Latest news with #NationalMuseumoftheAmericanLatino
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Under Trump, the future of U.S. Latino history preservation is uncertain
The future of Latino history is in peril. President Trump's proposed 2026 budget, which is currently under congressional review, could halt plans for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino to expand on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The president's budget would not provide funding for the long-awaited Latino museum, which was signed into law by Trump during his first term. News of the 2026 budget proposal came after he issued a March executive order titled 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,' which alleges a 'divisive, race-centered ideology' at the core of the Smithsonian Institution. Instead, the FY26 budget requests $5.8 million to fund and revert back to a Smithsonian Latino Center model, which shares U.S. Latino history and culture collections, programs and educational content throughout other Smithsonian Institutions. This is in lieu of developing a Latino museum on the National Mall, modeled after the National Museum of the American Indian or the National Museum of African American History and Culture. On June 6, the Republican-led Congressional Hispanic Conference submitted a letter urging the Senate and House appropriations committees to fund the museum. 'We also understand, and support, efforts to root out anti-American sentiment and DEI over merit-based ideology across our government,' the letter stated. 'That is why the leadership and membership of the Congressional Hispanic Conference have taken proactive steps to ensure the National Museum of the American Latino remains unbiased.' The Democrat-led Congressional Hispanic Caucus followed suit with a letter of its own, in support of the museum. 'Curtailing these efforts through inadequate funding would be a setback not only for the Latino community, but for all Americans who benefit from a more complete and inclusive historical narrative,' stated the letter. Currently, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino is rotating its temporary exhibits in the 4,500-square-foot Molina Family Latino Gallery at the National Museum of American History. It recently closed out its popular exhibit, '¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States,' which garnered nearly 1 million visitors across its three-year stretch. Now, the museum is collecting artifacts and installing its next spring exhibit, '¡Puro Ritmo! The Musical Journey of Salsa.' ' I always tell everyone I'm trying to represent over 63 million people in the United States,' says Jorge Zamanillo, director of the National Museum of the American Latino. 'But when we open a museum that's gonna have over 100,000 square feet of public spaces … imagine the kinds of stories you could tell.' For Zamanillo, a permanent site on the National Mall would make all the difference, not just for the preservation of Latino stories but for generations of Latinos to feel represented on a national scale. ' We served in every military conflict in the United States since the American Revolution,' says Zamanillo. 'When you start really studying our presence here over the centuries, it's amazing,' he adds. Following Trump's proposed budget, the Smithsonian Institution submitted its budget justification to Congress. No funding decisions will be finalized until Congress passes a final FY26 appropriation. Zamanillo knows that the process to secure a prime spot on the National Mall might take longer than expected, but he calls it a 'generational project' that once enacted will allow for Latino stories to exist in perpetuity. ' We're doing this for our kids and our grandkids, to make sure that they won't have the same issues [with] feeling underrepresented,' says Zamanillo. However, with the Trump administration hammering down on all diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, including equity-related grants, the future of Latino history preservation could face setbacks. On May 2, Trump proposed a $158-million cut to the federal Historic Preservation Fund, effectively eviscerating its funding, including the Underrepresented Communities grant, which has played a significant national role in supporting more inclusive preservation efforts. The National Park Service has requested zero funds for the upcoming fiscal year. The Times reached out to NPS for a comment on the phasing-out of the grant program but did not hear back. Early this year, Latinos in Heritage Conservation, a national network focused on supporting Latino preservation efforts, conducted an equity study that reviewed how many of the 95,000 National Register of Historic Places across the U.S. were associated with Latino heritage. The results were grim. LHC found that only 0.65% of the current registered sites in the U.S. reflect Latino history after analyzing survey data from state historic preservation offices as well as public information on the National Park Service's Historic Preservation Fund website. Historical sites can be any culturally or spiritually significant emblems and spaces — including a house, a monument or a cemetery — that are deemed worthy of preservation. In Los Angeles, for example, Church of the Epiphany in Lincoln Heights is listed for its importance to the Chicano civil rights movement. Meanwhile, Boyle Heights' Forsythe Memorial School for Girls, a Protestant missionary school that sought to Americanize Mexican girls, is also on the list of historic places. However, the lack of historical site representation is even more harrowing when considering the fact that Latinos make up roughly 20% of the United States population. ' That's why we have to do this work,' says Sehila Mota Casper, executive director of LHC. Since 2014, LHC has worked to preserve and catalog Latino histories that might have gone overlooked by mainstream textbooks, museums and the federal government. With no national inventory of Latino heritage sites, they remain invisible to organizations that may otherwise fund and protect them. LHC has designed its own conservation grant, the Nuestra Herencia Grant, which the organization says is the nation's first grant program dedicated to funding Latin Heritage Projects. Its inaugural cycle will fund a traveling exhibit for the Blackwell School in Marfa, Texas, which was the only public education institution for the city's Mexican American students from 1909 to 1965. LHC also launched its Abuelas Project in 2021— which pays homage to grandmothers, often the culture bearers in Latino families — to help fill gaps in folk knowledge. The national digital library consolidates 26 oral histories, 700 photographs and other community-submitted materials. ' We wanted to create something that allowed us to look outside of those parameters [in museums and libraries], and acknowledge that colonization has erased our history,' says Mota Casper, who has championed Latino preservation for over a decade. One of the Abuelas Project includes an interactive website focused on the Bracero program, the temporary program that brought over Mexican workers due to agricultural and railroad labor shortages between 1942 and 1964. The program played an integral role in shaping national identities and communities, as well as U.S. relations with Mexico. 