It’s peak tourism season in Washington, D.C., and thousands of people are flocking to the nation’s capital to see monuments and the Smithsonian Institute museums, which are free for visitors to enjoy.
Over the last two years, the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History — which sees about 2 million visitors each year and displays cultural artifacts like Dorothy’s ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz — has been home to “¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States.” The exhibit, on display in the Molina Family gallery, is a preview of what is to come in the future American Latino museum.
“The Molina Family Latino gallery here at American History, it's a great opportunity for the museum to have the space as a testing ground to really to try out different themes and topics and see what resonates with, with the public, with the community,” explained Jorge Zamanillo, the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino.
Zamanillo is building the museum quite literally from the ground up, with funds for the future museum bankrolled in a 50-50 split between private donors and Congress.
“We've done a great job fundraising. We know it's a big lift — it's over $500 million in private funds we need to raise for this project,” explained Zamanillo. “We're just a little bit over $65 million right now over the past two years.”
Zamanillo is hoping that Congress can help fuel that momentum by finalizing a site for the museum. Back in 2022, the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents selected two sites for consideration for the Latino museum and the Women’s History museum; one across from the National Museum of African American History and Culture and one closer to the eastern shore of the Tidal Basin, and across from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The Latino Museum went with the location closer to the Tidal Basin, with a bit more room for outdoor events, festivals and activities.
“We picked a spot that we envision having a beautiful museum just in similar space and, largesse as the African American museum. But we want outdoor space as well, because for so many Latino cultures — whether it's Puerto Ricans or Cubans or Mexicans or what have you — we love parties and we love music and we love food,” said Rep. Tony Cárdenas, D-Calif. “So we're envisioning having something that we can actually have outdoor events or we have festivals.”
Cárdenas has long been a champion for the museum, leading the bill for its creation alongside former Reps. Will Hurd, R-Texas, and José Serrano, D-N.Y. in 2019 that was eventually signed into law in 2020 as part of a larger spending package.
The San Fernando Valley congressman said his passion for the project comes in part from his own experience growing up and not having people to look up to that he could identify with.
“It was always people that didn't look like me. And that to me is very detrimental to the confidence of a child,” he said. “I think that little girls and little boys should have people that they can identify with, who they can be proud of, and people they can say, ‘oh my gosh, she did that, he did that, well, maybe I can do that too.’”
A study in the 1990s found Latinos were all but left out of the Smithsonian, mentioned less than 1% of the time in the then-17 museums and galleries that made up the system (there are now 20 locations that make up the Smithsonian Institution). This museum is a way to rectify that, and also teach about the diverse cultures within the Latino community, which is often spoken of as a monolith, but actually represents a number of ethnicities.
“Having a Latino museum is going to give us an opportunity to show the beautiful tapestry of the American Latino experiences that have been going on for hundreds of years here, and how that is impacted in a positive way,” he explained.
Cárdenas’ parents arrived in California from Mexico with a first and second grade education, realizing “if we want things to be different for the next generation, we got to go somewhere else.” They raised the congressman and his 10 siblings in Pacoima and Cárdenas says the values they instilled in him still influence his work every day.
“I love giving back to this great country. This great country has given us so much,” he said.
It’s also part of why he wants to make sure this museum gets built: to share the contributions of immigrants and how it makes America beautiful.
“Latinos are too often being seen as ‘well, that's the gardener or that's the helper.’ Other people appreciate their gardener and their helper. At the same time, Latinos are and have always been scientists, medical professionals, leaders of countries, leaders of communities. Yet at the same time, our stories are not told.”
Over the last two years, the museum has faced a number of hurdles. In 2022, three conservatives wrote an op-ed calling the preview exhibit a disgrace. The critics said the exhibit had a Marxist slant, portraying Latinos as the victims of oppression. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican from Florida who is Cuban-American, called the exhibit insulting and planned to withhold funding for the museum before reversing course.
Diaz-Balart declined our request for a comment on the museum’s progress.
A planned forthcoming exhibit on Latino civil rights history has also been reportedly scrapped in favor of an exhibit on salsa dancing and Latin music, signaling that the fights over this museum are likely not over.
When asked how he responds to such critics, Zamanillo said he takes “time to listen to their comments and criticism” and figure out how best to move forward.
“When we hear those critiques and criticism, it's really about people that have a passion to tell their story and make sure their stories are being heard. And that's what we take to heart,” Zamanillo said. “We really want to hear all these stories and see how we can combine and find the commonalities and see what brings us together.”
Despite last year’s funding fight, Cárdenas says he is confident a museum will rise from the ground in the next several years. “I predict today, I'm telling you that I think that the Latino Museum is going to be the fastest fundraising effort we've ever seen for a Smithsonian museum in the history of the United States,” he said.
It took nearly 13 years from Congressional approval to building completion for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Cárdenas is the only remaining original sponsor of the bill establishing the museum left in Congress, with both Hurd and Serranos already retired. Cárdenas announced last year he would not run for re-election, meaning the museum will lose one of its biggest champions from the halls of Capitol Hill.
But Cárdenas says he plans to see the museum through — as a member of the museum’s board of trustees.
“To me, this is something that I want to make sure that my children and grandchildren see. I want to see this being built before I leave this planet, and it's going to get done,” he told us. “I predict that hopefully in about ten years or so, we're going to open those doors and have a great grand opening.”
For more information about the museum, click here.