The first exhibit at the new Molina Family Latino Gallery, at the Smithsonian, attempts to fit hundreds of years of Latino history in the U.S.—a narrative arcing from Spanish colonization to this day—into a single 4,500-square-foot room.
,” 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.
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 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.
In the meantime, the Molina Family Latino Gallery—established with a ten-million-dollar donation by the children and the widow of C. Daniel Molina, who made his fortune with a health-care company—will serve as “Latino 101,” Eduardo Díaz, the deputy director of the new museum and a former director of the Latino Center, told me. It offers, he said, a single message to visitors: “Latino history is American history.” But not everyone approves of the way that history is presented.
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