Special Collections Internship at the University of Central Florida

Week 7 The Tree of Life

What Fell Off the Tree....

After I organized the volumes of encyclopedias that Jose Guerra Alemán published, I continued to go work backward with the boxes. In Box 11, I found a handwritten letter from Jose Guerra Alemán's Aunt Noemi Alemán and she is the sister of his mother, Herminia Alemán. This letter contained the history of Jose Braulio Alemán's parents and Maria Valdes' parents. It was all what Noemi knew and what she was told by her other family members. The letter is six pages long that also includes personal comments such as how much she loves Jose Guerra Alemán and how he should take care of himself (Fig.1). I was excited to find this piece of document because a couple of days ago I started to build Alemán's family tree so I could get a better idea of who he was and to help me write his biography. I want to include as many primary sources as I can. However, I struggled to read the letter because it was in her point of view. I would get mixed up with who was who's grandfather and cousins. Also, the stories became sort of unclear at some points. I began translating the letter into English because I felt I could connect and understand better what she was writing down and what was happening. Her family stories go back to the Reign of Isabella II of Spain. In the letter, it was another source that provided the same names of Jose Braulio Alemán's parents named Antonio Alemán Romero and Maria Urquia Espina. Also, Noemi mentions Maria Urquia Espina's parents, Juan Urquia and Maria Espina. I learned that, from my understanding, Maria Urquia Espina was an orphan and was raised by her grandparents, uncles, and aunts. They sent her from Spain to Cuba so she could get married. The rest of the letter continues with how everyone met and how they played a part of history.

Fig. 1. Aunt Noemi's letter to Jose Guerra Alemán. (Courtesy of the University of Central Florida Special Collection and Jose Guerra Alemán's son.)

Apart from that, I found out that Jose Guerra Alemán had a sister named Maria V. Guerra. She was buried at the same place as their brother is buried at Our Lady of Mercy Cemetery, Miami, FL.  I thought he had only one sibling. Rafael Guerra died on October 2, 1998 and a year later, she died on February 27, 1999. These genealogical findings can be hard as you go further back in the family tree. I am always making sure that the new person I find is really related to the family. In general, sometimes, the witness may record in the death certificate that the deceased left behind eight children, but more children come around with the same parents that are not recorded in the certificate. Furthermore, I found out that Jose Manuel Alemán was Jose Guerra Alemán's uncle, but in reality, he was half-related. Jose Braulio Alemán, the father of Jose Guerra Alemán and grandfather of Jose Guerra Alemán, had children from different women at different times of his life. In addition, one of Guerra Alemán's half-uncle, Jose Luis Cipriano Alemán Dupuy, was a Catholic Priest in the Dominican Republic and he studied in Germany for part of his education. His mother was Maria Ivonne Dupuy, a French educator, and seemed to have good relations and was in contact with Jose Guerra Alemán because there have been letters sent from both sides.

One leaf led me to another and I was able to understand a little of the relations between some of the family members and the new ones I found.