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,”
Read More…
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
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
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
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
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…
Link to article
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
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
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…
Link to article
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
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…
Link to article
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
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…
Link to article
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 …
Link to article
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
Maternal pro-inflammatory states have been linked with increased risk of diabetes and obesity in offspring. Childbearing-age Mexican-American women (CAMAW) have the highest fertility rates and one of the highest levels of inflammation in the United States. A significant proportion migrates to the U.S. during early reproductive years. How acculturation interacts with various pro-inflammatory risk factors to influence inflammation risk in this population has not been examined…
Link to abstract
SAR De Jesús – 2015
Page 1. The Role of Mexican American Siblings in Adolescence and Young Adulthood by … Thank
you for the invaluable lessons and for caring about my professional development and well-being,
in you I found more than an advisor, I found a role model, and a friend. …
Link to dissertation
The diet quality of Mexican Americans (MAs) is changing with the acculturation process. Using the Healthy Eating Index 2010 (HEI2010), this study examined which aspects of diet quality are impacted by acculturation among MAs…
Link to abstract
The influence of acculturation on alcohol use among Mexican Americans in the U.S. remain unresolved. Research is needed to identify the unique effects of acculturation on consumption patterns and problems among drinkers. Using a sample derived from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), this study aimed to assess the relationship between acculturation and excessive alcohol consumption among Mexican American current drinkers…
Link to abstract
For Hispanics living in the United States, Hispanic identity is multidimensional and multifaceted. For some, it is defined most by their family’s country of origin, such as Mexican, Cuban or Dominican.48 For others, it is defined by pan-ethnic terms like Hispanic or Latino, emphasizing the commonalities of a diverse community…
Link to article
SAN FRANCISCO — Change is coming very slowly to LinkedIn which over the past year only slightly increased the number of women and made no headway in increasing the number of underrepresented minorities at the professional networking company.
The Mountain View, Calif., company is still dominated by men, according to work force demographics released Tuesday. Nearly six out of 10 employees at LinkedIn — or 58% — are men, but that is an improvement from 61% last year.
Women also made some progress in the company leadership, holding 30% of those positions, a 5% increase from 2014.
In technical roles, women saw a 1% increase. In non-tech roles, LinkedIn had gender parity with 50% of those positions held by women.
But LinkedIn did not see any improvement in the small percentage of underrepresented minorities. In the U.S., 2% of LinkedIn employees are African American and 4% are Hispanic…
Link to article
