A federal commission spent two years asking the kingpins what they would like such a Museum, and next month, the commission will report its findings at the Congress, which would have to approve a new Museum.
Although the creation of such an institution is supported by members of Congress, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and celebrities such as Eva Longoria, faces major obstacles, including budgetary pressures and a feeling among some people in Washington that the Smithsonian should stop spinning off the coast of new specialized museums and concentrate on improving the construction of those already.
"I don't want a situation," said representative Jim Moran, a Virginia Democrat, "where to go white the original Museum, African-Americans go to the African American Museum, Indians go to the Indian Museum, Hispanics go to the American Museum Latino." This is not America. ?
In Washington, where policy infects all the issues, there is wide recognition that the Latinos 50 million who live in this country have become a constituency more increasingly important. But even supporters of the Museum recognize faces a battle. "" The atmosphere is not friendly at all,"said Estuardo V. Rodriguez, Jr., a lobbyist with the Raben group who volunteered on the Museum proposal, citing economic pressures and what he describes as a sense anti-immigrant.
The idea of a Museum of the Smithsonian Latino was born in the 1990s, when a working group said the Smithsonian had largely ignored Latinos in its exhibitions and should create at least a museum to correct this imbalance.
Report of the special group entitled "Wilful negligence", for example, found that only 2 of the 470 people featured in the section "notable Americans" of the National Portrait Gallery were Latino.
Since the Smithsonian set aside money for Latino exhibitions and has created an internal Office to promote them. He agreed that a Museum of heritage Latino in San Antonio, which opened in 2007, be designated as an affiliate. Called the Museo Alameda, the institution is authorized to borrow books from the Smithsonian Institution, but is not funded by it.
There are dozens of other museums across the country that focus on the heritage or the Latino culture, including the United States population has increased by 43% over the last decade, figures 2010 census. But supporters of the national museum to say that it is imperative that there is a similar presence in the capital.
While the commission is not expected to make specific proposals on the content, the Museum would probably try to cover a broad swath of history, the role of the Spanish conquistadors in the work of the Latinos in the movements of the hand of work and civil rights. It would include culture, popular music for the Visual arts and try people of functionality and Hispanic traditions of all countries.
Lisa Navarrete, a spokesman for the National Council of La Raza, a defence of the Latino organization, said it is unfortunate that children Latino who now travel to the shopping centre cannot see "their community and history and heritage reflects."
She said that a museum performing is particularly crucial now because discussions on immigration issues have created a "toxic" for the Latino environment. "It is even more important to show the other Americans that our roots go back centuries in this continent", she said.
Although the Act to allow a museum Latino commission, formally known as the National Museum of the American Latino Commission, was introduced in 2003 by Representative Xavier Becerra, a Democrat from California, it has not occurred until 2008, a project of law omnibus budget.
The economy and the balance of power in Congress have changed since that vote, with the Republicans holding now 49-vote majority in the House of representatives.
Federal funding for the Museum would not appear to be an option, members of Congress say that for African American museums and Indians. The National Museum of African American History and Culture has a $ 500 million price tag, of which half is paid by the Federal Government. The Government paid for the two-thirds of the Indian Museum.
Leaders of the Commission has chosen these days no pas to discuss their report before their brief Congress, in the first week of May. But it is expected that the Committee would suggest that if a museum was authorized by the Government, most of the funding can be raised private.
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