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Willful Neglect: The Smithsonian Institution and U.S. Latinos, May 1994

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In 1994, the 15-member Smithsonian Institution Task Force on Latino Issues issues Willful Neglect: The Smithsonian Institution and U.S. Latinos. “[Latinos] have contributed significantly to every phase and aspect of American history and culture,” the report reads. “Yet the Institution almost entirely excludes and ignores Latinos in nearly every aspect of its operation.”

Among the report's recommendations is the “establishment of one or more museums portraying the historical, cultural, and artistic achievements of U.S. Hispanics.”

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Indiana University-Bloomington doctoral student and LSMP Fellow Stephanie Huezo at the Smithsonian Latino Center, 2017. Photo: Diana C. Bossa Bastidas

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In 1997, the Center for Latino Initiatives is formed at the Smithsonian, morphing into The Smithsonian Latino Center: "The Center is not represented in one physical location; rather, it works collaboratively with the Institution’s museums and research centers, ensuring that the contributions of the Latino community in the arts, history, national culture and scientific achievement are explored, presented, celebrated and preserved."

The Center's efforts include

supporting scholarly research, exhibitions, public and educational programs, web-based content and virtual platforms, and collections and archives; and

managing leadership and professional development programs for Latino youth, emerging scholars and museum professionals, such as the Latino Museum Studies Program (LMSP).

The Smithsonian Latino Center merges with the National Museum of the American Latino in 2022.

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#LMSP2017 Fellow Takeover:
Stephanie Huezo - smithsonianlvm

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Stephanie Huezo at the Smithsonian Latino Center. Photo by Diana C. Bossa Bastidas Hola todxs! I’m Stephanie Huezo, PhD candidate in History with a minor in Latino Studies at Indiana University-Bloomington. I’m excited that you are joining me in my #LMSP2017 #FellowTakeover post! I research Salv…

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Member, U.S. House of Representatives from California, 1993-2017

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2003: Legislation introduced to establish NMAL Commission

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2003: Legislation introduced to establish NMAL Commission

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In 2003, Representative Xavier Becerra introduces legislation to establish a commission to study the proposed museum.

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Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen attends a meeting of the NMAL Commission, 2010. Photo: Ileana Ros-Lehtine

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2008: Legislation to create NMAL Commission signed into law

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2008: Legislation to create NMAL Commission signed into law

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In 2008, legislation to create a 23-member Commission to Study the Potential Creation of a National Museum of the American Latino is signed into law by Pres. George W. Bush and enacted by Pres. Barack Obama. The commission is appointed in bipartisan fashion by the President and Congressional leadership.

Authorized to spend $3.2 million over two years, the commission is charged with studying

the need for a museum,

the museum's vision and purpose,

possible governance structure,

potential sites,

construction costs, and

how funds for the museum might be raised.

At the inaugural meeting in 2009, the commission chooses San Antonio architect Henry Munoz III as its chairman.

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US DOI summer intern Tania Mendes worked with the NMAL Commission in 2010. Photo: Partnership for Public Service

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In 2010, the Commission to Study the Potential Creation of the National Museum of the American Latino

gives its preliminary estimate of $250-$500 million for construction alone;

hires contractors to help with feasibility studies;

holds public meetings to judge public interest in a museum and to collect feedback on issues discussed; and

considers:

-creating a traveling or virtual museum,

-locating the physical museum in a city other than Washington, D.C., and

-concerns over the use of the term "Latino" in the museum's name.

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Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino logo

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2011: Legislation to establish NMAL vetoed

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2011: Legislation to establish NMAL vetoed

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In May 2011, the NMAL Commission issues its final report, titled "TO ILLUMINATE THE AMERICAN STORY FOR ALL"

Legislation is introduced in Congress to authorize the Smithsonian to establish the National Museum of the American Latino (NMAL) in Washington, DC.

Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino, a non-Smithsonian-affiliated group, announces that actress Eva Longoria and music producer Emilio Estefan will lead a campaign to build support for the museum. But criticism of the museum (including encouragement of cultural isolationism, space limitations, and cost) impedes the legislation's progress.

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Cid Wilson, Friends of the NMAL chairman, tells Fox News that the museum is in "indefinite limbo" because of congressional gridlock.

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2013: Legislation introduced to designate NMAL site is vetoed

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2013: Legislation introduced to designate NMAL site is vetoed

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In 2013, new legislation (H.R. 1217/S. 568) was introduced to designate the Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Building as the site of the museum. The bills, co-sponsored by Senators Bob Menendez, Harry Reid, and Marco Rubio and Representatives Xavier Becerra and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, would also require the Smithsonian to establish a formal panel to study how to fund the museum and what a construction timeline should be. Museum backers already had a design for the proposed museum and began a formal push to win passage of the legislation that year, but the bills did not move forward.

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Cid Wilson looks out from a rooftop deck in Washington D.C., in the direction of the Smithsonian's long-shuttered Arts and Industries Building.

"That's where it would be, that's where the Latino museum would be," he said, at once happily and wistfully.

Wilson is chairman of the Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino, a group that has been pushing for establishing a museum dedicated to Latinos and their role in U.S. history in the unused Arts and Industries Building on the National Mall.

A bill that would pave the way for the creation of the museum, however, have languished in Congress.

"The challenge with this bill has less to do with the actual bill, and more to do with the current [divisive] environment happening in Congress," Wilson said in an interview with Fox News Latino.

"It would be dedicated exclusively to Latino history and culture, so that we understand the 500-year history [of Latinos in the U.S.], so that Americans can know our story," Wilson said. "Our Latino story is an American story."

The bills pending in the House and Senate would approve the site for the new museum.

In 2011, a presidential commission called for the creation of a Smithsonian American Latino Museum. But the effort keeps stalling in Congress. Some lawmakers have questioned whether there is a need for another museum focusing on a minority group in Washington, which already has an African American and Native American museum.

Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida are chief sponsors in the upper chamber, and California Rep. Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, is the lead sponsor in the House, along with Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida.

"We're looking for a home for our history, for our culture, for our contributions to this country," Becerra said last year.

Actress Eva Longoria has been a leading proponent of the museum effort, along with producer Emilio Estefan, Rosario Dawson and other entertainers.

It is estimated that supporters would have to raise at least $325 million in private donations to build the museum if it's authorized by Congress. The group has held town meetings around the country to build support nationwide.

"We can't even get started on the fundraising until Congress approves the bill," Wilson said. "The bill does not include appropriation, it would be funded through fundraising."

On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano, a New York Democrat, appeared before the New York City Council to urge it to pass a resolution calling on Congress to act on the Latino museum measure.

"Latinos and Latinas have been an integral part of the United States for over 200 years," Serrano said. "With this museum, we will be addressing the underrepresentation of American Latino art and culture in the Smithsonian Institution."

"This museum can teach the American people about the great contributions that Latinos have given our country," Serrano added. "From the great Roberto Clemente in baseball, to the talented Jenni Rivera in music, to Justice Sonia Sotomayor in the Supreme Court, the United States has been deeply enriched by the Latino community."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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National Latino museum in indefinite limbo because of congressional gridlock, leader says

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Bills to pave the way for the National Museum of the American Latino to be established in the Smithsonian's unused Arts and Industries Building on the National Mall have stalled in Congress.

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Sen. Bob Menendez, colleagues, and actress Diane Guerrero unveil bills to establish the NMAL, Washington, DC, 2017. Photo: Bob Menendez

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2017: Bicameral, bipartisan bills to establish NMAL unveiled

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2017: Bicameral, bipartisan bills to establish NMAL unveiled

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In 2017, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the most senior Hispanic in the U.S. Congress and Chairman of the Senate Democratic Hispanic Task Force, was joined by Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) in reintroducing legislation calling for the creation of a national Smithsonian Museum of the American Latino. The legislation seeks to adopt the same funding model used to build and operate the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and authorizes the Board of Regents to allocate future resources to the Smithsonian Institution for design, planning, and construction and operation of the Museum. The legislation was co-sponsored by Senators Cortez-Masto (D-Nev.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), and Marco Rubio (R-FL).

