Holocaust Museum Houston Week 4

Holocaust Museum Houston

Week 4: July 27-August 2

Roseliane Corona

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July 27

Lockdown Throwback Pt. 3?

I’m still at home. Today I had a meeting with Laurie to check in about my project as I developed it from home. It’s mostly been drawing some of the graphics and other technical things like updating the transcript. My plan is after putting together the graphics, I can begin putting text on the Canva version of my project.

Most of my development has been trial and error because some of the visions I had for this project just aren’t possible. For example, I wanted my matching activity to be puzzles but puzzle shapes don’t work well with the text that needs to go inside. Another failed attempt was including a pop-up element for an iSpy activity on the timeline, that definitely doesn’t fit. However, these are great opportunities to reinvent my idea and get closer to the final product. It’s fun messing around with different possibilities and narrowing it down to the final cut. Kind of like magazine editing which would also be a fun career. 

A big plus about working from home is I can sleep in and avoid traffic. Houston traffic is notorious for being the worse and even though my dad and I usually take the HOV, it’s still an almost hour drive so I’m thankful for the extra time. Especially because it gives me more time to read, (which by the way, highly recommend Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber- she’s one of my favorite authors when it comes to imagery and world-building).

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July 28

Lockdown Throwback Pt. 3?

Today is usually a casual Friday but since I’m at home, it’s sweats day for me. Today is more project development with the final touches. My plan was to send Laurie the final print copy today but I figured having time to sit with the supposed final draft would be better, just so that I could send a truly complete project.

Figuring out the text was a bit of a struggle and a part of me is still nervous about small things regarding the guide. There’s a lot I have to take into consideration like trademarks if I use images online and also branding because there’s a whole thick packet about what fonts and colors you can and cannot use. Laurie recommended just ignoring those guidelines since marketing can edit it so I’m less stressed about that. Something marketing emphasized in their meeting was to, “Protect the Brand,” so I’m not trying to impose. So while I’m putting this together, I’m keeping some elements on file in case they want to switch some things out. Keeping this versatility in mind is important for collaborating with other departments. I never realized how much teamwork goes into interdepartmental relations and having this insight as I go into more office jobs is definitely useful. 

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July 31

Final Lockdown Throwback

I was going to start with “I’m still at home,” but didn’t want to sound like a broken record. Today I’m reviewing my guide before sending it to Laurie. There are so many little things to take care of, it’s a bit tedious but as the final product is closer to being done, I can’t help but be a little proud of how it’s all coming together. I definitely want to make sure I try out the guide on my own before I present it Wednesday.

Speaking of presentations, I’m finally putting it together. The outline is different than what was used at Washington Week just because the logistics and also the setting changed. So far, the plan is to introduce YAP, summarize what I’ve learned, and explain my project. That’s the simplified version, but for the sake of time, the presentation goes into more detail/sub-topics. 

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August 1

Nearing the End

It’s August! If you don’t stream august by Taylor Swift, you’re not starting the month off right. 

I go in a little later today so my dad had a “bring your daughter to work” day at his office in the morning, aka I sat next to him for an hour and a half until it was time to go. I mostly did work for college or did some exploring in the Downtown Tunnels until it was time to go. I’ve never seen his office because he works downtown and that is FAR from Cypress but it was really cool. I was able to see a different type of office environment and compare & contrast from my own. One thing that immediately stood out was their pantry, or their lack of food inside. At the Education Office, there’s a whole storage room lined with granola bars, candy, gummies, soda, and so much more. It’s like a vending machine but larger and free. 

At the office, it was so nice seeing everyone again and they had breakfast tacos, (they keep feeding me, it’s great). I touched base with Laurie on the project such as printing, folding, etc. and it’s done. The Activity Guide is officially complete and tomorrow will be presented. With that done, my next task is to finish my presentation. 

Around noon, there was a lunch honoring a teacher winning an award from the Education department. She was awarded based on her commitment and results when it comes to Holocaust education. She was praised for how she’s able to connect with her students and keep them engaged. It definitely changed how I saw teachers. She was accomplishing so much and making an impact, all within a classroom. Teaching is such an underappreciated job and the work that goes behind it is often unseen.

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August 2

Salt Air (and tears)

Today is my last day. I still haven’t let that sink in.

Most of the morning has been preparing for this afternoon. Not only will I give a presentation and introduce my final project, but also there is an event for the Latinx Initiatives Advisory Committee in the evening. I’m so excited, mostly because I heard Laurie whispering about bringing cake for the presentation later.

Laurie invited my parents and gave me permission to invite my teacher as well. I invited Mr. Camac who wrote my letter of recommendation for the program. Funny story, I wasn’t going to apply until he encouraged me to the week of applications being due. Forever grateful that he pushed me and helped me get where I am because needless to say, this experience has been amazing.

