A Long-Overdue Museum

Editor's Note: This is the 24th part of an ongoing series, "America's Hidden Hispanic Heritage." To read previous columns in the series, go to http://www.MiguelPerez.com.

Imagine a place where you could retrace 500 years of Latino-American history, view the most impressive Latino works of art and embrace the rich culture of your fellow Hispanic Americans.

Envision a huge multimedia complex where all Americans could learn about the great contributions Latinos have made to the creation, foundation, defense and economic success of this great nation. Picture a place where people would be awed by the sheer volume of Latino achievers in sports, business, music, entertainment and every other facet of American culture and society.

Imagine a place where everyone could see the beautiful colors Latinos have contributed to the even more beautiful American mosaic!

From the very beginning, the idea of building a national museum to recognize the art, history and culture of U.S. Latinos was a huge hit — not only with Hispanic Americans but also with politicians on both sides of the aisle.

After all, in a 1994 report titled "Willful Neglect," the Smithsonian Institution recognized that U.S. Latinos were the only major contributors to American civilization not permanently recognized by that institution's many galleries.

That admission was so blatant that finally, in 2008, Congress passed and then-President George W. Bush signed legislation establishing a 23-member commission to study the feasibility of building an American Latino museum, and President Barack Obama, along with congressional leaders, appointed a commission that came up with a series of recommendations in a report submitted to Congress and the White House only two months ago.

After conducting a series of public forums around the country for the past two years, the commission concluded that a "National Museum of the American Latino" should be established within the Smithsonian Institution and built on the National Mall at a terrific site near the Capitol. It would join other such ethnic museums as the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian and its planned National Museum of African American History and Culture, on which construction is slated to begin next year and be completed by 2015 on the National Mall near the Washington Monument.

"The Mall, more than any other public space in our country does indeed tell the story of America, and yet that story is not complete," wrote Chairman Henry R. Munoz III in a letter introducing the commission's report. "There must also be a living monument that recognizes that Latinos were here well before 1776 and that in this new century, the future is increasingly Latino, more than fifty million people and growing."

Unfortunately, this is a great idea with terrible timing.

Thus, the commission wisely recommended that half of the $600 million required to realize this goal should come from private donations. It set a private fundraising goal of $300 million over a 10-year period and told Congress in its final report that "no federal appropriation would be necessary for the first six years upon establishment of the museum" because "private donations could sufficiently fund the initial years of planning and organization that are required in the pre-design, pre-construction phase of such a project."

The commission proposed legislation that would "allow for immediate authorization with deferred appropriation" of the remaining $300 million.

"Some might ask in these very difficult economic times how we can afford such an endeavor," Munoz wrote. "The real question is how can we afford not to."

The commission reported that during its public outreach efforts around the country, it found that American Latinos feel they are "an integral part of the fabric of the nation," that "there is an urgency, desire, and need for an American Latino museum on the National Mall in Washington" and that "a greater understanding of the long history and significant contributions of Latinos in America benefits all Americans."

Some commission members are so committed to this idea that they have formed a support group, "Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino," complete with its own website, http://AmericanLatinoMuseum.org, featuring an introductory video narrated by actress Eva Longoria and encouraging all Americans to support the legislation that would establish the museum.

Of course, for Latino-American history buffs, including me, the idea of a national museum is an invitation to envision so many wonderful exhibits that have been so sorely overdue. It's an opportunity to fill the gaps in American history and correct the historical distortions and injustices that have hidden America's proud Hispanic heritage.

I relish the thought of having a place in Washington where American tourists would be reminded that Spanish St. Augustine, Fla., came almost 42 years before British Jamestown, Va., and that the "American journey" did not begin with the Mayflower — as they are told by a robotic Benjamin Franklin at Disney World — but with the discovery of North America by Juan Ponce de Leon and his Spanish conquistadors in 1513.

Latino-American history began in that year, and perhaps within the next decade, more than 500 years later, it finally will have its own rightful place on the National Mall.

To find out more about Miguel Perez and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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