“At a time of heightened fear and uncertainty for our nation’s Latino community, swift and long-overdue action on this legislation would help send a clear message that we refuse to turn our backs on them," said Menendez. "This should be noncontroversial for anyone who understands that Latinos – almost 57 million Americans in the U.S., representing the nation’s largest racial or ethnic minority group – play an important part of our nation’s past, present, and future. I will continue fighting to make this museum a reality so that we acknowledge, as a government, that America's success would not be possible without the contributions of Hispanic Americans.”

READ MORE

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2020: Congress enacts legislation to establish the NMAL

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2020: Congress enacts legislation to establish the NMAL

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In December 2020, Congress enacts legislation to establish and construct the NMAL.

Watch the full Committee hearing to review s.1267, the National Museum of the American Latino Act, held on November 17, 2020.

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Note: Members of the committee may participate in the hearing in person or online.

The Committee will follow guidelines developed in consultation with the Office of the Attending Physician to protect the health of members, staff, and the public. This includes maintaining six-foot social distance spacing in the hearing room. Pursuant to this guidance, Senate office buildings are not open to the public other than official business visitors and credentialed press at this time. Accordingly, in-person visitors cannot be accommodated at this hearing.

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Hearing to Review S.959, Smithsonian American Women's History Museum Act; and S.1267, National Museum of the American Latino Act | U.S. Senate Committee on Rules & Administration

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The Official U.S. Senate Committee on Rules & Administration

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Cover image for "The Long March Toward a National Latino Museum" by Graciela Mochkofsky, The New Yorker (10 October 2022).

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2022: The Smithsonian Latino Center merges with the NMAL

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2022: The Smithsonian Latino Center merges with the NMAL

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In 2022, The Smithsonian Latino Center merges with the National Museum of the American Latino.

The New Yorker publishes "The Long March Toward a Latino National Museum" by Graciela Mochkofsky (10 October 2022).

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On a recent trip to Washington, D.C., I visited the new Molina Family Latino Gallery, at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. It opened to the public in June, and its first exhibit, "¡Presente!," attempts to fit hundreds of years of Latinx history in the United States-a narrative arcing from Spanish colonization to this day-into a single forty-five-hundred-square-foot room. The exhibit opens with a ceremonial-dance dress, handmade by descendants of the Genízaro people, who were enslaved by Spaniards and by other tribes in what is now New Mexico, and ends with a first-person oral-history interactive from a dozen prominent Latinx personalities, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa. In between, hundreds of objects, photographs, paintings, and prints depict mostly Mexican American, Cuban American, and Puerto Rican history and culture. (These are the largest and most storied groups; future exhibits will focus on others.) On the threshold of the gallery, there are touch screens where visitors can scroll through information on topics such as what differentiates the terms "Hispanic," "Latino," and "Latinx"; the cultural and socioeconomic demographics of various communities; and polling data on the Latinx electorate.

The first section looks at colonization, with a focus on the resistance of Indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans. Among the striking objects on view are a ceramic bust of Po'Pay, the leader of the Pueblo Revolt, in 1680, by the Cochiti Pueblo artist Virgil Ortiz, and an illustration of a Black man breaking a chain with his clenched fist, made by the Puerto Rican artist Augusto Marín to commemorate the centennial of the abolition of slavery on the island, in 1873. The next section is on Texas Independence and the Mexican-American and Spanish-American wars. The goal here is to showcase how U.S. expansionism "impacted the story of the oldest U.S. Latino communities." In an animated video, a man is seen walking, above the caption, "We didn't cross the border. The border crossed us"-a well-known reference to the Mexican population that found itself, as territories were conquered and annexed, in Texas, California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. This section also looks at the U.S. colonization of Puerto Rico, which began after the Spanish-American War, and the independence movement led by Pedro Albizu Campos. "These historical legacies of slavery, colonization, and war continue to shape U.S. and Latino history today," a description reads.