'The purpose [of the Abuelas Project] is to find sites and stories that someone knows to be true, but it wasn't in the local newspaper, it's not online, not in the history books,' says Mota Casper about the Abuelas Project. Today, however, only one remaining historical site, Rio Vista Farm, is left to tell its story. The processing center, formerly Rio Vista Bracero Reception Center, was designated a National Historic Landmark by the secretary of the Interior in 2023, through the Underrepresented Communities Grant. 'This history is not only important for us just to tell a truthful story, but it's also to ensure that our contributions are seen and felt for generations to come,' says Mota Casper.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump says he fired museum director as his budget targets Smithsonian
President Donald Trump announced Friday that he has fired the director of the National Portrait Gallery, Kim Sajet, whom he called 'highly partisan.' The dismissal marks the first action Trump has taken against the Smithsonian Institution since an executive order he signed earlier this year that promised to eliminate 'divisive narratives' and 'anti-American ideology' from the museum and research body, which is partially funded by the federal government. 'Upon the request and recommendation of many people, I am herby terminating the employment of Kim Sajet as Director of the National Portrait Gallery,' Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. 'She is a highly partisan person, and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position. Her replacement will be named shortly.' Hours after Trump's post, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III told staff that the White House also sent new details of proposed cuts to the Smithsonian's budget, in an email obtained by The Washington Post. The president's request to Congress proposed a 12 percent reduction of the institution's budget and excluded funding for its Anacostia Community Museum and its forthcoming National Museum of the American Latino, Bunch said. It is unclear if the president has authority to dismiss Sajet. The Smithsonian's programming is not under the purview of the executive branch, and personnel decisions for senior-level Smithsonian museum positions are made by Bunch. Neither the museum, the institution nor the White House immediately responded to a request for comment. Thomas Berry, the director of the Cato Institute's center for constitutional studies, said presidents have the authority to hire and fire top officials in the executive branch who then have the powers to make their own hiring and firing decisions, with the understanding that they could lose their jobs if the president is not satisfied with their decisions. 'The shorthand for this that is often used as a good rule of thumb is that the power to fire goes to whoever has the power to appoint,' Berry said. In the National Portrait Gallery's case, top personnel decisions are made by the Smithsonian's secretary, who is appointed by the board of regents. The National Portrait Gallery, established in 1962 by an act of Congress, houses portraits of distinguished Americans, including every president. Its collection includes more than 26,000 works. An independent institution, the Smithsonian has operated as a public-private partnership since 1846, with the federal government covering about 62 percent of its expenses. On March 27, the president issued an executive order titled 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,' which aims to 'restore the Smithsonian Institution to its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness.' A 35-year-old special assistant and senior associate staff secretary, Lindsey Halligan, was among the order's architects — instigated, in part, by her early-2025 visit to the show 'The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,' an exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which shares a building with the Portrait Gallery. The order calls for Halligan and Vice President JD Vance to 'remove improper ideology' from the Smithsonian and 'prohibit expenditure on exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race.' Trump's unprecedented order was foreshadowed by a Nov. 25 Wall Street Journal opinion piece co-written by the Heritage Foundation's Mike Gonzalez, one of the contributors to Project 2025, which called for the president to 'retake control' of the Smithsonian's museums. The institution, Gonzalez wrote, had 'forsaken their mission of spreading knowledge and instead are trying to 'decolonize' society.' Sajet, who formerly served as president and chief executive of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, was selected to lead the Portrait Gallery in 2013 — becoming the first woman to serve in the role. As director, Sajet has focused on diversifying the gallery's collection and programming by acquiring works that reflected a broader range of artists and subjects and integrating Spanish into the museum's communications strategy. In 2017, she was the first Smithsonian director to name a choreographer-in-residence to create dance performances based on the museum's exhibitions. She also hosted the museum's 'Portraits' podcast series, now in its sixth season, to engage the public with conversations about art, history and identity. Sajet was 'fair minded, and interested in all kinds of projects,' says a former National Portrait Gallery historian who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional repercussions. 'I've never thought of her as politically motivated.' Born in Nigeria, Sajet is a citizen of the Netherlands who has worked in the United States for 30 years. 'A big part of my job [at the Historical Society] was being able to talk about American identity and what this amazing country has done,' Sajet told The Washington Post in 2013. 'Americans sometimes forget how much they are observed by other people around the world. I'm looking forward to reminding people of the larger global context. It's something the Smithsonian values.' On Saturday, the Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum plan to host their family Pride festival. Meryl Kornfield contributed reporting to this report.
