The Senator Mel Martinez Papers, donated to the University of Miami in 2010, consist primarily of records created during Martinez’s service as a United States Senator for Florida from 2005 to 2009. Comprised of 89 boxes, the collection includes legislative and committee files, schedules and appointments, correspondence with constituents and colleagues, speeches and floor statements, media coverage, casework files, campaign files, and administrative office records. The collection also includes photographs, audiovisual materials, and electronic records that date primarily from 1998 to 2009, but also includes scans of photographs and memorabilia relating to Martinez’s childhood in Cuba and immigration to the United States. Topics of research include American legislative history, Mel Martinez’s committee assignments, Florida projects, immigration, United States relations with Cuba, services for the elderly, and Florida’s environment, including issues relating to offshore oil drilling.
The Max Rameau papers (1992-2010) document his extensive activism for the homeless and the poor within the South Florida communities of the African diaspora. The collection will be of interest to scholars and students of movements such as the Umoja Village, the Scott-Carver Tenant Council, Miami Dade Election Reform and Take Back the Land. The materials document advocacy work on behalf of people displaced from their homes as a result of low income housing policies, gentrification, and the U.S. foreclosure crisis at the beginning of the 21st century. The Max Rameau papers also point to connections between activist groups promoting the economic rights of the diverse constituency of the African diaspora which reside in Liberty City and Little Haiti. Finally, the collection serves as a record of Mr. Rameau's work with organizations such as Brothers of the Same Mind, the Haitian American Grassroots Coalition and the Center for Pan African Development.
Program #07-09. Interview with two homeless families from Santa Barbara, CA and Miami, FL. Max Rameau from Take Back the Land discusses the organization's mission and work. Making Contact: a weekly series from the National Radio Project.