After conquest comes migration, featuring a collection of personal objects and narratives from people who arrived fleeing wars or political regimes, such as Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Salvadorans; or who came looking for work and opportunity, as in the case of Dominicans, Mexicans, Peruvians, and Venezuelans; or who just became part of the country, if not full citizens of it-Puerto Ricans. A final section, about contributions to the society and the culture, highlights the work of Latinx activists in the national struggle for civil and social rights.

My favorite piece in the exhibit is one that was commissioned for it, the "Tree of Life" ("El Árbol de la Vida"), a fifty-three-inch-tall clay sculpture by the San Antonio-based artist Verónica Castillo. Castillo comes from a Pueblan family of artists who have been sculpting trees of life for three generations. This tree stands on a painted dome base, and its branches loop back onto its trunk in a pretzel-like pattern. Flowers, animals, and figurines populate the tree: a butterfly representing the Dreamers, and an eagle for the United Farm Workers; a woman holding a megaphone, another with a poster that reads " Huelga " ("Strike"); and figurines of the farmworker leaders Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, and of Emma Tenayuca, who organized a famous pecan shellers' strike in Texas in the nineteen-thirties, among others. There is a tiny clay poster of the Young Lords, the social-justice organization started in Chicago by Puerto Rican former street-gang members in the nineteen-sixties, hanging from a branch, and another with a Black Power fist and the name of Carlos Cooks, a Dominican immigrant who was a key member of Marcus Garvey's Black Nationalist movement in the nineteen-forties.

The tree poetically depicts the ongoing history of la lucha, the struggle for civil rights and recognition. The theme fits not just the history of the Latinx population but that of the exhibit itself-of how it came to be housed in what is a repurposed storage room on the museum's first floor. In fact, the show is a placeholder for a much larger and more comprehensive project, the first Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino, the plans for which were approved in December, 2020, after thirty years of effort. But it was the fight for civil rights, and the academic and political debates that accompanied it, that initially brought about a review of how American history had been presented to the American public. One conclusion of those debates was that the Smithsonian Institution-the publicly funded museum that was created by the government in 1846 (with a bequest from the British scientist James Smithson), and is now the world's largest museum, education, and research complex-had underrepresented, and in many cases ignored, the role of communities of color.

First came the discovery, during the nineteen-eighties, that the Smithsonian held the remains of thousands of Native Americans as part of its collections, and that led to legislation, in 1989, calling for the establishment of a National Museum of the American Indian, which opened in 2004. In 1991, an effort was launched to address the representation of Black Americans at the Smithsonian, which led to the establishment of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which President Barack Obama inaugurated in 2016. In 1993, the Smithsonian appointed a Task Force on Latino Issues that, a year later, released a report titled " Willful Neglect," which found that Latinx people had "contributed significantly to every phase and aspect of American history and culture," and "yet the Institution almost entirely excludes and ignores Latinos in nearly every aspect of its operations." Among other measures, the report recommended the creation of "one or more museums portraying the historical, cultural, and artistic achievements of U.S. Hispanics." Approximately twenty-five million Latinx people lived in the country then, accounting for about nine per cent of the total population. They were underrepresented not only in museums and history textbooks; in 1996, the nonprofit NALEO (National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials) Educational Fund counted just 3,783 Latinx elected officials nationwide.

