National Museums Should Reflect America

For many years, countless Americans – Latino and otherwise – believed that the mosaic portrayed in Washington’s museums was missing a few tiles.  In response, the Smithsonian Institution examined itself and in the 1990s determined that the mirror it was holding up to America was indeed incomplete.  In 1997, the Center for Latino Initiatives was launched as an effort to respond to the lack of representation of Latinos at the Smithsonian in staffing and exhibitions.

Over 35 million individuals attend the Smithsonian’s museums and traveling exhibits every year.   As you can imagine, many are children visiting with their parents or on school trips.  Among our nation’s school-age population, about every fifth student is of Latino descent.  Every one child out of five born today in the United States is an American of Latino heritage.

All children who visit the nation’s capital take the lessons learned here back home to their communities.  We should not allow our children to learn that Latinos are not part of America. Instead, when they visit the nation’s capital they should leave inspired by our past with faith in our future. This country has always managed to give the next generation of leaders good reason to be proud of our history and culture. We must continue that tradition.

Passage of H.R. 2134 would be the first step toward giving every American a better chance to fully experience what it means to be an American when they visit our premiere national museums. But we will not be successful in this effort unless the entire Latino community supports the museum-building effort politically and financially.  After the legislative battles have been won, it will require significant financial and political support from the community and congress to build. Together, we can make this happen.