Special Collections Internship at the University of Central Florida
Week 9 Wrapping it Up
Finalizing the Alemán Family's story
I have continued with the biography on Jose Guerra Alemán. Under the grant for the Veterans Legacy Program, I have used the skills that I have learned there to help me write this biography. I was exposed to see my colleagues' format and structure of their veteran's biography. I will soon be done. I just need to find a document where one of Jose Braulio Alemán's wife, Maria Ivonne Dupuy, wrote a letter where she mentioned her husband's role as Minister of Education and expresses her perspective when he worked in that position. However, I am struggling in finding it again. I also need to revise my footnotes and to include a caption to a few photos I uploaded with the biography.
Looking back to the primary sources such as photos and letters, I have been able to connect certain things like who's who. In the Alemán's family, they had nicknames for many of the members. For instance, Jose Guerra Alemán was called Pepín and his brother, Rafael, was called Bebé. I am glad that I figured that out. I also believe that his sister, Maria, was called Mayita and his grandfather, Jose Braulio Alemán was called Pepé, but I do not know one hundred percent. Then, I found pictures of his family; however, only two photos have the names of the persons in the photos. Those two photos were his two Aunts, Alicia and Ana (Fig.1 and Fig. 2).
Later, I wanted to find more information on the scandal with Jose Manuel Alemán and the government money he allegedly stole. I was talking to one of my professors and he mentioned one of the Alemán's abused his powers. I found out that Jose Manuel allegedly used money from the government to build a Miami Stadium for the sport, baseball. Supposedly, he hoped and dreamed that the stadium would have the same success as the Yankee Stadium, but that was never the case since its opening day in 1949. After Jose Manuel Alemán's death in 1950, his son, Jose Braulio Alemán-Gutierrez, took ownership of the stadium, and he was never able to hold up his father's dream of a successful and well-recognized stadium. I do not think I will put this information on Jose's biography. It would be a distraction from his story. At the same time, I do not want to hide the fact that this happened his family line so the truth should not be hidden. As a historian, one faces challenging decisions on how much information is too much or not necessary for certain projects.
For more specific information on this scandal, then read this article, https://urbanparadise.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/miami-stadium.pdf.
I also am trying to create a slideshow presentation of Jose Guerra Alemán's story through mostly pictures on Adobe Spark. I wanted to try a new system that was different from Powerpoint or Prezi. I think it will be a great way to present this type of information. Hopefully, I can include his family pictures such as Jose Guerra Alemán's brother (Fig. 3).
Finalizing the Alemán Family's story
I have continued with the biography on Jose Guerra Alemán. Under the grant for the Veterans Legacy Program, I have used the skills that I have learned there to help me write this biography. I was exposed to see my colleagues' format and structure of their veteran's biography. I will soon be done. I just need to find a document where one of Jose Braulio Alemán's wife, Maria Ivonne Dupuy, wrote a letter where she mentioned her husband's role as Minister of Education and expresses her perspective when he worked in that position. However, I am struggling in finding it again. I also need to revise my footnotes and to include a caption to a few photos I uploaded with the biography.
Looking back to the primary sources such as photos and letters, I have been able to connect certain things like who's who. In the Alemán's family, they had nicknames for many of the members. For instance, Jose Guerra Alemán was called Pepín and his brother, Rafael, was called Bebé. I am glad that I figured that out. I also believe that his sister, Maria, was called Mayita and his grandfather, Jose Braulio Alemán was called Pepé, but I do not know one hundred percent. Then, I found pictures of his family; however, only two photos have the names of the persons in the photos. Those two photos were his two Aunts, Alicia and Ana (Fig.1 and Fig. 2).
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| Fig. 1. Alicia Alemán-Valdes. (Courtesy of Central Florida Speical Collections and Jose Guerra Aleman's son.) |
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| Fig. 2. Ana Alemán-Valdes. (Courtesy of Central Florida Speical Collections and Jose Guerra Aleman's son.) |
Later, I wanted to find more information on the scandal with Jose Manuel Alemán and the government money he allegedly stole. I was talking to one of my professors and he mentioned one of the Alemán's abused his powers. I found out that Jose Manuel allegedly used money from the government to build a Miami Stadium for the sport, baseball. Supposedly, he hoped and dreamed that the stadium would have the same success as the Yankee Stadium, but that was never the case since its opening day in 1949. After Jose Manuel Alemán's death in 1950, his son, Jose Braulio Alemán-Gutierrez, took ownership of the stadium, and he was never able to hold up his father's dream of a successful and well-recognized stadium. I do not think I will put this information on Jose's biography. It would be a distraction from his story. At the same time, I do not want to hide the fact that this happened his family line so the truth should not be hidden. As a historian, one faces challenging decisions on how much information is too much or not necessary for certain projects.
For more specific information on this scandal, then read this article, https://urbanparadise.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/miami-stadium.pdf.
I also am trying to create a slideshow presentation of Jose Guerra Alemán's story through mostly pictures on Adobe Spark. I wanted to try a new system that was different from Powerpoint or Prezi. I think it will be a great way to present this type of information. Hopefully, I can include his family pictures such as Jose Guerra Alemán's brother (Fig. 3).
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| Fig. 3. Rafael Guerra, at the age of 17. (Courtesy of Central Florida Speical Collections and Jose Guerra Aleman's son.) |
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