That lack of clout at the national level translated into very slow steps. First, the Smithsonian appointed a Latinx counsellor to the secretary (as the head of the institution is known), Miguel Bretos, who collaborated with a working group, to release a plan called "Towards a Shared Vision," in 1997. It argued that the Latinx presence should not be concentrated in one part of the Smithsonian but be dispersed throughout its museums. As a result, a Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives was created. (It was later renamed the Smithsonian Latino Center.) In 2003, a decade after the task force had been appointed, Xavier Becerra-who is now President Biden's Secretary of Health and Human Services, but at that time was a congressman from California-pushed for a bill to create a commission to study the potential creation of a national museum of the American Latino. It was approved five years later. By that time, there were about fifty million Latinx people in the country-twice as many as at the time of the "Willful Neglect" report, making up seventeen per cent of the population. The number of Latinx elected officials had grown to 5,475, almost a fifty-per-cent increase from 1996.

A couple of more years went by before the commission submitted a report calling for, again, the creation of a museum. Henry Muñoz III, a designer, businessman, and activist from San Antonio (and the son of two prominent labor and civil-rights organizers) who chaired the commission, told me that, as a critical part of that effort, in 2009, the Latino Center digitized exhibits to create a virtual "museum without having the walls of a museum" that was shared across the nation, in partnership with community centers. (In 2013, Obama appointed Muñoz the national finance chair of the Democratic National Committee; he now chairs the board of trustees of the new museum.)

Finally, in December, 2020, the report's proposal for a museum was added to the $2.3-trillion omnibus spending package, which passed Congress with bipartisan support. So the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino was nominally established under the Presidency of Donald Trump. (The same bill created a Smithsonian American Women's History Museum.) The victory was only possible owing to "the growth of power and influence of the groups that carried it through," Jorge Zamanillo, the museum's founding director, told me. The Latinx population now makes up nearly twenty per cent of the country, with more than sixty-two million people. Their political representation is still underwhelming, but has reached 6,883 elected officials.

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The Long March Toward a National Latino Museum

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On a recent trip to Washington, D.C., I visited the new Molina Family Latino Gallery, at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. It opened to the public in June, and its first exhibit, "¡Presente!," attempts to fit hundreds of years of Latinx history in the United States-a narrative arcing from Spanish colonization to this day-into a single forty-five-hundred-square-foot room.

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November 2022: NMAL puts exhibit about the history of Latino youth movements on hold

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November 2022: NMAL puts exhibit about the history of Latino youth movements on hold

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"[Historians Johanna Fernández and Felipe Hinojosa] had been working on an exhibit about the history of Latino youth movements that would help serve as a preview for the new museum. The show was supposed to be the largest federally funded Smithsonian exhibit on Latino civil rights history, and it drew input from the nation’s top Latino historians and veterans of the movement. It was set to feature student walkouts, efforts to integrate schools, and environmental and immigration activism...But after pushback from conservative Latinos in the private sector and the halls of Congress, that exhibit is on hold." --Olivia Waxman, TIME, 15 September 2023

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Inside the Controversy Over the National Museum of the American Latino

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The National Museum of the American Latino doesn’t even have a building yet, but its work is already controversial.

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In March 2023, NMAL opened applications for the Latino Museum Studies Program (LMSP) Undergraduate Internship, which "aims to increase Latino representation in museum professions".

Created in 1994, the LMSP "seeks to increase the representation, documentation, research, knowledge, and interpretation of the U.S. Latina/o/x experience in the areas of art, culture, and history. The program focuses on developing museum practice within a framework of Latino cultural studies and increasing the representation of Latina and Latino museum professionals in the field."

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Latino Museum Studies Program Undergraduate Internship | National Museum of the American Latino

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The Latino Museum Studies Program (LMSP) Undergraduate Internship is a new museum career pathway program designed to increase hands-on training opportunities for Latina/o/x-identifying undergraduate students interested in art museum careers.

