El Paso Museum of History - Week 4 - Deborah

 Week 4

July 31st

Something about directories is that there are three different ways to search something up. The easiest would be by the business name, then the owner's name, and finally the hardest one is by address. Since I had already gone through most of these books and still couldn’t find the business by name, I had to do the hardest method and go by. I had to call in the pro,  Michael. Shoutout Michael!!!! He showed me how to search them up by address which is normally at the very end of the directory and for this method your map would be beneficial. After Michael taught me exactly how to do it, I got locked in and started doing my research that at first, made me frustrated because my progress was stunted for a while. However, I didn’t give up, I knew I needed to get this job finished so I continued looking. In the end, I thankfully found some businesses using this method and could not have been happier. 

Finding a Business by Address

Finding a Business by Name

August 1st

Today was a very hard day for every single one of us. Tashi showed me the video that will be playing in one of the upcoming pop-up titled “Remembering August 3rd”. On August 3rd 2019, Walmart in El Paso was victim to a mass shooting motivated by racial hate. 23 people were killed and 22 injured. This pop-up commemorates those victims who lost their lives in this tragic event. After seeing this video it had me thinking about how it was going to be 4 years and how time flies. The day felt a little more mellow and all I could think about were the families of all the people who died, and how someone can have so much hate towards latinos. I still continued with my work searching for the black businesses. After a while I went down to the first floor to see the installation for myself. As I walk in I see the crosses with names on them and boxes waiting to be unpacked. I asked if any help was needed and Steph responded yes. I was talking to Steph and she told me how after the memorial of the victims which was held right outside Walmart, Erica and her went to pick items up. Family and friends had the first choice of keeping or giving items away for the museum. Everything that we displayed, even the flowers were there on the memorial site she told me. I had chills thinking about what we were going to display. Mariana and I did the task of lining the crosses against the wall, adding flowers, and finally building a wired barrier around the crosses. We also fixed the lighting so certain items could have a spotlight while others had a floodlight.

Arranging Pop-up: Remembering August Third

"Remembering August 3rd" 

August 2

This is almost my last day and I still had some business unfound. I was afraid I might’ve completely missed them. But I was so close. I’m not saying I gave up, but I had to take it up to Nora, and explained that I did everything I could to find the remaining businesses but couldn’t find them. She looked at what I had missed and said everything was fine and my work was done since I had to find businesses that don't exist anymore and the ones I could not find for the most part were still here up to this date. 

August 3

When I got to the office I said good morning to everyone as usual. My boss Nora was busy in meetings so I was just waiting on her. Today was a very hard day for every single one of us. Today was the opening of the pop-up “Remembering August 3rd.” Newsmedia came into the museum to ask questions.  Even though reminders of bad things were there throughout the day everyone was setting me up for success. Nora told me to work on my resume, I already had one but it was mainly from high school so I decided to give it somewhat of a makeover. Once I was finished I asked Steph my Tier 1 if she could help me revise it. She helped me organize everything a little better and told me my resume should follow more of an order almost chronological but not really. She was a good sport and even showed me her resume. Her resume was impressive and I was captivated by seeing how many things she had written. Once I had Steph’s blessing, it was time to go on to Tier 2. Nora. But first I had lunch and it was delicious. Nora and I continued working on my resume, she then told me to join their staff meeting at three. I sat down in one of the chairs and after some time the meeting commenced. Since this is my second staff meeting I was a pro!!!!!!!!!! The usual went down and we shared our completions and talked about future work. Nora said she was going to get a projector and walked outside of the room. I looked down at my phone when SUDDENLY TRANSFORMERS MUSIC STARTED PLAYING AND ALAN BRINGS IN A CAKE! Everyone was looking at me waiting for my reaction when I realized this plot of theirs was for me. I started smiling and felt a wave of emotions hit me. I tried to keep my composure together because I wanted to cry. But I failed, my eyes got watery thinking about how it was my last day with all of these amazing people. I tried to dry my eyes. I couldn’t believe it, they even decorated the white board and told me to actually see it but actually see it. From afar it looks like a regular Transformers movie but as you look closely you can see how they edited my face in every single character/animal of the poster. I couldn’t believe it. I was laughing hysterically and kept telling myself there’s no way they did this for me. Finally it was time to cut the cake, they all let me have my first real moment into adulthood and cut the cake on my own. We all had fun but I was still trying to not cry a river. Once we were all done, it was time to go back to work. I continued working on my resume and finally Tier 3. Tashi. Tashi helped me make my information look more pleasing to the eye and tried to balance the weight of the fonts/text. I am extremely sad that this time of my life is over, but at the same time I am tremendously grateful for everyone at the El Paso Museum of History because they’re all amazing people who have inspired me in my day to day life. When people like them touch your heart it’s truly something you’ll never forget. It’s people like them who give me hope in humanity. I’m filled with gratitude that the Young Ambassadors Program made this happen in the first place. This program helped me learn more about my hometown and gave me the opportunity to work with exemplary people who truly care about the community and everyone who steps in that Museum. I am without a doubt a better person now than I was before these experiences because of people who were genuine with me and treated me as an adult but still understood that I was new to this new environment of being in the office. I asked everyone for help at least once and they all delivered. I now more than ever feel prepared to embark on my next journey with the gained knowledge, self-growth, problem solving skills, professionalism, and building connections in the workplace. Shoutout to the El Paso Museum of History and Young Ambassadors Program.

Deborah's Going Away Party

The Team: El Paso Museum of History