SPC 2608 Hialeah Presentations Blog #2- Matteo Rocha-Chaves

Following our first group assignment, we were instructed to regroup with the same members from the previous group project and discuss Hialeah as a whole. Each group was given a focus - Hialeah's migration process, as well as its past, present, and future. Discussed was the history, current, and the near future of Hialeah. Upon receiving their main focus topic, each group split up the workload into potential research topics in order to come up with the content needed for the project. A great amount of research was both required and conducted through the use of websites, libraries, in addition to direct interviews with representatives all throughout Hialeah.

    Starting off the array of presentations was Group 1's project, titled "A Tour Through Hialeah's Past". Group 1 consisted of David Valverde, Alejandra Gonzalez, Emily Gotay, Destiny Johnson, Cynthia Cheung, Carnell Davis, and Aura Matthews. Their project, as you may already tell, focuses entirely on Hialeah's past and its early stage developments. In the presentation, Group 1 introduces many of Hialeah's firsts, including city mayors, its electoral history, its architectural aspect, parks & recreation, and the education system of the past. Although incredibly brief, I like the way that the slides were set up as they were super simplistic and easy to follow along with. Each slide included pictures along with a short description on the topic presented, allowing the speaker to captivate the audience while presenting the information. I can appreciate that there wasn't an excessive amount of information on each slide as it demonstrated that each member of the group genuinely knew the information they were presenting rather than reading it off the slides. I believe Group 1 did an exceptional job at covering Hialeah's past, as well as putting together a visually appealing and organized presentation.

    Next up came Group 2's presentation named "The City of Progress: Migration". Their group consisted of Gabriella Saez, Gabriella Ruiz, Gabriel Ulloa, Isabel Espinosa, Gerisis Diaz, and Gloria Oikelome. Together, they created a wonderful presentation underlining migration into Hialeah. Gabriel discussed migration more specifically between the years 1960 to 1980, along with some factors that came along with it. Gabriella Saez proceeded to go into detail on four major events that led to the rapid migration of the Cubans in the 1980s. Gloria then introduced important political and economic factors that prompted both Cubans and Peruvians to migrate, emphasizing on the significance of the Mariel Boatlift - a mass emigration of people from Cuba to the United Stated by boat from the months of April to October in the 1980s. Isabel then shifted the focus to the development of cultural monuments and landmarks that arose from the migration to Hialeah. Next up was Gabriella Ruiz's slides that spoke on the many challenges immigrants faced following the migration to the City of Hialeah, such as discrimination, language barriers, and the overall insecurity felt during the settling and migration stages of early Hialeah. In concluding their presentation, Gerisis further went into detail on Cuban migration, wrapping up the early migration stages into Hialeah. That being said, I believe it is fair to say Group 2 did an exceptional job at discussing migration into early Hialeah as a whole. Any questions that arose were immediately answered within their presentations. One thing, however, is that I wish they broadened migration to other people rather than focusing too much on Cubans alone. Had they done so, their presentation would've been near perfect from where I stand. 

    With the conclusion of Group 2's presentation came Group 3's, whose focus was on current Hialeah. The members were Jamiah Head, Jocelyn Gomez, Katryn Cheung, Kevin Aviles, Kylie Escobales, and Luis Velasquez. Rather than following the same style as all other groups, Group 3 came together and created an outstanding Youtube video depicting current Hialeah. They utilized video and voice recordings to make their presentation into a YouTube video. After going back to watch it in my own time, I can see and appreciate that there was great effort put into the development of the YouTube-styled presentation. However, had it not been so glitchy at the time of presenting, it would've far exceeded my presentations. I believe that sharing the screen made it cut up the way it was, which made it hard for us (the audience) to follow along and understand what is being said. Overall, it was a smart and very well-put together presentation that, as I previously mentioned, far exceeded any of my expectations.

    Lastly came Group 4, the final group to present and whose focus was on the future of Hialeah. The group consisted of myself, Aracelis Herrera, Nayelin Martinez, Rachel Martin, Santiago Tovar, and Sanya Ali. Our project, titled "The Future of Hialeah", emphasized on what's next in the foreseeable future for Hialeah, including any plans and projects that the city either is currently in the works or plans to do so very soon. I spoke on future housing plans, as well as a Project Pipeline and Transit-Oriented Development (OTD) expected to make its debut very soon all throughout the City of Hialeah. Next up was Nayelin who emphasized on the future of education within Hialeah, including technology in schools, demographic shifts, and any economical changes that effects peoples' work-lives and productivity. Then went Aracelis, who spoke on future projects regarding transportation and recreation. Rachel talked about a few important advancements made towards the completion of malls in Hialeah, including Codina Westland Mall and the American Dream Mall, said to be the biggest mall coming to our wonderful City of Hialeah. Santiago dove deeper into transportation within Hialeah, emphasizing on underground metro rail plans that are supposedly right around the corner. Finally came Sanya, who delved into future project plans in Hialeah, namely the City of Hialeah 2050 Master Plan and the Comprehensive Plan - both of which are in the process of being finalized and slowly making its debut in the city. She also spoke briefly on the future plans regarding the City of Hialeah's Parks & Recreation department. With the least amount of bias possible, I am fully convinced our group did an excellent job at displaying valid information and relevant pictures all throughout the project.

    Finally, as always, I'd like to commend both David and Nathalia for their outstanding work and efforts into each individual project. Their introductions and conclusions add so much more to the already amazing projects the class provides, making sure the audience is ready and understands all that there is to the upcoming presentation. They do well by upholding their title of the class leaders and I look forward to possibly working with them yet another time.