Hispanic Heritage Month '26: Where does the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino stand?

WASHINGTON - The banners are up, confirming the new home of the National Museum of the American Latino is now located next to the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall, at 900 Jefferson Drive SW.

The American Latino Museum is moving into the historic and former Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building.

The "new home" announcement came on August 31 and marked a major step forward. Museum officials have been searching for a permanent home for several years.

This is all coming together at a pivotal time, when many Latino families are being impacted by increased immigration enforcement and when the Trump administration has increased scrutiny of the Smithsonian.

FOX 5 sat down with the American Latino Museum’s founding director and asked whether there can be a true accounting of Latino stories in the United States if the museum is unable to discuss colonialism, immigration, deportation and discrimination.\

"This museum will tell all the stories," Founding Director Jorge Zamanillo told FOX 5. He says they are in the "home stretch."

Back in 2020, President Donald Trump signed the act into law establishing a national museum dedicated to sharing American Latino stories.

Some hurdles along the way included proposed cuts to funding for a dedicated museum building. The museum also needed Congress to approve construction of a new museum building on federal land.

About six years later, opting to use an existing Smithsonian building allows staff to move forward more easily.

"We know, based on the last museum that was built, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, that museum took 13 years from start to finish. So, we know we’re in that decade zone right now," Zamanillo told FOX 5. 

The Smithsonian’s historic Arts and Industries Building opened in 1881.

"You come into this beautiful space, and we inherit that rich history of being the first national museum. And now we’re the first museum at the heart of the National Mall and the heart of the Smithsonian. That’s really special," Zamanillo added. 

There is a smaller, interactive exhibit you can check out. It is called "¡Puro Ritmo!" and is currently open at the Molina Family Latino Gallery, located inside the National Museum of American History.

You may recognize D.C. KIPP teacher Edwin Sorto teaching the moves on multiple digital screens.

The exhibit includes artifacts and also showcases the five-note rhythm known as the clave, which comes from the instrument, the claves. The exhibit demonstrations how this pattern has influenced music genres worldwide. For example, with the push of a button, you can hear the rhythm sampled in George Michael’s song "Faith."

Before "¡Puro Ritmo!," there was another planned exhibition. TIME reports that a feature on Latino youth movements was put on hold after more conservative Latino community members and politicians became involved. FOX 5 asked the founding director what is explanation of what happened there. 

"Our first exhibition was ‘¡Presente!,’ which is trying to [tell] the story of Latinos in the U.S. in a 4,000-square-foot space, which is kind of difficult. There was a certain exhibit being developed to go into that space. My vision, you know, was to produce new shows that we could use for the future museum, and that included topics that we needed to cover, including music and food and other subjects. So, we made the shift to do that," Zamanillo said.

FOX 5 also asked Zamanillo if he had ever been directly or indirectly asked to curtail, change or soften an exhibit.

"What I can speak to is that the work that we’re doing is continuous, and we have strong support—bipartisan support—in Congress, and that’s important. What else the Smithsonian has done to respond to the request of the administration—that’s beyond my scope," he responded.

The director told FOX 5 the mission of sharing Latino stories is personal, as the son of Cuban immigrants who escaped communism in the 1960s.

"It’s about telling all the stories. And once you do that, you’ll have a balanced account of what our story is in the United States. So we’ll cover activism, we’ll cover immigration," Zamanillo said.

He also told FOX 5, when the museum does finally open, "We don’t want you to look through different rooms to try and find your Puerto Rican ancestry, my Cuban ancestry or your Mexican ancestry. We want to make sure you walk in, you feel like you’re a U.S. Latino, and all these stories are connected and they tell a much larger narrative of how we're embedded and we’re forging a new identity here in the United States."

Zamanillo said he cannot wait for the moment when he can approach a family holding onto an artifact and tell them the museum would like to include that item in its collection.

He also explained that the museum will cost around $1 billion. It is a 50-50 split between federal and private funding.

So far, the founding director says they have raised more than $72 million in private funds, which will allow them to move forward with finalizing plans with an exhibit design firm and selecting an architect to begin retrofitting the building.

As for Hispanic Heritage Month, the museum has active programming, including "Latino Heritage Festival: Quinceañera Traditions & Coming of Age in America" at Glen Echo Park on October 11, and "Latino Veteran 250" at the National Museum of American History on November 6.