Sept. 20 - Hector Tobar on Hispanic Heritage Month
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Shade covers provide sun relief at the Student Center’s Thomas & Lillian Ma Garden Study Atrium. Photo by Ian Parker
UCI ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NEWS
Hector Tobar is a professor of Chicano/Latino studies and literary journalism.
Award-winning author Hector Tobar shares insights on Hispanic Heritage Month
"'Latino,' like ‘Latinx' and Hispanic, is a story about empire,” writes UCI’s Hector Tobar, professor of Chicano/Latino studies and literary journalism, in a recent essay on Hispanic Heritage Month. “It’s a term that describes a people who share a journey that begins with the conquests and the violence of empires. Latino people are brown, Black, white and Indigenous, and they are European, Asian and African.” As the son of Guatemalan immigrants who has interviewed Latino people from L.A. to Maine, Tobar has grown to appreciate the staggering diversity of Hispanic/Latino culture. “Some of us speak excellent Spanish, but many more of us do not,” he notes. “We are a diverse group of people joined together by shared roots in the upheavals and the crises set in motion by the building of the United States into a global superpower, and, further back in time, by the Spanish Crown’s attempt to build an empire in the Western Hemisphere. This is an obvious truth, one that looms over the daily life of this country, but that is entirely absent from the mass-media discourse about what the United States is.”
UC NEWS AND GENERAL NEWS
COVID-19 fatalities in California dipped this year before rising again this summer. Image courtesy of California Department of Public Health
COVID-19 still among top 5 causes of death in California
Although deaths from COVID-19 in California have declined significantly from when the pandemic began nearly three years ago, the virus is still killing hundreds of Californians each week, primarily unvaccinated residents. The virus remained a top killer statewide, trailing only heart disease, cancer, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. In the first seven months of the year, about 13,500 California residents died of COVID-19. By comparison, the virus killed about 31,400 people in 2020 and almost 44,000 in 2021.
UC Common App sees rise in minority applications
UC’s Common Application, which allows students to apply to more than 1,000 schools simultaneously, has experienced a large rise in minority applications over the last eight years. While the total number of applications grew by 72%, underrepresented minority applications grew by 131%. During the last eight years, the number of underrepresented minority applicants reached 337,904, including 139,588 Black applicants (up 138%) and 193,851 Latino applicants (up 129%). White applicants reached 569,836 (up 48%) and Asian applicants hit 115,453 (up 71%).
EVENTS
Neuroplasticity Webinar
Thursday, 1 p.m. (sponsored by UCI Anti-Cancer Challenge)
Visit today.uci.edu to see and submit event listings. Events of general interest will be shared in UCI Digest two days before they occur.
UCI IN THE NEWS
Note: Some news sites require subscriptions to read articles. The UCI Libraries offer free subscriptions to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Orange County Register and The Washington Post for students, faculty and staff.
Climate Action 30
Insider, Sept. 19
Cited: Huolin Xin, professor of physics and astronomy
Afropessimism Forces Us to Rethink Our Most Basic Assumptions About Society
Truthout, Sept. 14
Cited: Frank B. Wilderson III, Chancellor’s Professor of African American studies
COVID is still killing hundreds a day, even as society begins to move on
Los Angeles Times, Sept. 18
Cited: Andrew Noymer, associate professor of population health and disease prevention
#UCICONNECTED
Arriving students made their way to new housing over the weekend. Photo by Steve Zylius / UCI
UCI completes Welcome Week move-in
Over the weekend, about 6,400 students moved into campus housing. The fall quarter kickoff continues with Welcome Week leading up to the first day of instruction on Thursday. #UCIWelcome
#UCIconnected spotlights student, alumni, faculty and staff photos, essays, shoutouts, hobbies, artwork, unusual office decorations, activities and more. Send submissions via email or post on social media with the #UCIconnected hashtag.