José Guerra Alemán Collection
Scope and Contents
This collection was arranged in seven series:
Series I. Manuscripts, 1915-2013, Undated, includes notes that Alemán took on varieties of subjects. His interests ranged from the origin of words and meaning of phrases to his summaries and interpretations of authors' works.
Series II: Research Files, 1898-2012, Undated, holds a combination of newspapers, images, and works of others where Alemán used for the publication of Cuba Infinita and his work on Cuban and Latin American history, involving their relations to other countries.
Series III: Publications, 1987-2008, Undated, contains his writings that has drafts of his published work, his articles from newspapers, and promotional materials advertising his works.
Series IV: Personal Files, 1887-2011, Undated, provides letters between Aleman and his family members and between Aleman and business workers. They share insight of Aleman's genealogy and Aleman's work ethic. Series also includes various maps and postcards.
Series V: Visual Materials, Circa 1900-Circa 2000, Undated, includes photographs and negatives of José G. Alemán and his relatives; overseas trips as a Journalist; and images of Cuba, cubans, and public buildings. Series also includes a CD of "Fidel Castro: La Historia Lo Absolvera" and another CD contains a song from Marisela Verena "Mi Pinar del Rio".
Series VI: Memorabilia, 1926-1977, Undated, comprises hats from different places that Aleman travelled, identification cards, and a lottery ticket from Republic of Cuba, 1949.
Series VII: Oversize Materials, 1958-2008, Undated, includes large maps of various countries, posters, a proof sheet for Cuba Infinita, and a game card "La Charada Cubana."
Dates
- Creation: 1887 - 2013
Creator
- Guerra Alemán, José (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
The entire collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Unpublished manuscripts are protected by copyright. Permission topublish, quote or reproduce must be secured from the repository and thecopyright holder.
Biographical / Historical
José Guerra Alemán was born to José Guerra and Herminia Alemán-Valdes on November 20, 1922 in Cuba. He referred to alternative names such as José Guerra Alemán, his initials J.G.A. and his nickname Pepín. Many of his closest friends and family called him as Pepín. His family contained of six members that included his three siblings, Maria Vicenta Guerra, Rafael Luis Guerra, and an eldest brother who his name is unknown. His brother, Rafael L. Guerra was born on November 20, 1926 in Habana, Cuba and died on October 2, 1998 in Miami, Florida. His sister, Maria, was born on June 19, 1924 in Habana, Cuba. A year after her brother's death, she died on February 27, 1999 in Miami, Florida. In her later years, she was a homemaker and she never married.
In his early years, he enrolled in the United States military at the age of 20 in 1942. He participated in the 8th Army (Octavo Ejército) of EE.UU. (United States). He covered the campaign of the Pacific as the 35th Division of Infantry (35 División de Infantería) called División Relámpago (Lightning Division). He finished training in the military at Fort Dix, Burlington County, New Jersey in the Delaware River region on October of 1946.
Once he finished his service, he returned to Cuba and founded a company called CINEPERIODICO in 1947. His motivation of starting this company began from his interest in journalism. At the age of 16, he delved into both journalism and short films/news films. He was one of the editors of Él País, La Habana. These experiences guided him to globally make notorious documentaries and cinematography of actual events and issues. He traveled around the globe. For instance, he registered for a temporary immigration card to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1959 as a journalist. As a result for his traveling, he encountered prominent leaders of various movements.
One of those encounters, José Guerra Alemán climbed the Mountains of Sierra Maestra, in the province of East of the Island of Cuba to interview Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Under the agency of his company, CINEPERIODICO, he personally knew these men and those who were a part of the guerillas during the Cuban Revolution. In 1950, he worked with José García and Eduardo Hernández (Guayo) in the same company. José Guerra Alemán directed films such as Sangre Y Esperanza: La Cuba de Hoy (Blood and Hope: the Cuba of Today and El Gran Recuento (The Great Story). He also took the position as the Senior Vice President of Guastella Film Producers Inc., an advertising firm in Puerto Rico, where he did similar works until he retired in 1990. This included the creation of historical documentary films.
With his interest in Cuba's history and living at a time of historical changes in Cuba, he wrote extensive materials along those themes. He wrote Aún Hay Luna En Los Cerros, Ensayos (Las Mayorías Discriminadas): En Defensa de la Mujer, Barro y Cenizas (Díalogos con Fidel Castro y el Che Guevara), and Juro Pero No Prometo (Biografía de su Abuelo el General José Braulio Alemán). His major work composes four volumes of encyclopedias called Cuba Infinita. Each book contains specific chronological decades and starts from 1855, when the first photographs of the city were available by American artist Fredericks De Forest, to 1958, when the Republic collapsed. The volumes includes more than a thousand selected photos of the history of Cuba, from colonial times to the Spanish American War. The reader walks through time and gets to see the transformation of Cuba. He included photographs received by family, friends, colleagues and what he collected from his travels. He also was inspired and guided from the work called La Enciclopedia de Cuba.
Understanding where his family came from and knowing the other members of his family tree can provide a part of José Guerra Alemán's identity. Jose Guerra Alemán's maternal bloodline had a huge role in the movement toward Cuba's independence against colonialism and imperialism. His grandfather named José Braulio Guerra Alemán fought in the Spanish-American War as a Cuban Brigadier General and was the principal author to the Constitution of Cuba proclaimed at Yara in 1896. He worked as a lawyer, newspaper owner, advocate of the liberation of Cuba, senator and governor for the province of Las Villas, minister of Education and ambassador to Mexico. His half uncle, José Manuel Alemán, served in the Cuban government as Minister of Education during the presidency of Dr. Ramón Grau San Martin, president of the Authentic Party (Partido Auténtico) in La Habana, and Senator of the Republic. His family went through three generations of leaders and fighters for Cuban independence through revolutions or preserving its history and culture.
He rested on February 22, 2013 in Miami, Florida. He survived his wife named Lidia Llano who he married on September 22, 1945 and left a son named Carlos Guerra Llano. He left a mark of what he had done, significant work in Cuba's history. However, he has not been given as much attention as he deserves in any setting, especially in academia. It is the many aspects of unknown history and researching the people from below like Alemán. He was a Cuban, veteran, journalist, nontraditional historian, and founder of a journalist business.
Extent
17.5 Linear Feet (20 boxes, 1 Flat File)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The collection is filled with Cuban history and researched materials on society's past was created by Cuban and American journalist José Guerra Alemán. The materials range from photographs of his travels to cultural sites and countries to personal notes on literature of other scholars' works and his published books. He is most notable of his published four-volume encyclopedia on Cuban history called Cuba Infinita.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was donated by Carlos Guerra, José Guerra Alemán's son, to the University of Central Florida Libraries in 2014. (CFM2014_07)
Processing Information
Materials are housed in acid free folders and boxes; photographs and negatives were placed in clear sleeves; publications removed from the collection and cataloged separately.
Cultural context
Genre / Form
Geographic
Topical
- Title
- José Guerra Alemán Collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Samuel Ortiz
- Date
- 00/00/2019
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the UCF Special Collections Repository
Special Collections & University Archives
University of Central Florida Libraries
P.O. Box 162666
Orlando Florida 32816-2666 US
(407) 823-2576
speccoll@ucf.edu