WASHINGTON – A presidential commission called Thursday for the creation of a national museum devoted to American Latino history and culture next to the Capitol as part of the Smithsonian Institution, drawing strong endorsements from the top ranks of government.
The commission, which included Eva Longoria from TV’s “Desperate Housewives” and producer Emilio Estefan, spent a year hearing comments from more than 100,000 people on the need for such a museum. They returned with a lengthy report that lays out the contributions of Latinos and said a museum would represent Latinos where their heritage has been absent at the Smithsonian.
“Being a ninth generation American, growing up in south Texas on land that was given to us from the Spanish around the 1600s, I’m living proof that Latinos have been in America for a very long time,” Longoria said at the Capitol.
The nation’s increasing diversity and dramatic growth of the Latino population makes the Smithsonian American Latino Museum an urgent priority, commission chairman Henry R. Munoz III said.
“More than any other place in this country, the National Mall is the space that tells the story of America, and today that story isn’t complete,” he said. “We ask not to be treated differently
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