Marabou is excited about the move toward greater representation of the Latinx communities presence and contributions to American history and culture. Keep the momentum going to establish a Latinx American museum in Washington D.C. Congrats to the Smithsonian Latino Center!

Read Peggy McGlone’s full Washington Post article:  “New gallery will be first in a Smithsonian museum to focus on U.S. Latino experience“. Marabou has pulled an excerpt below:

The Smithsonian announced Thursday that it will open its first gallery focused on the U.S. Latino experience, in the National Museum of American History.

Opening in 2021 on the museum’s first floor, the Molina Family Latino Gallery will feature bilingual exhibits exploring the history and contributions of American Latinos. A $10 million gift from the five children of the late California physician and entrepreneur C. David Molina is funding the 4,500-square-foot space. The permanent gallery has been a long-term goal of the Smithsonian Latino Center, which was founded in 1997 to work with the institution’s other museums and research centers to recognize Latino contributions…Advocates supporting a stand-alone Latino museum welcomed the announcement, saying it represents significant progress in their effort.

“It’s wonderful. This is exactly the road the African American Museum took. They also had a gallery in the American History Museum,” said Estuardo Rodriguez, executive director of the advocacy group Friends of the American Latino Museum. “We run on parallel tracks, and we will point to that in our efforts to fundraise and to pass legislation for [a museum].”

The Smithsonian does not back the creation of a new museum, but there is growing support in Congress for a Smithsonian Latino museum, and members greeted the news of the new gallery with optimism.