The Future of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino Is in Question

The fate of the Smithsonian Latino Museum is in limbo after the House Appropriations Committee approved a budget bill that bans the federal government from spending any taxpayer money on the project, according to the Hill.

Passed on Wednesday, the bill is a major setback for the museum, which was approved by Congress in 2020 with a wide margin, 349-33, and with the caveat that the museum be impartial. The vote to withdraw funding was much less concise.

While the museum has been searching for a permanent home on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., its first exhibition opened in 2022, in the Molina Family Latino Gallery at the National Museum of American History. Titled “¡Presente!,“ the exhibition attempts to “explore the diverse stories of Latinos in the United States—past, present, and future.”

Critics of the exhibition say it focuses to narrowly on “European colonialism, forced migration and U.S. interventions in Latin America that propped up right-wing dictatorships,” the Hill reports. It’s that criticism that led to the halt in funding, with those opposed to the exhibition saying it portrays the history of Latin Americans in the US through a solely West Coast, Mexican migratory experience while ignoring the story of Latinos who fled oppressive regimes, like Fidel Castro’s rule in Cuba.

“I don’t know who did this, I don’t know if they’re Hispanic, but it’s really kind of like a racist portrayal of Hispanics. And also just trying to portray the United States as evil in every way,” Representative Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.), a Cuban American who has voiced Republican concerns about the exhibition, told the Hill. 

In the bill that passed on Wednesday, the exhibition was described as “flippant.” The bill also accused the show of having “overt bias” and a “lack of diversity.” Supporters of the exhibition say it’s shortsighted to judge an entire museum on an exhibition in one gallery.

“To hold the Smithsonian accountable to a gallery that was conceived prior to the actual bill passing in December 2020, that was conceived prior to Jorge Zamanillo ever getting the first job interview to be the director of the American Latino Museum, that’s unfair,” Estuardo Rodríguez, president and CEO of the Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino, told the Hill.