The future of Latin history is in danger.
The budget proposed by President Trump in 2026, which is currently being examined in the congress, could interrupt the plans for the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino to develop the National Mall in Washington, DC
The president budget would not provide funding from the long -awaited Latin museum, which was promulgated by Trump during his first mandate. The news of the 2026 budget proposal came after publishing a walk executive decree Entitled “Restore truth and mental health to American history”, which alleges a “divisor ideology and centered on race” at the heart of the Smithsonian Institution.
Instead, the budget for financial year 26 requires $ 5.8 million to finance and return to a model from the Smithsonian Latino Center, which shares American American collections, programs and educational content in other Smithsonian institutions. This is instead of developing a Latin museum on the National Mall, on the model of the National Museum of American Indians or the National Museum of African-American History and Culture.
On June 6, the Hispanic Conference of the Congress led by Les Républicains Submitted a letter Undering the committees of the Senate and Chamber credits to finance the museum.
“We also understand and support efforts to eliminate anti-American feeling and Dei on ideology based on merit through our government,” said the letter. “This is why leadership and membership of the conference conference of Congress have taken proactive measures to ensure that the National Museum of American Latino remains impartial.”
The Hispanic Caucus of the Congress led by the Democrats followed suit with a letter to it, in support of the museum.
“The reduction of these efforts thanks to inadequate funding would be a setback not only for the Latin community, but for all the Americans who benefit from a more complete and inclusive historical story,” said the letter.
Currently, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino turns its temporary exhibitions in the Latino Molina Family gallery of 4,500 square feet at the National Museum of American History.
He recently closed his popular exhibition, “¡Presentation! A Latin history of the United States “, which collected nearly a million visitors on its three-year section. Now, the Artifacts Collection Museum and sets up its exhibition of the following spring, “¡Puro Ritmo! The musical journey of salsa ”.
“I always tell everyone that I try to represent more than 63 million people in the United States,” said Jorge Zamanillo, director of the National Museum of American Latino. “But when we open a museum that will have more than 100,000 square feet of public spaces … Imagine the types of stories you could tell.”
Jorge Zamanillo speaks with young visitors to the Ambassadors program at the Molina Family Latino Gallery from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino.
(National Museum of Smithsonian of American Latino)
For Zamanillo, a permanent site of the National Mall would make all the difference, not only for the preservation of Latin stories, but for the generations of Latinos, feeling represented nationally. “We have been used in all military conflicts in the United States since the American Revolution,” said Zamanillo.
“When you really start to study our presence here over the centuries, it’s incredible,” he adds.
Following Trump’s proposed budget, the Smithsonian Institution submitted its budgetary justification to the Congress. No financing decision will be finalized until the congress adopts a final credit for the financial year 26.
Zamanillo knows that the process to guarantee a place of choice on the National Mall could take more time than expected, but he calls it a “generational project” which, once promulgated, will allow Latin American stories to exist in perpetuity.
“We do this for our children and grandchildren, to make sure that they will not have the same problems [with] Feeling underrepresented, ”explains Zamanillo.
Latinos heritage sites at risk
However, with the Trump administration hammering all Diversity, equity and inclusion initiativesIncluding grants related to actions, the future of the preservation of Latin history could face reverse.
On May 2, Trump offered a $ 158 million reduction At the Federal Historic Preservation Fund, actually eviscing its funding, including the subsidy of under-represented communities, which played an important national role in supporting more inclusive preservation efforts.
The National Park Service asked zero funds For the next exercise. Times contacted NPS for a comment on the phasing of the subsidy program but has not heard.
At the beginning of this year, Latinos in heritage conservation, a national network focused on supporting Latin American preservation efforts, conducted a study in actions that examined the number of 95,000 national register of historic places Averse the United States were associated with Latin heritage. The results were dark.
LHC noted that only 0.65% of current registered sites in the United States reflect the history of Latinos after analyzing the data of the state’s historical offices as well as public information on the historic preservation fund of the National Park Service website.
Historical sites can be emblems and culturally or spiritually significant spaces – including a house, a monument or a cemetery – deemed worthy of conservation.
In Los Angeles, for example, the Church of the Epiphany of Lincoln Heights is listed for its importance for the Civil Rights Movement of Chicano. Meanwhile, the Forsythe Memorial School for Girls by Boyle Heights, a Protestant missionary school which sought to Americanize Mexican girls, is also on the list of historic places.
Epiphany church in Lincoln Heights.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
However, the lack of historical representation of the site is even more painful if we consider the fact that the Latinos compose about 20% of the American population. “This is why we have to do this work,” explains Sehila Mota Casper, executive director of LHC.
Since 2014, LHC has been working to preserve and catalog the Latin American stories that could have been neglected by traditional textbooks, museums and the federal government.
Without national inventory of Latin heritage sites, they remain invisible to organizations that could otherwise finance and protect them. LHC has designed its own conservation subsidy, the subsidy of Nuestra Herencia, which, according to the organization, is the first subsidy program of the country dedicated to the financing of Latin heritage projects. Its inaugural cycle will finance a traveling exhibition for the Blackwell School in Marfa, Texas, which was the only public education establishment for American Mexican students in the city from 1909 to 1965.
LHC also launched its Abuelas Project In 2021 – which pays tribute to grandmothers, often the carriers of culture in Latin families – to help fill the gaps in folk knowledge. The national digital library consolidates 26 oral stories, 700 photographs and other materials subject to the community.
“We wanted to create something that allowed us to look outside these parameters [in museums and libraries]And recognize that colonization has erased our history, ”explains Mota Casper, who has defended Latin American preservation for more than a decade.
One of the Abuelas projects includes an interactive website focused on Worker pprogramThe temporary program that brought Mexican workers because of agricultural and rail work shortages between 1942 and 1964. The program played an essential role in training identities and national communities, as well as American relations with Mexico.
“The goal [of the Abuelas Project] It is finding sites and stories that someone knows how to be true, but it was not in the local newspaper, it is not online, not in history books, ”explains Mota Casper about the Abuelas project.
Today, however, only one remaining historic site, Rio Vista Farm, must tell its story. THE treatment centerFormerly Rio Vista Bracero Reception Center, was appointed National Historic Monument of the Interior Secretary in 2023, through the subsidy of sub-represented communities.
“This story is not only important for us just to tell a truthful story, but also to ensure that our contributions are seen and felt for future generations,” explains Mota Casper.
