Since the passage of the National American Latino Museum Act on December 27, 2020, the Smithsonian Institution has been working on laying the groundwork for the opening of the museum. On October 27, 2022, the Smithsonian Board of Regents announced it had identified two optimal locations for the National Museum of the American Latino on the National Mall! They identified the South Monument site and Tidal Basin site as the best locations for our future museum.

Our nation’s history is told across the museums on our National Mall. There is no other location for the National Museum of the American Latino than our National Mall. This is our central message to the Smithsonian Institution, White House, and Congress.

The Smithsonian must secure authorization over these locations from Congress in order to proceed. As you may remember, the Smithsonian has to designate the locations before the end of this year. We co-led a letter with UnidosUS and over 120 national organizations to the Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch and the Board of Regents to express our community’s widespread and deep support to raising the funds necessary for the museum’s completion. As a unified front, we stand ready to work with Congress to determine the best legislative path forward for the Smithsonian to #BuildItOnTheNationalMall!

With the help of 78 celebrities, talent managers, agents, and others across the entertainment industry, we also recently sent a separate letter to the Smithsonian Secretary and Board of Regents emphasizing the industry of artists and storytellers’ commitment to support the Smithsonian and work with Congress to ensure the great locations they identified are made available.

We’re committed to advocating for inclusion of over 500 years of U.S. Latino history on the National Mall. We hope you can join us.