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2023: 'Hispanic Executive' publishes NMAL oral histories

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2023: 'Hispanic Executive' publishes NMAL oral histories

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Hispanic Executive magazine launches an oral-history feature on the making of the National Museum of the American Latino. The feature offers insights and commentary from four NMAL executives:

Eduardo Diaz, former Interim Director of the National Museum of the American Latino, Smithsonian

Jorge Zamanillo, Director of the National Museum of the American Latino, Smithsonian

Estuardo Rodriguez, CEO, Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino

Danny Vargas, Board Chair Emeritus, Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino

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That hundred-member coalition was made up of more than Latino organizations. We had help from Jewish, African American, Asian and Pacific Islander, and other groups across the board. It was amazing.
Vargas:
At this point, we were into the Trump administration. By the time we had made progress, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was retiring. Thankfully, [former] Congressman Will Hurd from Texas, who represented a primarily Latino district, was willing to step up for us. I remember doing the sign of the cross in front of him and thanking him, telling him he was our champion now.

To be honest, when we were approaching individuals after 2016, people would tell us that we were crazy, trying to get this passed on the current administration's watch. They'd ask us why we were wasting our time. Now I'm not sure that Trump knew he ultimately signed our bill. He probably didn't. But we made this happen on his watch. If you don't try, you will definitely fail. We gave it a shot.
Vargas:
We knew we needed 290 cosponsors, and we got 295. When it came to a floor vote, it passed unanimously in the House. It was December 21, 2020. It was my birthday, and my kids saw me crying, watching this bill pass. I'll never forget it as long as I live.

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National Museum of the American Latino: An Oral History

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Hear from four stakeholders on the thirty-year journey of establishing the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Latino

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February 2024: AAER files lawsuit against NMAL over Hispanic-focused internship

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February 2024: AAER files lawsuit against NMAL over Hispanic-focused internship

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The American Alliance for Equals Rights (AAER) filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging the Smithsonian Institute’s Latino Museum Studies Program violates the U.S. Constitution.

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American Alliance for Equal Rights Files Lawsuit Against Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Latino. | The American Alliance for Equal Rights

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American Alliance for Equal Rights Files Lawsuit Challenging Racially Discriminatory Grants by Fearless Fund Management LLC (Austin, Texas) Today, the American Alliance for Equal Rights, a 501(c)(3) membership organization, filed a lawsuit against Fearless Fund Management, LLC and affiliated companies for operating a racially discriminatory grant program that violates the Civil Rights Act of 1866. 42 U.S.C. §1981.

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March 2024: NMAL settles lawsuit over Hispanic-focused internship

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March 2024: NMAL settles lawsuit over Hispanic-focused internship

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"A Latino-focused internship program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino now states the program is 'equally open to students of all races and ethnicities' following a lawsuit settlement with the American Alliance for Equal Rights." --CNN, 3/27/2024

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Smithsonian museum says its Latino-focused internship is open to students of all races in lawsuit settlement | CNN

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A Latino-focused internship program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino now states the program is “equally open to students of all races and ethnicities” following a lawsuit settlement with the American Alliance for Equal Rights.

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July 2024: NMAL Kicks Off Annual Community-Conscious Leadership Practicum

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July 2024: NMAL Kicks Off Annual Community-Conscious Leadership Practicum

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The NMAL announced that 21 college-bound high school seniors have participated in its Young Ambassadors Program (YAP) during Washington Week, June 23–29, 2024. YAP is an annual summer program supported by Ford Philanthropy that fosters the next generation of community-conscious leaders in the arts, sciences and humanities. From July 8 to Aug. 2, 2024, the young ambassadors travelled to one of 19 Smithsonian partner or affiliate museums across the United States to complete community-centered practicums.

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National Museum of the American Latino Kicks Off Annual Community-Conscious Leadership Practicum | Smithsonian Institution

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The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino has announced that 21 college-bound high school seniors have participated in its Young Ambassadors Program (YAP) during Washington Week, June 23–29. YAP is an annual summer program supported by Ford Philanthropy that fosters the next generation of community-conscious leaders in the arts, sciences and humanities. From July 8 to Aug. 2, the young ambassadors will travel to one of 19 Smithsonian partner or affiliate museums across the United States to complete community-centered practicums.