000 Hispanic workers in this industry), followed by wholesale and retail trade (79,000), publishing, broadcasting, communication and information services (55,000), and construction (54,000).
Foreign-born Hispanics had the most job gains in construction (417,000), followed by business and professional services (179,000). Together, those two industries accounted for almost three-quarters (74%) of all jobs gained by foreign-born Latinos between 2005 and 2006.
The business and professional services sector, which ranges from management and technical services to janitorial, landscaping, and waste management services, is also a key employer for non-Hispanic workers. Of the total increase in employment in 2005-06, non-Hispanic workers accounted for 410,000 employees in the industry, native-born workers 327,000, and foreign-born workers 83,000.
Sources
News from the 2015 American Community Service shows good increases in the numbers of Mexican Americans attending college, achieving educational attainment, and holding jobs in industries including science, management, and business.
• Mexican American college enrollment increased from 18.7% to 18.9% between 2014 and 2015
• Graduate or professional degree attainment among Mexican Americans rose from 2.9% to 3.0%
• The number of Mexican Americans achieving bachelor’s degrees rose from 7.6% to 7.8% in 2015
Despite these numbers, Mexican Americans are still near the bottom of college enrollment and educational attainment by race and ethnicity.
The University of California is proactive in pushing for a greater number of underrepresented minorities. The number Chicano/Latino students attending UOC increased by 2.7% since 2014; this group now makes up 32.3% of admitted university freshmen.
In terms of occupations, the number of Mexican Americans making up part of the management, business, science, and art occupations continues to rise, from 16.6% to 17.5% from 2012 to 2015. Mexican Americans have also seen consistent numbers in the professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste management services occupations, keeping steady at 10.2% of all jobs in these fields held by Mexican Americans.
These numbers represent continuing gains in higher education and professional jobs for Mexican Americans.
The Hispanic community is a growing part of the economic engine of Texas, marketing pro Terry Soto said at the annual Hispanic Business Achievers luncheon on Wednesday.
“To market to our community, thinking about a market that used to exist 10 or 20 years ago doesn’t work,” Ms. Soto explained. “We have to evolve our thinking and our approach to this community.”
Ms. Soto, president and CEO of About Marketing, has worked with Fortune 500 organizations including Walgreen’s, ALDI Supermarkets, Verizon Wireless Coca Cola, Citibank, Kraft Foods and Disney, among others. She told a capacity crowd at Harvey Convention Center that the Hispanic community will continue to grow as an economic and demographic force in Tyler and the rest of the nation…
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Cesar Soto wants to know how the spark of political revolution can transform religious concepts of community and inclusion.
To better understand the issue, he’s turning to the literature of England, Ireland, and Mexico in the late 1700s and early 1800s.César Soto wants to know how the spark of political revolution can transform religious concepts of community and inclusion.
Soto, a Ph.D. candidate in Notre Dame’s Department of English, has been awarded a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship for 2016-17 to support his project.
The fellowships recognize graduate students who have demonstrated superior academic achievement, show promise as future scholars and teachers at a college or university level, and are prepared to use diversity as a resource to enrich the education of all students…
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By Almendra Carpizo
Record Staff Writer
Celida Lizarraga doesn’t remember seeing many doctors who looked like her when she had to translate for her parents during medical visits.
The 17-year-old said most doctors didn’t speak Spanish and an official interpreter wasn’t always available. And even when interpreters were there, she said, there was disconnect between her parents and the doctor.
“I was the one who my parents relied on,” Lizarraga said.
The group Latino Physicians of California is emphasizing the need for more Latino physicians in the state, where about 40 percent of the population is Latino, but less than 5 percent of doctors are Latino.
During a media phone conference on Friday,…
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by SUZANNE GAMBOA
WASHINGTON, DC — The White House on Wednesday touted gains Hispanics have made in education, income and health insurance during President Barack Obama’s time in office.
In a report released to mark the closing days of Hispanic Heritage Month, which ends Saturday, the White House issued a four-page brief from its Council on Economic Advisers on the Hispanics’ economic progress in the Obama years.
Obama marked the close of Hispanic Heritage month with remarks at a White House reception Wednesday afternoon. Hispanic Heritage Month began Sept. 15 and closes on Saturday.
“Over the last eight years we have made a lot of progress, together for all Americans and nowhere have you been able to see more vividly the progress than in the Hispanic American community,” Obama said at the event…
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The USC Price School of Public Policy has taken a leading role in training local decision-makers and its partnership with the Latino Caucus demonstrates the inroads it has made.
That’s a thought from USC Price Professor Raphael Bostic.
USC Price hosted more than 20 public officials from the League of California Cities Latino Caucus, who took part in the Bedrosian Center on Governance’s Local Leaders Executive Education Forum on Sept. 22 and 23.
The participants, many of whom are mayors or council members of cities across California, heard presentations from USC Price faculty on leadership, public ethics and housing policy, among other topics.
Professor Frank Zerunyan, director of executive education at the Bedrosian Center, led the program, which was the product of an agreement that USC Price and the Bedrosian Center signed with the Latino Caucus in 2014 to provide training aimed at enhancing the leadership capacity of public officials statewide…
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Kyle Edelman
The presidential election is straight out of a soap opera: Twitter fights, mudslinging and personal attacks are flying between the front-runners. It does make for some great drama. Although the United States is predominantly white, 31 percent of eligible voters in the 2016 election are minorities, according to pewresearch.org…
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