GOP Threatens Funding Cuts to Latino Museum

When Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., arrived in Washington last year, he was eager to take his children to the Smithsonian’s new exhibit on Latino history.

That is, until he walked through it.

Filled with what he described as biased history and fixated on portraying Hispanics as oppressed minorities, the exhibit disgusted him, Ciscomani told The Washington Times.

“For my wife and I to walk in and say, ‘This is your history’ and to see that, it’s hurtful,” Ciscomani told the Times. “The only thing worse than your story not being told is your story being wrongly told, and that’s exactly what is happening here. The Hispanic community deserves better.”

Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., described the exhibit as amateurish, given the millions of dollars Congress has invested in the unfinished National Museum of the American Latino.

“It looks like a couple of sixth-graders put together dioramas and tried to find artifacts,” Garcia told the Times.

In response to the complaints, Republicans in Congress are moving to close the exhibit and stop work on the museum, and have included language in the Smithsonian’s appropriations bill for fiscal year 2024.

Republicans who spoke with the Times said they don’t oppose the museum, but want more accuracy and less victimhood interspersed throughout the narrative.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., said he has been seeking an audience with Smithsonian officials for months over his concerns about the exhibit, which is housed in the National Museum of American History.

He said they have ignored him.

While he supports the project, Diaz-Balart said the only way to get the Smithsonian to listen is by exercising the power of the purse.

“We’ll fix it,” he said last week during debate on the defunding language in a meeting of the House Appropriations Committee. “But the way to do that is to make sure the Smithsonian understands that we will not accept the patronizing, quasi-racist attitude toward Latinos in the United States of America.”

Congress established the National Museum of the American Latino in 2020. A search is currently underway for a location for the museum.

Chief spokesperson Linda St. Thomas said the Smithsonian has no comment, according to the Times.

During the committee’s meeting on a bill that funds the Interior Department, the EPA and related agencies, such as the Smithsonian, Garcia said the exhibit blames the United States for the crimes of Latin American dictators and pushes the idea that American intervention is what caused people to flee from their homes.

Cubans’ struggle against the Castro regime is ignored and the “exhibit looks like 12-year-olds put it together,” he said.

One display on Cuban immigrants is a scratch-and-sniff, Garcia said, that asks visitors to smell the scent of Gulf of Mexico water to understand the experience of those arriving via boat.