Miami Herald
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
No funding for nascent Smithsonian Latino museum in Trump's 2026 budget request
The Smithsonian's planned American Latino museum – already a political football in the nation's capital – is getting no financial help from President Donald Trump. The museum, still in its infancy, is effectively left out of Trump's proposed 2026 budget. The president's spending plan – the first of his second term – includes no money for the design and development of the museum, one of two new Smithsonian museums green-lit several years ago by Congress. The prospects that the Trump administration would withhold money that the museum needs to get off the ground is potentially problematic for its leaders, who are seeking to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to construct the building. In a 2026 budget document released in May, the Smithsonian describes the president's budget as 'eliminating funding for the development of the National Museum of the American Latino.' 'The Smithsonian has received federal appropriations for the National Museum of the American Latino for the past four years,' a spokesperson for the museum told the Miami Herald, noting that the president's budget 'does not include funding' for the institution. Why does Trump want to omit funding? The museum, approved with bipartisan support by Congress and Trump in 2020, was created with the goal to 'honor the dreams, challenges and triumphs of U.S. Latinos, elevating [their] stories within the national narrative,' according to its website Led by Jorge Zamanillo, former director of HistoryMiami, the museum does not yet have a location. Its leaders are still searching for as much as $800 million in funding reportedly needed to construct and fill a building. A White House official told the Herald that the lack of a location for the museum factored into the president's decision to omit funding in his proposed budget. The official also said President Joe Biden's final budget included no money for the planning and design of the museum. Trump, though, has been critical of the Smithsonian. In a March executive order, the president said the 'Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology,' describing it as part of a movement to recast U.S. history in a negative light. The order directed Trump's vice president, who is among the leaders on the Smithsonian's Board of Regents, to 'prohibit expenditure on exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy.' The museum has also been the subject of criticism from conservative groups and Republican representatives. In a 2024 article, The Heritage Foundation publicly denounced the Latino museum, deeming it a 'woke indoctrination factory' and 'disgraceful.' 'Its aim is to teach the young and future generations to see themselves as victims of America, so they can destroy it from within,' wrote Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank. In an X post Thursday morning, Alfonso Aguilar, conservative activist and former chief of the U.S. Office of Citizenship, said the Latino museum 'is being used to promote a 'woke, culturally Marxist' agenda. 'That's why #Trump is asking Congress to defund it,' Aguilar wrote. 'If Republicans really want to counter the woke agenda, they should comply with his request.' Miami Republicans have also been critical at times of the museum. Cuban-American U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart deemed an exhibition created by the museum and hosted in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History as 'patronizing' and 'quasi-racist' during a 2023 subcommittee hearing. Diaz-Balart worked at the time with House Republicans to push legislation forward to pull the museum's funding, though he backed off that effort after he said he had a productive meeting with Smithsonian representatives. What happens next? Congress sets the U.S. budget, not Trump. 'This is the first step of a very long appropriations process,' said the Latino museum spokesperson. Notably, Diaz-Balart serves on the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations, which is tasked with drafting legislation to allocate federal government funds. His office did not respond to a request seeking comment. Miami Congressman Carlos Giménez, a Cuban-American Republican who sits on the Smithsonian Board of Regents, also did not respond to a request for comment. 'I consider the museum something which I'd like to have, but it's not something I gotta have,' Gimenez told Roll Call. Meanwhile, some members of the House and Senate continue to push to create a space for the museum along the National Mall – the greenspace home to memorials and other museums east of the U.S. Capitol – and preserve financing for an institution that is supposed to highlight Latinos' influence on U.S. history. A Senate bill called the 'Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino Act,' led by California Democrat Alex Padilla and Texas Republican Ted Cruz, would allow the federal government 'to build a new Smithsonian museum on the National Mall that recognizes the accomplishments of Latinos,' according to a news release. The bill says museum leaders 'shall ensure that the exhibits and programs of the Museum accurately and comprehensively represent the varied cultures, histories, events, and values of Hispanic or Latino communities.'
