You Can Now Preview the Upcoming Latino Museum
JULY 1, 2022
New exhibition “¡Presente!” aims to show how Latinos shaped American history
The new Smithsonian show examines the foundational contributions of Latinos in shaping the history and culture of the United States. NMAL, © Tony Powell
Alicia Ault
Museums Correspondent
A tiny homemade raft used by two men fleeing Cuba in the 1990s for a better life in America. A rumpled backpack, dusty white sneakers, and an MP3 player, discarded in the desert during a desperate crossing of the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. Passports and airplane tickets.
These objects, featured in the exhibition "¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States" and now on view in the Molina Family Latino Gallery at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, represent the immigrant journeys that are most often associated with “Latinos” in the minds of many Americans.
But Latinos and Latinas have been in what is now American territory for hundreds to thousands of years.
“We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us,” says comedian Cheech Marin, echoing an oft-repeated phrase in the Latino community that refers to the fact that following the Mexican-American War of 1846-48, the U.S. essentially subsumed Northern Mexico—what is now Arizona, California, western Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Utah—into its territory.
More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/you-can-now-preview-upcoming-latino-museum-180980340/