According to the last census, Latinos are the fastest-growing minority group in the United States. But in an age where Congress has approved the construction of a massive fence along the Mexican border, it might seem oxymoronic that they are also considering the creation of a national Latino-American museum.
But just what is the role of Latino-American art on the national scale and would the institutionalization of it be a positive or negative for American society as a whole?
It’s important to note from the outset that the influx of every immigrant population has been met with derision, skepticism, and in many cases violence. It is no small irony, of course, that these reactions come from the descendants of previous immigrant populations. As Ric Burns points out in his six-part documentary series, New York, the embers of rage invariably settle with time. But in the crucible of decades it takes for such acceptance to be born, American culture—from its inception one built by the clashing of immigrant voices—is reshaped and begun anew.
That the U.S. Government has created the Smithsonian Latino Center (the possible precursor of the proposed national museum) to “develop Latino-themed programs and exhibits for national and international audiences” and “to honor Latino contributions to U.S. society and culture” is, perhaps, evidence that even as one sect of the government argues over fences and deportation, another is moving forward to accept America’s ever-changing face.
According to the government web site, “The center’s mission [is] to increase public awareness and appreciation of Latino achievements. The Latino presence in the Americas is centuries-old, culturally rich, and demographically vast and growing.”
Pilar O’Leary, the director of the Smithsonian Latino Center, says the institution has acquired “a treasure trove of ‘scientific, archeological, artistic and archival material’ that illuminates the development of every country in the region: an important consideration, she stressed, because each Latin American country has added its own unique flavor to the U.S. cultural mosaic.”
To this end, the Smithsonian wanted to be as inclusive as possible. Thus, rather than simply concentrating on the “Hispanic peoples of the Americas, the center also devotes attention to Brazil (whose native language is Portuguese, not Spanish) and to the indigenous population of Latin America.”
Legislation has been introduced to establish a Latino Museum, which would be a part of the Smithsonian system, headquartered in Washington, D.C. and consisting of 16 museums and galleries, the National Zoo and numerous research facilities in the United States and abroad. “But in the meantime,” said O’Leary, “the Smithsonian Latino Center will continue to ensure that Latino achievements are highlighted, understood, and advanced at the largest and most venerable cultural institution in the United States.”
While it can certainly be argued that the creation of a national Latino-American Museum would mark a cultural victory for the country’s latest immigrant group, evidence of the deep effect of Latino-American art and culture is already well apparent from even a cursory glance around the country.
Each summer at Queens Theatre in the Park, for instance, the theatre produces its most successful and well-attended event. In Flushing Meadow Park, beneath two precarious towers, the last remnants from the 1964 World’s Fair, people from across the east coast and around the world attend The JPMorgan Chase Latino Cultural Festival, which over a period of several weeks highlights Latino, Hispanic, and Latino-American dance, film, theatre, photography, and history.
But it is not just the heavily Latino-populated borough of Queens that highlights Latino-American contributions to society. Cultural institutions across the country regularly incorporate Latino-American art into their seasons. In Illinois, the International Latino Cultural Center was created to “develop, promote and increase awareness of Latino cultures among Latinos and other communities through film and video events, education, and other art forms.” And in Milwaukee, WI, Latino Arts, Inc. champions the provision and promotion of Hispanic programming in the arts “both in [the Milwaukee] community and beyond.”
Clearly, it is not just the history of Latino peoples that Latino-American arts in the U.S. are attempting to capture. Art is, arguably, not the best vessel for such aims. As the late African-American playwright August Wilson said in the prologue to his play Seven Guitars, which was inspired by his mother, “I am not a historian. I happen to think that the contents of my mother’s life—her myths, the smell of her kitchen, the song that escaped from her sometimes parched lips, her thoughtful repose and pregnant laughter—are all worthy of art.”
These myths, smells, and pregnant eruptions of laughter are, perhaps, what the U.S. Government is attempting to record for generations to come as it ponders whether or not to fund the construction of the Latino-American museum.
But it may take awhile. After all, the Smithsonian has just now gotten around to creating its African-American Museum, which honors the only ethnic group that did not come to America by choice. If it also eventually creates a Latino-American institution, we will then finally, perhaps, be moving toward the ideal of accepting with open arms the latest population of immigrants that have come to this country in search of a better life and a new world.
More reading:
Smithsonia Latino Center Homepage: http://latino.si.edu
Museum Legislation: CLICK HERE.
Queen’s Theatre in the Park’s Latino Cultural Festival: CLICK HERE.
Chicago’s Latino Cultural Center: www.latinoculturalcenter.org
Milwaukee’s Latino Arts, Inc.: www.latinoartsinc.org
The issue of terminology: “Latino or Hispanic?” – www.answers.com/topic/hispanic
National Museum of African American History and Culture: http://nmaahc.si.edu/default.htm