The Hill
04-06-2025
- Health
- The Hill
Biden's HHS Secretary condemns Trump admin: ‘This is how public health collapses'
Former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra blasted the Trump administration's handling of public health since taking office, warning that its actions are a precursor of 'how public health collapses.' Writing on the social media platform X, Becerra, who's running for California governor, said, 'I've held back. Gave this administration a chance to settle in. But after this MAHA report fiasco, the vaccine rollbacks, and the silencing of public health experts—I'm done holding back. We have an obligation to speak up. And I will.' He cited the death of two children this year from measles, the MAHA report's citation of nonexistent studies and the 'gutting public health' as examples of how the Trump administration has failed to ensure public health. 'This is bigger than one bad report. They're muzzling researchers. Laying off experts. Erasing science. And telling pregnant women and parents that vaccines don't matter. This is how public health collapses,' wrote Becerra. 'We owe it to the people we serve—Democrat or Republican, urban or rural—to fight back with facts and protect the systems that keep our families safe,' he added. 'Silence isn't neutrality. It's surrender.' Since leaving HHS, Becerra hasn't been entirely silent in his criticisms of the Trump administration's actions. When HHS announced it would be cutting nearly a quarter of its staff, Becerra said, 'It's hard to make sense of the HHS cuts.' 'Who's going to inspect our nursing homes? Who's going to inspect for lead those imported toys that our kids put in their mouths,' he said at the time, adding it had 'the makings of a manmade disaster.' Apart from health policy, Becerra also went after President Trump following the release of his budget proposal, which would cut the planned National Museum of the American Latino. 'I first introduced legislation to create the National Museum of the American Latino over 20 years ago—because our stories matter,' Becerra said this week. 'Now Trump wants to kill it before it even has a building. You don't honor history by erasing it. You build it.'
USA Today
19-04-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Lawmakers push bipartisan bill to put the American Latino museum on the National Mall.
Lawmakers push bipartisan bill to put the American Latino museum on the National Mall. Bipartisan support for the National Museum of the American Latino endures, despite anti-DEI push. Show Caption Hide Caption Trump issues order forcing museums to remove 'improper ideology' President Donald Trump has issued an order attempting to force changes at the Smithsonian Institution, targeting funding for programs that advance 'divisive narratives' and 'improper ideology." Fox - 5 DC WASHINGTON ‒ In the midst of the Trump administration's efforts to roll back diversity initiatives, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators is pushing for a site on the National Mall for a museum focused on the American Latino experience. 'Latinos have been at the heart of U.S. history for hundreds of years, shaping American culture, communities and business,' Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, said in a statement. 'The story of the American Latino, and the simultaneous fight for equality by American women, should be enshrined on the National Mall, the tapestry of the United States.'' The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino Act proposed by Padilla and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, would locate the museum in one of the four remaining slots on the mall. Congress must pass legislation to approve a waiver to use that location. There is also bipartisan support for the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum Act to be located on the mall. That measure is led by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming. Enthusiasm for the museums and their prominent location comes at the same time as the Trump administration's campaign to eliminate diversity initiatives at the Smithsonian, across the federal government and in the private sector. In a recent order, titled 'Restoring truth and sanity to American history," President Donald Trump complained the Smithsonian has 'come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology." It calls for Vice President JD Vance to join in a role with the Smithsonian Board of Regents to help map out new policies. Latino museum to spotlight history The Latino museum and other Smithsonian institutions have long received bipartisan support. Congress approved bipartisan legislation for the Latino museum in late 2020. Then-president Trump signed it into law during his first term. Two years later, the Smithsonian named the museum's first permanent director, Jorge Zamanillo, and unveiled a gallery dedicated to the U.S. Latino experience in the National Museum of American History. More: Trump sets sights on national African American history museum The Smithsonian Board of Regents recommended a site on the mall near the Tidal Basin. Juan Proaño, CEO of LULAC, said the Latino civil rights organization stands by efforts to put museums focused on the Latino experience and one on women's history on the National Mall. But Proaño is worried some lawmakers might try to stall the process. He called Trump's order and other, similar efforts, attempts at the 'whitewashing of our history, of African American History and Latino history, of contributions of indigenous communities from around the country. That is a big, big concern.' Proaño, activists and historians said the Smithsonian museums are integral parts of the nation's history and should not be allowed to be politicized. 'They would effectively try and implement some sort of DEI cleansing of our national institutions, which are the cornerstone of the history of this country,'' he said. Others are worried about the fate of the Smithsonian more broadly. Four Democrats on the House Administration Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Smithsonian Institution, wrote to Vance expressing concerns about Trump's executive order and his singling out Smithsonian museums, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture. 'This flagrant attempt to erase Black history is unacceptable and must be stopped,'' they wrote in the letter dated April 17, led by New York Rep. Joseph Morelle, the top Democrat on the committee. 'The attempt to paper over elements of American history is both cowardly and unpatriotic.'' Former Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, who was a lead sponsor of the Latino museum legislation along with former Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-California, said support has always been bipartisan. 'It will take members from both sides of the aisle to come together and get this bill across the finish line,' she said in a statement.
