Publisher's Synopsis
This memoir chronicles the author's childhood growing up during the Great Depression and World War II. Louis Gutierrez, CPU, CLU was born to immigrants from Spain in Tampa, Florida, in 19311. Growing up in the Tampa suburb of Ybor City offered him a unique community of Spanish, Italian, and Cuban immigrants.
These families did not try to impose their culture or language on others, and while maintaining their traditions and language, they nevertheless felt it was important to learn English and become part of the melting pot that made all Americans free of labels.
"The Americanization of Louis" answers the question of what it was that his family and others did to assimilate and become Americans, of which some recent arrivals differed and seemed to resist.
About the Author
Louis Gutierrez, CPCU, CLU is a graduate from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, whose closest friends are still some of those same friends who were in college with him. He served in the United States Air Force in Tripoli, Libya, and French Morocco before his insurance career of over forty years, during which he attained the professional designations of Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter CPCU and Chartered Life Underwriter CLU. He served as a national director for the Society of Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters. He became a qualified court interpreter after his retirement from the insurance industry, and this provided him an opportunity to observe the problems facing Florida's judicial system with undocumented individuals. He has written several newspaper columns and articles and is currently working on his first historical novel.
Louis has been married to the love of his life, Rena, for over fifty-four years. They are the parents of four sons and seven grandchildren, and they spend much of their time visiting them and traveling. He and his wife reside in central Florida and spend many of their summers on Anna Maria Island and all of the activities that the beach coastal area provides for their family.
