Final Week at LA Plaza- Daniel Guerrero

Week 4, Day 1: 7/26

The start of my last week was bittersweet. On the one hand
, I was happy to be able to sleep in again, but on the other hand, I didn’t want to leave such an educational internship.

To kick off the week, I presented my Art & Politics project to Abelardo! It was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed showing off all the work I had done. After that, I worked on some smaller projects, but the majority of the day was spent labeling all the digitized photos for the soon-to-be-opened “18th & Grand Olympic Auditorium” exhibit. I had to go through all the digital photos and provide labels and descriptions for each picture. It took up most of my day, but luckily I finished a little early and could head home.

One of the new artifacts in our new exhibit!

Day 2: 7/27

Today was a long day rather than a difficult one. I spent most of my time working on more photos and labeling them. These photos covered a range of events between 2023 and 2022, including family days, exhibits, media days, and more. My job was to find out what happened during each event and write up descriptions for our folders. It was a tedious process, with hundreds of photos to go through, but thankfully, many of them already had descriptions I could use. Overall, it was surprisingly enjoyable, and I got to learn a lot about LA Plaza's past events.

Day 3 - 5: 7/28 - 8/1

During these days at home, I spent my time researching various topics for my supervisor. I delved into the worlds of former-time reporters, Chicano rock and roll bands, and journalists who covered boxing in the LA area. It was a fascinating deep dive into these subjects, and I had to find reputable Latino and LA-based figures in these fields and provide their contact information to my supervisor. It opened my eyes to the vastness of these worlds!

Over the weekend, I got to see Dayanna and Gabe while doing my book reading at the central library! Surprisingly, it was nerve-wracking, despite having done larger speeches in front of bigger crowds before. Interacting with the kids and parents was enjoyable once I got into the flow. There were a lot of Brownie Scouts, who are the younger version of Girl Scouts, in the audience, which added to the nerves to be honest.

Day 6:

On my last day, Wednesday, I had a lot of fun and got to do a bit of everything. After helping my supervisor in the morning, I went to LA Tienda, the museum's gift shop, to assist with a photo shoot for new products related to the 18th & Grand Olympic Auditorium exhibit. It was a blast! Then, I returned upstairs to get more tasks from my supervisor, but he actually wanted me to help in LA Tienda for the rest of the day. Unexpectedly, I ended up doing more than just shelving books; I built a shelf, and it kept me busy for a large part of the day.

Later, I was invited to join my co-workers for a Dodgers game after work. I went along and had a fantastic time. I was wearing a Dodger blue shirt, so I didn't need to worry about changing. We all had dinner at a restaurant before heading to Union Station to catch the shuttle to the stadium. The game was super fun, and it was great getting to know my co-workers on a more personal level. It was the perfect way to end my internship, and I truly enjoyed the entire experience—it was educational in every sense of the word.

Dodgers Shuttle 💪