        In my presentation, I introduced YAP and the process behind my activity guide. You can go through the presentation here and the activity guide here. One of the admissions staff came up to me after and brought up an interesting comment regarding the guide. She said she liked the idea especially because of the lack of resources admissions has regarding the visitor experience. There’s not a huge group of docents available to guide visitors through the gallery all the time and the guide is a great way to still give a similar experience despite that.

After my presentation, Laurie opened the floor for cake. The cake was delicious! There was also ice cream, which is always a bonus in my book.

Afterward, I walked my parents and teacher through the museum. I was essentially the unofficial docent of the day. The tour included my office space, the museum's general layout, and even some of the galleries. We went through the Bearing Witness Gallery and I got to share the information I learned during the Vault tour about specific artifacts. Then, of course, we toured the Human Rights Gallery because that’s what I did my project on. Something my teacher mentioned after the tour is he appreciated how there was also a behind-the-scenes addition to the tour about information not available usually in the gallery so it was cool to be given the opportunity to share that.

Then it was time for the LIAC reception! This reception hosted LIAC committee members, (including Rosa Ana and Gabriela!), and potential additions to the group along with other invited guests. The program was a lecture by a Professor at Texas Southern University over a school district in West Texas.

For 42 years, he studied the development and unfortunate demise of San Felipe ISD in Del Rio, Texas. This was a border town that created what is believed to be the only Mexican-American school of its kind in the Jim Crow Era. This ISD was built, ran, instructed, and used by Chicanos. Parents helped build classrooms and even stadiums brick by brick, bringing their own nails, to develop this school district whenever funds became too scarce. The superintendent was Mexican-American, (and an old history professor at UT Austin). The principals were Mexican-American. The teachers were Mexican-American and of course, the students were as well. The school incorporated a bilingual curriculum and had consistent graduation rates for over three decades.

There were some drawbacks to this astonishing effort, though. San Felipe ISD did institute segregation for its African-American students. Langston Elementary was a segregated elementary school that was in poor conditions compared to the other San Felipe ISD schools. Despite landmark cases like Mendez in California and Delgado in Texas that argued the harm of segregation, African-Americans were still excluded from this until Brown v. Board of Education. 

Into the 1970s, the atmosphere of San Felipe ISD changed. Many schools would find ways to circumvent policies to avoid integrating. One way Houston ISD abused loopholes was by creating schools and zoning Mexican-Americans & African-Americans into separate schools from their more affluent population. They would list Mexican-Americans as Caucasian so from a census and technical point of view, white and black were present at that school. In reality, there was still a gap in race, resources, and education in that district. To fight back, the government instituted district consolidations. San Felipe ISD was no exception and was forced to merge with the nearby school district. This district was much larger, wealthier, and obviously, more white. 

Though the merger was meant to be 50/50, that was not the case. Many of the buildings built by the community for the school were destroyed, curriculums were completely changed, and San Felipe ISD failed to exist in that capacity ever again. This district was the pride and joy of its students. Alumni would leave for college education and come back to teach. It was a true example of what working together as a community can achieve.

Something interesting about this is in a way, it reminded me of Afrofuturism. The idea of a future of power despite oppression. This town saw the disparity when it came to their own education, built their own solution, and essentially, their own world. This effort produced results of success. It was a somewhat real-life application of Afrofuturism’s concepts but for a Latino community.

If you want to read the book, it won’t be released until September 19 this year but you can preorder the book here. I loved learning about this research and it made me excited for the research I'll do at Johns Hopkins. His insight made me want to focus on another topic that shares a new perspective on Latino history. I honestly cannot wait.

What made this event so special was being able to thank the committee that made this internship possible. A collaboration between a Holocaust Museum and NMAL seems impossible at first but this committee's efforts to work with Latinos in the community by connecting with other organizations is what gave me the opportunity to be hosted here. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a museum in Houston for YAP to work with in the first place. A lot of other things went into it, like staff members sacrificing their time to speak with me, Laurie crafting an educational internship experience, and so much more. So for everyone that played a role, no matter how big or small, thank you.

Other highlights from last night include their food menu serving gyoza, (I LOVE gyoza), conversations over the validity of the term Latinx, and they gave me an award! I cried and got to give a thank you speech. So that was really cool.

Overall, I’m so sad that this is over but I got to make so many connections that I intend to keep as time goes on. I thought the kids in the video were exaggerating when they talked about this program, turns out they were underexaggerating. Thank you for the experience and if I text and none of you answer– you suck.

Until next time, (and there will be one)

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