smithsonian latino art collections - Smithsonian Latino Center

ecommendations. 46 Among its members were Raul Yzaguirre, Chair (National Council of La Raza); Mari
Carmen Aponte (Alexander, Gerhardt, Aponte & Marks); Miguel A. Bretos (Visiting Scholar, William
Paterson College); Gilberto Cárdenas (Center for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas at
Austin); Maria Cristina Garcia, (The Nature Conservancy); Ana Sol Gutiérrez (Board of Education,
Montgomery County); Félix Gutiérrez (The Freedom Forum); Orlando Gutiérrez (Society of Hispanic
Professional Engineers); Rafael Magallan (Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities); Esther
Novak (AT&T); Gilberto Ocañas (Win Texas International, Inc.); Bert R. Peña (Hogan & Hartson); Janice
Petrovich (ASPIRA Association, Inc.); Margarita Roque (U.S. Department of Transportation); Maria Elena
Toraño (META); and representing the Smithsonian Institution Hamlet Paoletti (as Executive Director,
Task Force on Latino Issues, Smithsonian Institution) and Manuel Melendez (Observer, Office of
Governmental Relations, Smithsonian Institution). 47 The first meeting of the Task Force on Latino Issues
took place on April 12, 1993.
Running concurrently with the work of the Task Force on Latino Issues, was an internal study for
a permanent program on the Americas. On February 9, 1994, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for
the Arts and Humanities released internally the preliminary guideline for a two-year effort called The
Americas Endeavor of the Smithsonian Institution, which was prepared by Maria Elena Pynn, Director of
Planning. 48 The guidelines report on a future program at the Smithsonian for FY 96-97 stem from
Secretary Adams 1985 vision for a Museum of the Americas and his idea of a permanent presence on
the mall expressed during the initial planning meeting of the Quincentenary Program. According to
Pynn the Quicentenary “stirred the consciousness not only of the Hispanic community but of many
interested parties in the U.S. and throughout the world. It also raised the expectation for a significant
follow-up program which would facilitate the involvement of many Hispanics and channel their energies
and enthusiasm to generate positive features, constructive and sustained action” 49
The Institution perceived the program to be a means to “involve the Smithsonian (and to
explore the limits of commitment to) a long term sustainable endeavor, aimed at meeting the rising
aspirations of the Hispanic community in the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere for the proper
recognition of its cultural heritage.” 50 However, within a context of new developments in the Americas
linked to processes of globalization such as the passage of North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), The completion of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT),
the forerunner of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and regional trade agreements such as
MERCOSUR, The Americas Endeavor was seen as a more local “‘process’ aimed at catalyzing,
synergizing, leveraging, facilitating, coordinating, publicizing and rewarding a variety of activities which
are responsive to the psychological, cultural and educational needs and aspirations of the [U.S.] Hispanic
community.” 51
This local rather than global emphasis permeated the preliminary guidelines for The Americas
Endeavor program, which, although inclusive of Caribbean and Latin American countries, somehow used
46 For archival records of the task force see: Office of the Under Secretary, Latino Task Force Records, 1993-1994.
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95-073, box 1.
47 Names listed on the letterhead of the Smithsonian Institution Task Force on Latino Issues. Members as of June
3, 1993. Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95-073, box 1, Folder: Miscellaneous Task Force
Correspondence, Memoranda and Reports.
48 Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95-073, box 1, Folder: The Americas Endeavor of the Smithsonian
Institution, 1994.
49 Maria Elena Pynn. The Americas Endeavor of the Smithsonian Institution, Preliminary Guideline, February 9,
1994: introduction. Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95-073, Box 1, Folder: The Americans Endeavor
of the Smithsonian Institution, 1994.
50 Ibid, p. 3.
51 Ibid., introduction.
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