Some say that although the two aren’t rivals, having another major museum on the Capitol agenda jeopardizes the first.
“I think it mixes the messages,” says Estuardo Rodriguez, executive director of Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino. “I think there’s going to be a challenge, as it relates to educating (Congress) and the supporters we need about the distinctions and differences between these efforts.
“They are huge and important. We don’t speak critically of (the immigrant experience museum) but we make the distinctions clear.”
Congress conceivably could approve both museums, but supporters concede that there could be some competition, especially given increasingly tight budgetary constraints.
Recently, Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Los Angeles, author of the bill creating the Latino museum, has revved up the campaign of the Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino.
“Becerra says such a museum is necessary “our history, for our culture, for our contributions to this country,” though he warned that if “we’re going to be housed in the dark recesses of some storage container because there’s not enough room for all that, that’s not enough.”
Current bills in Congress call for the Latino museum to be created in the Smithsonian’s unused Arts and Industries Building in Washington.
Waiting U.S. Congress approval
Previous legislation lapsed after failing to win passage in the previous congressional session.
In 2011 the National Museum of the American Latino had a presidentially appointed commission study of its feasibility completed.
Supporters of the broader immigrant experience facility, known as the National Museum of the American People are pushing for Congress to press for a feasibility study.
While Latino immigration would be part of that museum, it would take a wider look at how all ethnic or national groups came came to the U.S. beginning with the prehistoric ancestors of Native Americans traversing an Ice Age land bridge between Siberia and Alaska.
To Read more: http://www.voxxi.com/is-us-latino-museum-in-trouble/#ixzz2hLuX4izm
Photo: AmericanLatinoMuseum.org
