smithsonian latino art collections - Smithsonian Latino Center

technician and reinstating a position for public programs at NMAH); and the increase of Latino
audiences through new outreach networks with Latino community organizations. 29
In March 1991 the Latino Working Committee, as a way to address the lack of representation of
Latinos in the work force at the Smithsonian, proposed the creation of a Joint Management Working
Group for Latino recruitment and retention at the Office of Human Resources and composed of Nancy
Suttenfield, Marie Marton, Turner, and a group of Committee members. After Turner’s untimely death
in 1992, the Institution named Constance Berry Newman as new Under Secretary. In its welcoming
letter of May 28, 1992, the Committee made known to Newman its concerns about the lack of “effective
measures to assure significant hiring of Latinos to demonstrate an Institutional priority for cultural
diversity,” 30 as well as concerns about the Quincentenary and the establishment of the Institute of the
Americas, “viewed as a hemispheric program that encompasses research, exhibitions, public programs,
publications and development beyond 1992,” 31 in particular the latter’s financial and personnel
resources.
After meeting with Under Secretary Newman in September 1992, the Latino Working
Committee prioritized its recommendations, which were submitted to her on November 6, 1992. At the
top of the list was the hiring of a Latino Museum Director at American History; followed by a strict
enforcement of Smithsonian Affirmative Action Plan and Fair Search Guidelines to advance diversity in
the Institution’s work force; the recruitment of Latinos at all levels, especially at the professional level;
the training and career enhancement program for current employees; instruction to management about
the benefits of Affirmative Action and cultural diversity and pluralism; adequate programming and
recruitment of specialists. 32 In addition to employment issues, two areas of concern continued to be the
adequate staffing and funding of the Hispanic American Program at NMAH and the Institute of the
Americas. In January 1993, the Committee’s Executive Committee 33 through a memo asked the Office
of the Under Secretary for a status of the recommendations for action and plans to address them. 34
Parallel to these internal efforts, in the late 1980s the United States House of Representatives
had been following the Smithsonian Institutions’ cultural diversity. Hearings on “Smithsonian Institution
Minority Employment Practices” held on March 14 and April 19, 1989, led to the Ninth Report by the
Committee on Government Operations “The Challenge of Cultural Diversity and Cultural Equity at the
Smithsonian” issued on December 6, 1989 (House Report 101-391). The report, based on a study by the
Government Activities and Transportation Subcommittee, addressed “employment trends with regard
to minorities at the Smithsonian Institution…[and examined]…the impact of the Smithsonian
employment profile on decisions which determine how the life, art, culture and history of the African
American, Hispanic, Asian American and Native American communities are portrayed.” 35 In particular
the study was concerned with documents and testimony that revealed the following: “…although
minorities comprise approximately 38 percent of the Smithsonian’s work force, the great majority of
29 Ibid. Medina and Basterra.
30 Maria Cristina Garcia, Chair, LWC. Memo to Constance Berry Newman through James Early, Assistant Secretary
for Education and Public Service, May 28, 1992. Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95-073, box 1.
31 Ibid, Garcia Memo to Newman, 1992.
32 Maria Cristina Garcia, Chair, Latino Working Committee. Memo to Constance Newman, November 6, 1992.
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Office of the Under Secretary, Latino Task Force Records, 1993-1994. Accession
Number 95-073.
33 The LWC Executive Committee was comprised of Charo Basterra, Maggie Bertin, Olivia Cadaval, Manuel
Melendez, Hamlet Paoletti and Angela Roybal. Memo to Constance Newman, January 22, 1993.
34 LWC Memoradum to Constance Newman, January 22, 1993.
35 U.S. House of Representatives, 101 st Congress, 1 st Session. Ninth Report by the Committee on Government
Operations. “The Challenge of Cultural Diversity and Cultural Equity at the Smithsonian Institution.” Report 101-
391, December 1989. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989.
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